My plan for 2018 is to be more descriptive with posts: showing parking locations, adding some history, giving mileage, etc. Unfortunately, this post isn’t going to help. I had to cut this hike short, not due to weather or time, even though those things were actual factors.
I was in Reston, Virginia for my son’s hockey tournament. There was some time between games, and while my son hung out with his teammates, I looked for something to do – I only had about two hours. A couple of quick searches on Google led me to believe that I could do the circuit hike of the Lake Anne Blue trail with plenty of time to pick up my son before his game. A quick gander at the map showed me that this should be a reasonable nice walk around the lake.
I got to the parking lot (number 1 on the map) and noticed that it had clouded up. It was about 32 degrees out, and had it been sunny and warmer, it would have been packed. Undaunted, I headed off.
The walk was pleasant, the views of the lake were really nice. Almost all of the walk was completed on paved paths, sidewalks, or actual streets in town.
There were lots of views of the lake – no boats were out, only a few geese. Some of the homes had nice decorations outside:
Even with the map, and with AllTrails running on my phone, it was easy to make a wrong turn and head off in a direction that I wasn’t intending to go. There were no blazes to speak of, I spotted a few markers, and they didn’t line up with the map I was using.
After walking down one street, I came to a cul-de-sac with only houses around. On the map, this would be between markers 15 and 16. Look between houses for this path:
Continuing on, the path parallels Wiehle Avenue to the the opposite side of the lake from your car. It was at this point that it started snowing, or really, precipitating frozen ice pellets. As I wasn’t really getting wet, I decided to carry on. A picture looking back across the lake:
Onward. Until:
Uh Oh. On the map I had, this can be found at 17. The access to the bridge was cut off, and directions were given to get back on the trail. I followed those directions, but couldn’t find the path that brought to me to where I needed to be. I even bushwacked a bit (sorry, if you saw me cut through your backyard) but I never found trail access. A quick look at my watch told me I did not have enough time to truly search for this access trail. So, I ended up retracing my steps.
Supposedly, the access to the bridge will be open April 1 (2018). If you plan to hike this trail around that date, see if you can find an updated trail status.
Total Mileage: 2.4 miles (though I was planning on this being 1.5 total.)
Hiked: 2/17/2018