At Shadowlake, there are a variety of activities that you can take part in.
A Sampling of SLV Events
- Weekly Friday Happy Hours: we gather for drinks and food on the green or at the Common House to unwind and enjoy the start of the weekend
- Weekly Potlucks: at the Common House
- Weekly Common Meals: sign up to cook in the industrial Common House kitchen and pay in $5 to cover food costs
- Monthly Poker Nights: last month’s winner hosts and uses their winnings to cater the event
- Annual Camping Trip: many of us camp together in the late summer, or come out to share a meal and kayaking with those who do
- Annual SLV Olympics: when it warms up, we like to get together outside with folks of all ages for our own flavor of olympic competition
- Annual Talent Show: also called the “No Talent Show,” we don’t just show off our proficient pianists and amateur dancers …we have some serious silliness and off-beat creativity in the mix
- Winter Ball: some years we get together to celebrate winter at the Common House
- Halloween Parties: some years we have Halloween costume parties
- Board Game Parties: these are organized at private homes or the Common House
- The SLV Triathlon: one year we had a bike ride, a float down the New River, and food at a nearby restaurant
Common House Activities
The Common House is a place of many activities. Besides residents having the ability to reserve the space for personal activities and parties, the common house hosts our weekly meals, concerts, community meetings, arts and crafts activities, and community parties. The common house also houses a game room with pool tables, a dart board, ping pong, air hockey, and is a favorite for entertaining and gathering during the colder months.
Getting Out Into Nature
We have 17 acres of woods and trails for walks or jogs that spill over into the adjacent Blacksburg Heritage Park, a 150 acre conservation land project surrounded by walking trails and benches. Many of us enjoy sunsets over Brush Mountain along these walks.
Gardening
Gardening manifests itself in many ways at Shadowlake Village. Individuals have transformed their yards into micro orchards, wildlife habitats, permaculture projects, and courtyards surrounded by gardens, but the community itself supports gardening in a much larger way.
SLV has an upper and lower garden area where residents can request garden plots. These areas, each under the care of a garden coordinator, have dedicated water spigots and provide a place for large scale gardening.
There is also a fenced in orchard that residents have the option of joining if they have an interest in fruit trees, bushes, and other horticultural pursuits requiring a larger area.
All of these gardening activities are supported by community composting efforts, community wood chips and leaves that are delivered on site, and a shared love of growing that is prevalent in the community.
Cycling
Residents at Shadowlake Village seem to all share a love of the outdoors and an understanding of sustainability. These two elements seem to equate to a love of biking. Besides the people that choose to commute to work on their bikes because of our close location to downtown Blacksburg, many people choose to bike together regularly.
Blacksburg is striving to become a bike friendly town, and many people enjoy road riding together through the pastoral settings surrounding the town. There are also bike friendly trails for families who need a “car free” environment to meet their biking needs. If, however, road riding isn’t your thing, there is a large mountain bike culture in Blacksburg and an informal mountain bike group at Shadowlake Village.
Being only 1 mile from the Gateway Trail into National Forest and the mountain bike skills park, there tends to be a large group of folks at Shadowlake Village who enjoy riding together every week, both locally and in the many trails throughout the region.