This 3.6 mile lollipop loop hike occured on Tuesday, February 18, 2025. It was just me on this one.
After 3 years of waiting I finally got a chance to hike some of the trails at the new Biscuit Run Park south of Charlottesville, VA today. I left Manassas, VA at around 8:30 AM. I wanted to set foot on the trail when the temparature was above freezing. It was 27 degrees when I left home, 36 when I hit the trail and 38 when I got done. So I started this hike around 10:30 AM. This park had it’s grand opening on 12/09/2024. Everything looked new. The parking lot was freshly paved. There was one of those forest service prefab rest rooms next to the parking lot, complete with forest service pit toilets. They are still working on the landscaping as well as some trails in this park.
So today I did the Entrance Trail and the Foothills Loop. The Entrance Trail was very, very, muddy. It was also between 50 and 60 feet wide. It was level and slightly up and intersected with the Foothills Loop, which I hiked counterclockwise. It was also very muddy initially. But as I ascended to higher ground, the northern and western parts of this loop were a bit drier. About 50% of this trail was dual track, the other 50% was single track. It’s nice to have dual track when you are hiking along with bikers. This way, they can go around you and you don’t have to step off of the trail.
There were subdivisions bordering the eastern and western borders of this park. These residents are very lucky to live right next to this park. The signing was very good. I didn’t get lost at all. I saw three old, wrecked vehicles while I was hiking. The first was a 50’s or 60’s Chevy truck, the second unknown. Half of it was all rusted and mangled while the front end of it had nice blue paint on it. I’ll guess that it was an old Studebaker but I’m not sure. The third was way in the woods and unrecognizable. And it had bullet holes on it. This trail did have some hills but they weren’t bad. There were 4 blowdowns and 1 uprooted tree that tore out a portion of the trail tread. I reported this to the Albemarle County Parks & Rec department.
Today I only saw one runner and one hiker on this trail. I crossed two streams on bridges, passed a large pond and saw the remnants of an old homestead towards the end of the hike. I got done around 1:00 PM and made it home by 3:00 PM. I really enjoy discovering new trails. I am very thankful that I am still able to hike at all of these wonderful places at 71 years old.
The residents of Charlottesville now have a new set of trails to hike at Biscuit Run Park. They also have the Rivanna Loop trail, the Rivanna North trail, the trails around Monticello, Ragged Mountain Nature Area and Ivy Creek Natural Area. And in the future they will have the Three Notches Trail, which will connect C’Ville to the Crozet Tunnel under Skyline Drive at Rockfish Gap.
I still have 6.25 miles of trail to hike along the northermost section of the Rivanna Loop Trail and the roughly 3 miles up, 3 miles back along the Rivanna North Trail. I also want to come back to this park when they complete the Biscuit Run Trail north to I64 and then to the future 5th Street Trails Hub. So I now have three or four excuses to return to the very nice city of Charlottesville, VA.
Mike C
< Previous Trip Log | << Outdoors
