Current Western Terminus of
Broad Run Trail, VA Recon
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On Wednesday, September 2, 2020 I first attempted to further recon the
horse/pedestrian Trail between Waverly Farms DR and Waterfall RD near
Haymarket, VA. However, I could not find a place to park close to Waverly Farms
RD because all of the side streets were gated to keep riffraff like me out. So
I drove over to Hunting Cove PL in Bristow, VA and attempted to recon the
westernmost portion of the Broad Run Trail instead.
Things weren't going so well as far as my being able to hike somewhere today.
First I couldn't do the hike that I intended to do. Then I had to put up
with super muddy conditions and missing bridges and had to cut my hike short.
So I will first
describe my brief hike starting at the present western terminus of the Broad
Run Trail in Bristow, VA, then give my thoughts about the future of this trail.
The present western terminus of the Broad Run Trail is at a cul de sac at the
end of Hunting Cove PL just off of Linton Hall RD in Bristow, VA. My goal was
to hike eastward on this trail to a bridge that crosses Broad Run. It wasn't
a very long distance, maybe a half mile up and back. But what made it almost
impossible to do was the immense amount of water on the trail from the
previous night's heavy rains that occured in this area.
I was happy that there was a trailhead kiosk with information on it. And I
was very happy that there were white blazes on this section of trail.
Therefore I must correct a statement that I made on another blog in which I
stated that there were no blazes on the Broad Run Trail.
So I started down the trail. It was very wet and very muddy. And I was
wearing a pair of new hiking boots. Thank God that they were waterproof
because I would be stepping in deep water and mud the entire trip. Though
this was considered the Broad Run Connection Trail that I was on, it will
hopefully be blazed blue and be a future side trail to the Broad Run Trail
when and if it
is ever extended to Rollins Ford RD about 5 miles further west. That will
hopefully be the future western terminus of the Broad Run Trail.
There were some bog bridges and someone, either Prince William County or the
HOA for the adjacent subdivision, had been mowing this area. I am thankful to
whomever it was as this area would be impassible now if not for their efforts.
I slid around and almost fell a few times while hiking this stretch. My new
boots kept me dry but were very wet on the outside. When I got to a tributary
of Broad Run called Rocky Branch I was supposed to cross it to get to the
bridge over Broad Run. But the bridge over Rocky Branch was gone!
So I decided to loop back to
my vehicle on what is called the Broad Run Loop Trail. This trail, though very
wet, was mowed and had what looked like Black Eyed Susan flowers growing along
one side of it. So I hiked west on this trail and came across what looked like
another bridge crossing to my left with no bridge. I even saw a white blaze
on the other
side of Rocky Branch but no bridge. This wasn't good. So I looped back around
to the intersection with the trail that I initially hiked in on, then hiked
back to my vehicle.
Now for my thoughts on this trail. Prince William County wants to extend this
trail westward to Rollins Ford RD and eastward about five miles from VA28 to
Doves Landing
Park. Now, I am all for more trails. However, there are a number of obstacles
such that I don't see how they can complete this goal:
- Flooding along Broad Run. They have already lost 2 bridges in
this area and a 35 foot fiberglass bridge is off of it's mooring about 4 miles
east of here. So they are going to have to rebuild these bridges to better
withstand the constant flooding along this creek or build the trail further
away from Broad Run.
- Sheer Rock Walls. There are a number of areas along Broad Run that
have sheer rock walls. Other than build long boardwalks along these sheer
rock walls the planners would again have to build this trail further away from
Broad Run.
- Private Property Issues. There are property owners along Broad Run
that believe that their property extends all the way to Broad Run. There are
also property owners that are in the way of extending this trail eastward from
VA28 to Doves Landing Park as well as westward to Rollins Ford RD.
All three of these factors will cost a lot of money to overcome. And these
trails will have to be maintained or they will quickly become impassable.
Prince William County, in my opinion, is good at aquiring parkland and building
trails. But they are not very good at maintaining said trails.
I hope that I am wrong in making this statement but I feel that the Catharpin
Greenway, the Broad Run Greenway and the Neabsco Greenway, all centerpieces for
trails in Prince William County, VA, will not be completed unless the county
either devotes more resources to building and better maintaining these trails
or forges better alliances with various citizen volunteer outdoor related
organizations to better help them out. At this point in time, they are doing
neither.
 A kiosk with info!
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Actual trail blazes!
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My poor new boots.
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Mowed but wet trail.
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Nice flowers on trail.
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Blazes but no bridge.
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Typical PWC kiosk.
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Another missing bridge.
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