This 3 mile lollipop loop first day hike occured on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, was sponsored by the
Prince William County, VA Historic Preservation Foundation,
was attended by close to 100 people and was led by Kevin, Lance and a third gentleman whose name escapes me. No last names given.
I was deciding between two different First Day hikes that were about 7 miles apart from each other. The First Day hike at
Doves Landing Park
was postponed until January 12, 2025 due to 40+ mph winds in the forecast. So that left the Bristow Station Battlefield as my choice today. I believe that I have hiked this set of trails at least a dozen times. And I led a hike here in 2018. I showed up at the battlefield parking lot at around 12:30 PM. The parking lot was about 95% full. I got one of the coveted end spots. I hung around the parking lot but didn’t see anyone in charge. So I walked about 500 feet to the park office and asked where we were meeting. The person there asked Kevin and then told me that we were meeting in the parking lot. So I went back and waited. There were many civil war battles in this area and about 80 confererate soldiers were buried in a section of this park. You can read all about the historical stuff
So we gathered at the trailhead around 1:00 PM. Kevin gave a short spiel about the park and welcomed everyone. We then proceeded to walk about .4 miles to where about 80 members of the 10th Alabama Confederate Regiment were buried. Most were killed in action from battles in the area. However, some succombed to various illnesses during the Civil War. The gentleman whose name I forgot gave a short talk on one of the soldiers that was buried here.
We then hiked about .5 miles to a large open area. The wind started picking up here. At least we didn’t have to worry about trees and/or limbs falling on us here. Kevin gave a short speech about the battles that occured on this field and focused on one union soldier and how he survived being shot multible times, was left for dead and was carried by a fellow soldier to Alexandria, VA for treatment. He also talked about restoring the battlefield to the way it was in 1861 by planting thousands of pine seedlongs around the park and some of the new interpretive signs in the park. I noticed that the trails had changed slightly and there were some new trails and boardwalks.
So we hiked another .5 miles and stopped at an old structure that had recently been refurbished. It was a corn crib. I remember hiking past this structure in the past and it looked awfully run down. They restored it to it’s former early 20th century glory. It looked good now. Kevin talked about another union soldier that was wounded numerous times, then later fought in the Spanish American War, then got the Medal of Honor by President T. Roosevelt. The wind was again whipping up during this stretch. Though the temps were in the mid to upper forties, the wind chill made it feel like the high thirties, low forties.
We did another .5 miles, passed the Robinson family cemetery, then started the only medium sized up on this stretch. When we got to the next intersection Kevin gave his last lecture. He talked about the battles that took place in this immediate area.
Finally, we did another .5 miles, then turned right and listened to Lance talk about the replica quarters cabin that was being rebuilt. We then did about .2 miles back to our vehicles. The hike was then over. We ended up doing about 2.7 miles. I felt good afterwards. I hope that this is the start of many fun and interesting hikes this year.
Mike C
< Previous Trip Log | << Outdoors
