There were six awesome hikers on this 3.4 mile moderate to strenous loop hike:
Tom O'Brien, Mary Gordon, Jessica Lowry, Randall Bartlett, Laura Bartlett and
Mike Calabrese.
The weather was predicted to be cold this weekend. I didn't receive any calls
or emails during the week. I thought that if no one showed up, should I do
this hike by myself? Anyway, I did get an email on Saturday morning and five
additional people did show up. So the hike was on.
As usual,we met at
Prince of Peace United Methodist Church
in the rear parking lot and at 8:00 AM precisely, drove in separate vehicles
to Blooms Park in Manassas Park, VA to begin the hike. Jessica met us at the
park. This area was at one time a park, then became a golf course and was now
and again a park.
The former club house for the former golf course was now a community library.
The trail for this hike was the old golf cart path. It was all asphalt and
was itself very easy to hike on. However, the terain was 'rolling' and we
would be going up a hill, then down a hill for most of the hike. As usual,
I occupied the slowest hiker position. But the group would wait for me at
intervals.
We didn't see any animals on this trip. But we did observe some of the tee off
areas and greens of this former golf course. It had changed since Tom, Dave
McIntyre and myself reconned this hike over a year ago. One of the solar
powered bathrooms was open, though we did not use it. There were some nice
views of various portions of Manassas Park, VA from the summits of some of
these hills. We saw the Amtrack train tracks on the north end of the park
that connect Washington, DC to Richmond, VA.
Towards the end of the hike the ups got more pronounced. One had to really
lean into them. And the weather was OK. It was right around the
freezing mark at the beginning of the hike. But there was very little wind
with the exception of some of the tops of the hills. It even got warm (upper
30's) by the end of the hike.
So we hiked the 3.4 miles in this loop in about an hour and a half.
Not bad. This is a nice loop hike. However, be prepared for some pretty
good ups and downs. You will definitely feel like you had good workout after
this moderate to strenous hike.
Mike C
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Group Pic @ .5 MI Mark.
By Mike Calabrese
Can you see the hikers?
By Mike Calabrese
Map of where we hiked
By Mike Calabrese
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