It’s been a fairly cold winter around the Washington D.C. area. Not terribly cold, but cold enough to discourage hiking (yet not snowy enough to encourage cross country skiing). But that changed this weekend, and it looks like we’ve got at least a week of decent weather, and maybe more.
So off to Prince William Forest Park, a unit of the National Park Service located just 35 miles south of the nation’s capital. The park is a 15,000 acre slice of Virginia’s Piedmont forest. It used to be home to subsistence farmers eking out meager lives on marginal farm land, but in 1933 it became the Chopawamsic Recreation Demonstration Area, one of 46 New Deal era land-use projects designed to reclaim marginal farmlands for recreational activities. The land had a very different use during World War II, hosting OSS (Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA) training schools for spies and covert operatives. It returned to the Park Service after the war and was renamed Prince William Forest Park in 1948. 
Today I hiked a 4.8 mile route starting at parking area “H” and proceeding counter-clockwise around a loop consisting of segments of the High Meadows trail, the South Valley trail and Taylor Farm road. I was carrying my expedition pack (a Kelty Tioga) with about 60% of the load I plan to carry into the Grand Canyon three months from now.
The High Meadows trail descends from the parking area through some rolling hills covered by deciduous forest and cut by several small streams. One of the more prominent trees in the area is the American beech, which is a particularly pretty tree in the winter, with its smooth gray bark and the large number of golden leaves still on its branches. The trail is in good shape, and most of the little brooks are crossed on sturdy and attractive wooden bridges.
Hiking in the winter has several advantages over the warmer seasons. With the leaves off of the trees, hikers can enjoy vistas that disappear once the trees have their foliage. That’s really welcome on a hike like this, as the hiker can see long stretches of Quantico Creek as well as entire hillsides rising above the trail. With the trees bare, one’s eye is drawn more to the forest floor, with its highly textured, rich golden brown carpet of leaves. And ticks are less of a problem, too. 
When the trail reached the South Fork of Quantico Creek, I turned east on the South Valley trail and walked along the north bank of the creek. The creek is fairly broad through here, with lots of small rapids interspersed between more placid stretches. Despite the thaw, there was still some ice in the shade of the southern bank.
After following the South Valley trail for something over a mile and a half along the river, I turned left on the old Taylor Farm Road. It’s not much of a road any more, but it is a nice broad path slowly rising through the forested hills, heading north from the creek along the course of a minor tributary. After six tenths of a mile of steady grade, the trail met the High Meadows trail, and I turned left on it to return to parking area “H.” Right after the junction, the High Meadows trail passes a small cemetery with at least two graves, one being that of Robert Taylor, who lived from 1867 to 1937. The trail continues on, descending into a small valley, crossing a creek, and climbing back to the parking lot.
A very nice hike, on an unusually nice mid-winter day.
