Recon of Discovery Trail, Prince William County, VA

This page may contain an affiliate ad banner and/or text link. If one clicks/taps on one of these links and then makes a purchase, I sometimes receive a small commission. Please patronize our advertisers. This 2 mile up, 2 mile back linear hike took place on Saturday, October 26, 2024. It was just me on this one.

Since I lost some weight on my last hike I wanted to get out and lose some more today. So I decided to hike a new trail called The Discovery Trail in Prince William County, VA. This trail goes half way around the

Prince William County Landfill,

then, proceeds to follow Powell’s Creek to near it’s source, then passes behind

Colgan High School,

then ends up at

Benton Middle School.

This trail is between 3 and 4 miles away from where I live. And I missed a group hike with the

Greater Prince William Trails Coalition

a month or so ago. So I drove over to the landfill at around 10:30 AM, parked at the soccer fields that are to the west of the landfill, and started this hike.

The first .2 miles of this hike were great. The trail hugged the west side of the landfill and proceeded north. It was well blazed, there were very nice bridges along the way. All was good. Until I got to a sewer line right of way or ROW at the back of the landfill.

By the way, if you take your trash to this landfill, avoid it on Saturday as it is very crowded that day. Once I got to the sewer line ROW there were no blazes, signs, kiosks or whatever that said where to go. I guessed that the trail went left. I guessed wrong. Here is what happened.

I followed the sewer line ROW about .2 miles. It went to the left but I went to the right and up a short hill. I was now in a massive gravel paved lot. I had no idea where I was. I knew that I was east of VA234 and south of Colgan High School. But that was about it.

So I walked through this massive gravel lot, then proceeded along a faint dirt road. There was high grass along this road. After about .2 miles I saw what looked like a black cable going across the trail. I wasn’t sure what it was so I stepped over it. All of a sudden a rather large black snake coiled itself up and stuck it’s tongue out at me. I yelled and stepped past him very quickly. The snake slithered off into the tall grass.

Then I walked another .2 miles and got to a small gravel parking lot. According to Google maps, it was the location of a business called

No Limits Landscape Service.

No one was there. I could see VA234 to the left at the end of a long drive way. I kept walking along a gravel road for a bit longer. But something didn’t feel right. So I turned around and retraced my steps.

I didn’t see the snake on the way back but I did see the remains of a 1950’s vintage vehicle off in the woods along the sewer line ROW during my return. I couldn’t be certain what it was as it was smashed up and had fallen trees on it. It looked like it may have been an old Chrysler of some sort but I’m not sure.

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When I got back to the intersection of the dirt trail and the sewer line ROW, I decided to walk the ROW farther towards the road within that landfill that went back to the yard waste area. I was even with the bridge that crossed what I thought was Powell’s Creek. I did see one blue blaze along this stretch. Then no more.

So I headed back to my vehicle. There was a parallel grass trail to the east of the dirt trail that I came in on for a short stretch. I took it, then jumped back on the dirt trail and got back to my vehicle around 12:30.

I had taken an image of the trailhead sign. I only glanced at it initially. This time I re-read it with more interest. It turns out that the only valid entry point for this trail is at the soccer fields next to the landfill. The sign also said that only school groups could access this trail from the high school and the middle school. So that sort of limits the appeal of this trail, in my opinion.

After I got home I emailed the leader of the group hike that I missed and asked him if I should have initially turned right at the sewer line ROW, crossed the road to the yard waste area, then turned left when I got to Powell’s Creek.

I also did some research on the future of the Prince William County, VA landfill. I thought that it only had 10-15 years before it reached capacity and would then become a park. However, after reading

This Report

it looks like the Prince William County Landfill will not reach full capacity until 2065. That’s 40 years from now. I don’t think that I will be around then to enjoy this future park.

So, in closing, in my opinion, someone needs to place a right turn blaze at the intersection of the blue blazed Discovery Trail and the sewer line ROW at mile .2. And they need to reroute the northern terminus of this trail such that it comes out to Hoadly RD so that people can park there and hike this trail from both ends. Unfortunately, I probably won’t be going back to hike the rest of this trail.

Mike C

P.S.- I received a reply from the hike leader. It seems that there are some disconnects between the Parks, Rec and Tourism Dept. and the landfill management regarding this trail. He did send me some maps to help others out. They are posted with the rest of the images.