Heading south on Interstate 95, six miles beyond the principality of Potomac Mills Mall and its subsidiary nation-states, beyond the choke points where multiple lanes of Richmond-bound traffic merge into three, lies Prince William Forest Park. I took a gentle 8-mile circuit hike there yesterday.
Wrong time of day, and wrong time of the year for birds, but I did pick up a Black-and-White Warbler (Mniotilta varia) and a little group of three Hooded Warblers (Wilsonia citrina). I saw more butterflies, and some beautiful fungus specimens, none of which I could identify and most of which were no doubt lethal.
I hiked the South Valley trail along the South Fork of Quantico Creek. As it tumbles across the fall line into the coastal plain, the creek becomes a dozy little Southern crick, just trying to stay out of the hot late August sun. Most of the time, you can't tell whether you're following the creek, or whether the creek is trying to keep up with you. The remoter stretches of the trail are a little overgrown, and accordingly untraveled: I didn't see anyone for a passage of almost two miles.
The forest mixes fragrant pines with beech and other hardwoods.
Few things give me as much pleasure as treading pine needles in solid hiking boots.
The PATC trail guide for this area lists the elevation changes as "minimal." There is an easy climb out of the creek valley up Turkey Run Ridge, following an old farm road, broad and smooth.
Like the best suburban subdivisions, the park's features are named for elements no longer there. The High Meadows Trail traverses woodland its entire length; Old Black Top Road hasn't seen macadam in a long time.
I hadn't been to the park in, what, fourteen years? Not since all the trails were named, at least. I'd like to go back again.
posted:
12:08:29 PM
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