When hikers trek into the new Biscuit Run Park near Charlottesville, it will mark the final step of a long journey. Nearly twenty years ago, the 1,190-acre forested property was slated to become a residential community, but plans fell apart with the Great Recession, and eventually the land ended up with Albemarle County to develop as a park. Now Biscuit Run—within a few miles of the University of Virginia, Monticello, and wineries—will attract tourists as well as locals, says Chief of Parks Planning Tim Padalino. “There’s a big swath of pristine forest,” he says, “and there are pretty rugged foothills.” Other natural highlights include a hemlock grove, beaver dams, rare orchids, and eight and a half miles of trails that at times trace the path of an eighteenth-century stagecoach road. Mountain biking trails and athletic fields will come in the future. Mark Lorenzoni, who cofounded Charlottesville’s Ragged Mountain Running & Walking Shop, led a community hike into the park. “It’s a gem,” he says. “Within two to three minutes, we were experiencing this privacy, this serenity. You get lost in the woods in a good way.”
Southern Agenda