Day Hike, Cool Spring Battlefield/Shenandoah University Bluemont Campus, Bluemont, VA

This 4ish mile series of loop hikes occured on Tuesday, September 2, 2025. Participants were Chris Isham, Tim Schmidt and myself.

I arrived at the Cool Springs Battlefield/Shenandoah University Bluemont Campus at around 9:30 AM. Tim and Chris arrived shortly afterwards. We started the hike at around 9:50 AM. The weather was sunny and cool with temperatures in the low 60’s. They would climb to the low 80’s by the end of the hike.

A bit of background on this hike. This used to be a golf course that was called Virginia National Golf Club. According to articles in:

foreTee

and

The Winchester Star

the golf course closed in 2012, was purchased by the Civil War Trust and was given to Shenandoah University in 2013. The school uses the former lodge for classrooms and the golf course itself has reverted back to thick brush. The former golf cart tracks are now a walking trail. There are two loops configured like a figure 8. The northern loop is about 2 miles while the southern loop is about 3 miles. All of this trail is asphalt paved.

So we started off northbound and counterclockwise on the northern loop. After about a quarter mile the trail started to ascend rapidly. According to the

AllTrails App

we ascended about 590 feet in about a quarter mile. It was steep. We took a lot of breaks. When We got to the top of the up we were treated to a beautiful westward view. We had to take a break at one of many benches placed on the downhill section. It was also very steep.

There were numerous cutovers along the loop. There were also various historical markers along the way as well as numbers within a circle. Were these the former hole numbers when this was a golf course? We didn’t have a very good view of the adjacnt Shenandoah River along this stretch. Once we got back to the middle of the figure 8 it was around 11:30 AM. We took a bathroom break at the lone portapotty there. There was no toilet paper.

Next we started along the southern loop. It was a southbound counterclockwise walk this time. As we started we saw a woman pushing a baby carraige along this stretch. Piece of cake, we thought. We were wrong. As we were hiking this stretch we didn’t see any historical markers like we did on the northern loop. The Shenandoah River was more accessible. However, the trail was slightly up along this stretch. There were numerous mowed trails going into the former golf course. And the temps were climbing.

At one point, when the temperature was climbing into the 80’s there wasn’t much shade and we were getting hot. So we discussed turning back after about a mile in. We turned left onto a mowed path thinking that we would reach the other side of the loop and get back to our vehicles. However, the grassy trail continued in a southernly direction parallel to the paved loop that we were on. After about a quarter mile we took a break. Someone had created a defacto trail to our left. Chris and Tim wanted to keep going on the grassy trail. I took the defacto trail and came upon the other side of the loop after afout 40 feet. It seemed like this southern loop was easier but more boring to hike on.

So we took the paved trail back to our vehicles, again used the portapotties, said our goodbyes and went home. It was around 1:00 PM. I stopped at the Roy Rogers in Leesburg and had a Double R burger and a creme soda Coke. Both very good. Traffic was bad as usual in Prince William County and I didn’t get home until 3:00 PM.

This was a decent hike. I’m disappointed that we didn’t do the entire 5 miles. However, since we are all in our 70’s now, hiking long distances probably isn’t in the cards anymore. But at least we got out there and got some exercise. It was a great day.

Mike C

Map of where we hiked

.