Recon of Fairfax Cross County Trail between Accotink PRK and
Fairfax County PKWY, VA<< MIKEBLOGSV2 Home
This easy to moderate 4.4 mile linear hike took place on Wednesday, May 11,
2022. Participants were Tom O'Brien, Steve Butterfield and myself.
We couldn't do this hike last Wednesday due to heavy rain. So we rescheduled
for today. As uaual we met at the rear parking lot of
Prince of Peace United Methodist Church
and left at 9:00 AM for the small parking area on the Fairfax Cross County
Trail just before it reaches the Fairfax County Parkway. Traffic was terrible
getting there. And there was road paving. We didn't get to the parking area
until after 10:00 AM. And by the time that we got to Accotink Park and started
this hike it was about 10:45.
The trail was paved and paralleled Accotink Creek initially. There were some
dirt side trails and CCT posts along the way. I guess that the letters on the
posts determined the direction of the trail. But some arrows would have been
nice. I read after this hike that they are still debating whether to dredge
Lake Accotink or let it revert back to stream. I say dredge it!
We saw a fox in the distance right after we started this hike. I saw another
one on the property where I live after I got home. Alot of fox sightings
lately. We crossed the creek afew times on some well constructed bridges,
passed a baseball field and then crossed under Old Keene Mill RD.
At around the 2.5 mile mark we took a hard right and the only real up along
the entire trail. We passed an area where the county did extensive work to
reinforce the hill so that the trail could pass between some houses and a
revine. We got to Hunter Village DR, followed that out to the Franconia-
Springfield PKWY, crossed it, paralleled it for about a block, then turned
left and hiked between some town houses to Stream Way.
We crossed Stream Way, turned right onto the Fairfax County PKWY for about a
block, crossed it at a traffic light, walked about a quarter mile parallel
to the south side of the PKWY and were back at out vehicles by 12:30. About
two hours to do 4.4 miles. Not bad. This stretch was mostly level or
downhill. We agreed that this would be a good hike for the POPUMC Hiking
Group. We have now done three segments or about 30% of the Fairfax Cross
County Trail. We plan to do the next segment from VA236 in Annandale back to
Lake Accotink, a distance of about 4 miles on Wednesday, June 1, 2022 as long
as there is no rain predicted. Please contact me if you would like to join us.
Group Selfie
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Map of where we hiked.
By Google Maps
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