Holmes Run Extension

Right now, the Holmes Run Trail runs from Cameron Run Regional Park to Glen Hills Park. Work begins soon to extend the trail another 1.5 miles to Columbia Pike (what happened to the I Bike the Pike blog? Every time I ride it I think about what a great name that was).

The eight-foot-wide asphalt trail will have five stream crossings. Each will be a "fair-weather" crossing that allows users to ford when the water is at normal flow.

Tom McFarland, Park Authority project manager, said the crossings are essentially submerged concrete bridges, ranging from 15 to 45 feet long, that provide a hardened surface for bicycle riders to go through a few inches of water.

The new trail will become part of a network covering an estimated 200 miles, including the recently completed, 40-mile Cross County Trail between Great Falls in northern Fairfax County and the Occoquan River in the county's southern region.

Earlier this year, the Park Authority and Board of Supervisors acquired a 41-acre conservation easement and purchase options on a historic McLean property known as Salona that officials think can contribute trails to link to the Pimmit Run trail system.

I often worry about stream valley trails. In Montgomery County, I think the Sierra Club tried to outlaw them. I could certainly see how laying down asphalt in an environmentally sensitive area could be harmful, but Ed Pickens, president of Fairfax Trails & Streams, said this and it made sense to me,

"The reason that trails are important is because they get people in the stream valleys, and they learn that they love the stream valleys, and they become stewards,"

Holmes Run makes up part of what Alexandria is calling the Green Crescent.