This recon took place on Thursday, May 9, 2024. It was just me on this one.
I had business in Warrenton so I decided to check out two areas of the future Greater Warrenton Loop Trail to see if they had been updated. This trail has no official name yet. So I gave it one. The two areas that I checked out were in the northwest and southeast sections of this trail.
Initially I drove to the area near the intersection of Waterloo, Old Waterloo and Lower Waterloo RDS. This is near the Warrenton Aquatic & Recreation Facility or WARF. According to
They were supposed to start construction of this section of trail between the WARF and the existing trail along Timber Fence PKWY sometime in 2024. That hasn’t happened yet. This section is now hikable. However, one has to traverse Fauquier High School property as well as a wooded area. I did the wooded area last year but was not comfortable traipsing across the high school grounds with the current state of school incidents in the U.S.
Next I drove to the southeast corner of the town of Warrenton. I first explored the cul de sac at the end of Old Meetze RD. Then, I drove down Meetze RD to the intersection of Meetze, Green and Lunsford RDs. I turned left on Lunsford and then got lost. Anyway, I’m not sure which way that the trail will go in this area. I was told by a person involved with this project that the Warrenton Branch Trail may be extended from where it ends now at Fauquier Farm to the Green RD intersection. That I do know. See the southernmost yellow line on the map above.
So it is my opinion that the trail will go one of three ways:
1. When one gets to the intersection of the Fauquier Farm Trail and the Warrenton Branch Trail (see the southernmost green trail intersection, one will have to turn left and hike northwest on the Warrenton Branch Trail to just before the US29 bridge. The hiker would then turn right, take the side trail to Old Meetze RD, cross present day Meetze RD, continue on Old Auburn RD to VA674 Frytown RD, turn left and continue. Then turn left on Duhollow RD, cross over Cedar Run, then turn right onto the current trail.
2. The county is supposed to build what’s called the Central Sports Complex on the former Meriah Farm near the Intersection of Meetze and Old Auburn RDS. If that is the case and they own all the land there, then they could just punch the trail through that property and allign it with Frytown RD. This alternative makes the most sense to me.
3. If the county extends the Warrenton Branch Trail to Green RD one could turn left onto Green, cross Meetze onto Lundsford RD, turn left on Old Auburn and then right on Frytown.
So #1 is available now but #2 looks like the most logical solution. That was the extent of my recon. Now, moving around to the north side of town, the yellow proposed trail stretches from US29/15 around to Rady Park. There will be personal property issues as well as bridge issues over or under US17. The same holds true for the southwestern yellow proposed trail section. And according to
there are at least two top secret government agencies located in or around Warrenton that would have to be avoided. Finally, I couldn’t find out how much that the new pedestrian bridge over VA234 near Brentsvile RD in Prince William County cost. However, I remember seeing numbers between 25 and 76 million. Unless there’s an existing stream crossing bridge already on US211 west of the WARF, a pedestrian bridge will be needed there.
In closing, it looks like this loop trail around Warrenton, VA is about 35-40% complete. I estimate that this trail will be between 12 and 15 miles when finished. I hope that I get to hike the entire trail some day. I’ll turn on the comments for this page in case someone wants to add any additional information. Please keep all comments clean.
Mike C
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