2027 Calendars Are Here!
You can reserve your copy of the official 2027 Chinqua-Penn Walking Trail calendar now! Longtime trail photographer Lynn Monsees Carter has put together another exquisite collection of trail photos for the calendar, and 200 have been ordered. You can add your name to the reserve list and how many you want by emailing Lynn at [email protected]. Still only $15 each and all proceeds go to the benefit the trail. We'll notify you when they are available and you can pay by cash or check when you pick up.
Friends of the Chinqua-Penn Walking Trail Honor Skip Balsley
Longtime trail-keeper, board member, and master planner Skip Balsley was honored on December 15, 2025 for his many years of dedication, leadership and support for the trail. If grass needed mowing or leaves raking, if a tree needed to be cut, or trash picked up, if bylaws needed to be rewritten or meetings chaired, Skip was on it. Along with his partner in trailsmanship, Craig Cardwell, Skip could be counted on for making sure the trail was safe, beautiful, and sustainable for the future. As Skip retires, we can only hope we will find more volunteers to follow in his footsteps!
Volunteers Get It Done!
The trail's volunteers have been busy! The new storage shed behind the kiosk has been taking shape over the past year, the pace of work dictated by volunteer schedules, weather, and bird nests. And the bamboo down by the observation deck at Lake Betsy, planted 100 years ago at Betsy Penn's direction ("wouldn't that look nice?"), would overtake the bridge and the trail if it weren't for the relentless efforts of the bamboo team, chainsaws in hands. Volunteers perform the day-to-day chores of trash and recycling pick-ups, cutting down dead trees, cleaning the lavatory, replacing boards on the boardwalk, wildflower planting, clearing out the drain at the dam, and, in general, looking after the trail, its environment, and the historic structures that speak to us of days gone by.
State Grant Funds Trail Improvements
A state grant, administered by Dan River Basin Association for the benefit of the Chinqua-Penn Walking Trail, has brought several much-needed improvements to the trail in 2024-2025. Our tax dollars at work! The Turkey Pond boardwalk was raised about 8 inches off the ground: enough to keep the marshy water from soaking the boards, but not much more than a reasonable step off. Also added was a bridge with railings over the stream, recreating a similar bridge, an Eagle Scout project, that was destroyed by fallen trees several years ago.
In 2024, the Lake Betsy boardwalk got a new "bump-out" with benches at the little waterfall, an amazing Eagle Scout project. Grant funds then added a ramp at the dam end for a smoother step onto the gravel trail, and two additional bump-outs with benches on the tree side to provide a kind of passing lane.
In 2025, grant funds also provided for new gravel to the trail from the parking lot up to Little Niagara, to replace the gravel that over time gets washed downhill and to the downside by rainwater.
The bridge near Turkey Pond is now high enough that it doesn't get soaked by the creek when it rains.
This renovation of the Lake Betsy boardwalk means a smoother passage from the boardwalk to the gravel trail.
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The Turkey Pond boardwalk covers marshy ground, and raising it up about 8 inches means it's less vulnerable to water damage.
The state grant funded two "bump outs" along the Lake Betsy boardwalk.
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New gravel!
If you want to get reminders about upcoming meetings and events,
contact us at [email protected] and we'll put you on the mailing list.
contact us at [email protected] and we'll put you on the mailing list.
