Cross County Trail (Fairfax County) - Northern Leg

This is a helmet cam video of the (North) Cross County Trail - Great Falls National Park (where Difficult Run empties into the Potomac) to Fairfax Circle in via Jermantown Road and Fairfax Boulevard (shot with a Vhold Contour HD wide angle camera). The trail has been incrementally developed over the last decade (the northern portion, and a southern leg running from Fairfax Circle all the way to Occoquan Regional Park). The south trail in particular has been built with a surprising level of sophistication; employing a variety of bridge designs, engineered concrete & stone fair weather crossings, multiple trail surfaces (asphalt, crushed stone, concrete, brick), ample width, and connecting some of the regions best recreational amenities (Wakefield mountain biking trails, Lake Accotink, the still developing Laurel Hill area/Lorton Arts Center, and Occoquan Regional Park. The north trail employs a still wider variety of fair weather crossings (several large boulder crossings of Difficult Run are quite amazing), however it is less refined - with a good portion (perhaps 30%) only single track dirt. In addition to linking W&OD Regional Park, Reston, and Great Falls National Park, the potential exists to connect an improved north county trail to Wolf Trap and Lake Fairfax via the existing stream valley parkland right of way.

Despite the effort put into each leg, the trails are not well activated. Enveloped in the Accotink , Pohick, and Difficult Run stream valleys, entrances are subtle and the trail as a whole is somewhat isolated. As part of my Architecture thesis project I am working on a design that aims to better activate the trail and Fairfax Circle. The basic idea is a Cross CITY Trail linking the northern and southern legs, with a re-worked Gateway Regional Park as a refined promenade and showcase entrance to serve as a lynch pin for the entire trail and catalyze a potential urban village envisioned at Fairfax Circle. Currently, the north and south parts of the cross county trail, by map, are connected only by a narrow sidewalk along Blake Lane.

if you don't want to sit through the whole thing:
0:45 riding along the Difficult Run gorge. mark 2:13 a nice example of a fair weather boulder crossing. mark 3:38, an older concrete bollard crossing through ankle-deep water. mark 4:55, falling on my butt, mark 5:50, intersection with the W&OD, mark 6:14 some of the most refined parts of the northern leg, mark 6:40 hit a rock on a typical single track section, mark 7:36 "fair-weather crossing", 8:54 potential to run city trail under bridge.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Great Falls
• W&OD
• Cross County Trail
• Fairfax City
• Wolf Trap
• Reston VA
• Vienna VA

[kstev77]

if you don't want to sit through the whole thing:

0:45 riding along the Difficult Run gorge. mark 2:13 a nice example of a fair weather boulder crossing. mark 3:38, an older concrete bollard crossing through ankle-deep water. mark 4:55, falling on my butt, mark 5:50, intersection with the W&OD, mark 6:14 some of the most refined parts of the northern leg, mark 6:40 hit a rock on a typical single track section, mark 7:36 "fair-weather crossing", 8:54 potential to run city trail under bridge.