This 3.2 mile day hike took place on Saturday, September 4, 2021.
Participants were Dave McIntyre, Tom O'Brien, Julie Turner, Jason Brue,
Abby Brue and Mike Calabrese.
It was a great day to hike! The storms from a few days ago pushed out the
heat and humidity. The weather was more seasonal now. We met at the rear
parking of
Prince of Peace United Methodist Church
in Manassas, VA and departed at 8:00 AM for Riverdide Preserve. It took us
right around 50 minutes and about 35 miles to get to the preserve. Jason and
Abby were waiting for us when we got there.
We parked our vehicles at the upper parking area and walked down to the banks
of the Rappannock River. We took a group pic and started off along the first
of five interconnected loops that made up this trail.
This preserve is one of the few public access points to the Rappannock River
within Fauquier County, VA. The river itself was not very wide nor deep at
this point. The reason was that we were only about 15 to 20 miles from the
source of the river near Chester Gap, VA at the Warren/Rappahannock County
line. I found it interesting that this preserve had a Marshall, VA address
as it was really closer to Warrenton, VA. This preserve has been open to the
public since fall of 2019.
We started off hiking one of the blue loops. It was mowed grass. Wet but
very easy to hike on. We then crossed a small bridge over an unnamed creek
and proceeded onto the yellow loop. It was a dirt trail that went along this
unnamed creek for a short stretch, then paralleled the Rappahannock River for
about a quarter mile. Right when the trail turned away from the river we
entered the red trail. We would continue along the river for few hundred
feet and then turned away from it. We had an up as we walked away from the
river but it was not bad. We walked along an old road for a short distance,
jogged right off of this road and rejoined the yellow trail loop.
We then went by a large, old tree that appeared to be dying, crossed the
unnamed creek on rocks, hiked a short distance, crossed the creek again on
a bridge, then rejoined the original blue loop. We hiked it to where we
started the hike, then took another blue loop, which was shorter. Then,
it was time to tackle the final up on the orange trail.
This up was the reason that I rated this hike moderate to strenous. It
paralleled the road that we originally hiked down. We took our time. It was
about a quarter mile and had about 200 feet in elevation change. We
made it to the top. We then turned left, hiked another quarter mile and
returned to our vehicles. I took a group selfie, we said our goodbyes and
we headed for home.
This was a very nice park. The river made it very peaceful. There was one
blowdown on the second blue loop and the blazes needed refreshing. But
other than these two minor issues, It was a great place to spend a
beautiful day.
Mike C
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Walking to the river.
By Mike Calabrese
Group pic @ start of hike.
By Mike Calabrese
Stream on Yellow Trail.
By Mike Calabrese
Abby, Jason & Dave on rocks.
By Mike Calabrese
Along the Yellow Trail.
By Mike Calabrese
Selfie @ end of hike.
By Mike Calabrese
Map of where we hiked.
By Fauquier County, VA DPR.
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