PARKS GUIDE 2019
Photo by Jay Paul
Disc Golf Course at Bryan Park
4308 Hermitage Road
Incorporating youth leagues to professional players, disc golf is an accessible pastime for all ages and skill levels. As the name suggests, the sport essentially combines Frisbee and golf. Players throw flying discs, aiming for a chain link basket. The goal is to get your disc into the basket with the lowest number of throws.
“Bryan Park is consistently ranked among the favorite of all the courses around here, along with Gillies Creek,” says Jon Greene, president of the River City Disc Golf Club. Greene notes the Bryan Park course is great for all skill levels due to its open terrain. “It’s accessible to all walks of life,” he says.
Playing provides opportunities to explore area parks, he adds. “It’s a way to get out and enjoy something in your city that you may not have known existed.”
Rina Reynolds discovers a geocache at the Antioch School Community Center in Sandston. (Photo by Hadley Chittum)
Geocaching
Geocachers use GPS devices to track down small containers, aka geocaches, at outdoor locations. The tracker uses a geocaching website to see where containers have been hidden, then follows the coordinates to find the container, takes the small treasure hidden inside, and replaces it with an item of equal value for the next hunter to find.
Highland Springs resident Rachael Mansfield has been an avid geocacher since 2009. She caught the geocaching bug after a visit to Dorey Park with a friend. “She was trying to find this thing in the woods, and I was like, ‘What the heck is it?’ ” Mansfield recalls, laughing. “Then she finds this container in the middle of a tree, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is cool.’ ” Fellow geocacher and Highland Springs resident Rina Reynolds concurs. “It’s the perfect balance between using technology and getting out into nature.”
Photo courtesy SOAR365
PARK365
3600 Saunders Ave., soar365.org/park365
PARK365 is an all-ages and all-abilities park that opened in 2015. Formerly known as ARCpark, the park is owned by the nonprofit SOAR365 (formerly Greater Richmond ARC), which provides programming and other services to people with disabilities. The organization opened the park to the public, noting the benefits of interaction among youth with and without disabilities in combating stigma and promoting friendship.
Three playground areas cater to toddlers, school-aged kids and adults and include a wheelchair-accessible treehouse; a playhouse; water troughs; a multipurpose playing court; electric wheelchair charging stations; a custom multisensory wall stimulating touch, hearing and sight; and a covered pavilion with nine picnic tables.
Kim Watson, vice president of community engagement at the nonprofit, says, “[SOAR365] parents said, ‘We want an accessible park for our children and the children of Richmond.’ ”
Photo by Jay Paul
Deep Run Parkrun
9900 Ridgefield Parkway, parkrun.us/deeprun
A worldwide running network landed in Deep Run Park in June 2017. Started locally by Nicole Brown, the Deep Run Parkrun is a free weekly timed 5K run for all ages and skill levels. The group meets Saturdays at 8 a.m. June through August and at 9 a.m. September through May.
Participants register once at parkrun.us/register and receive a printable barcode that is scanned at the finish to record their time. It’s not a race, but this allows participants to track their personal bests. “We encourage all paces,” Brown says. “We have some fast runners, but we also have a lot of walkers. We want everyone to feel welcome and feel comfortable.”
A post-run meetup at a nearby coffee shop is a great way for participants to get to know each other, she adds. Since the Deep Run event is part of the global Parkrun community, visitors from England, Ireland and Australia have joined. For those who have never participated, Brown says you have to come out and experience Parkrun to understand. “Even if you don’t want to run or walk, just come and cheer and see why everybody comes back week after week,” she says.
