Great Falls Trailblazers, from left, are Karen Jones, Mary Cassidy Anger, Joan Burkgren and Julie Ben-Achour – receiving the Ellie Doyle Award. Photo contributed
Trails where you want to go: from your home to the Park to the Village to Turner Farm, to your child's school or just to take the dog out for a walk.
This is what the Great Falls Trail Blazers group is all about:
A community group, whose goals and aims are to make Great Falls a wonderful walkable area for people, horses and bikes alike.
We are currently working on getting a trail/path along the Georgetown Pike, as can be seen by the refurbishment of the trail, in front of the Great Falls Library, continuing along past the Fire Station, to the Church on the corner of Applewood Lane and the Georgetown Pike.
“The Great Falls community has been wonderful in working with us to facilitate trails,” Sue Bennett said. Trail easements given by property owners are gifts to the community.
The Trailblazers are grateful to Ian McKeown and Laura Murray, current owners of the State Gardens Nursery, for allowing them to continue the trail on their property, just behind their white picket fence, so that pedestrians would not have to venture out onto the road. They were also appreciative to the property owner, next to the nursery, for cutting the long grass on her property, which facilitates the continuation of the trail as its makes its way west along the Georgetown Pike. They were equally grateful to property owners, further along the Georgetown Pike, who allowed the GFTB to cut the trail through the corner of their property at a point where it was impossible to advance on the VDOT ROW due to embankments and stream flow.
They also appreciated the work done by the Scout Troupe 673 in revamping a portion of the trail and helping with grading.
The most challenging part of the trail so far, has been between Miller and Gouldman on the VDOT right of way. This is a particularly dangerous portion of the Georgetown Pike.
It was a tangled mass of impenetrable vines, bamboo, old fallen tree trunks, and intertwined and gnarled bushes. It took many hours of aches, pain, sweat and hard work.
"There is always work on the upkeep of different trails in the area," said Joan Burkgren, "such as the Lucy Haines Trail, connecting the Great Falls Elementary School and the library,
and the Nike Trail which connects Forestville Elementary and Turner Farm, as well as the Windamere Trail along the Georgetown Pike. We also help out with projects as needed at River Bend Park."
The Great Falls Trail Blazers Group were among the recipients awarded the Fairfax County Park Authority's Ellie Doyle Park Service Award.
"We have secured $2.5 million in Federal Grants for surveys and construction," Mary Cassidy Anger said, "and have been very happy about the wonderful support we have received from [Supervisor] Foust's Office and the county departments. We are currently working with the county on the segment of the Georgetown Pike between Utterback Store Road to Seneca."
The Great Falls Trail Blazers Group hosted the Great Falls July 4th 5k Run, free and open to all. The Run this year started at the library and made its way along different local trails before returning back to the library. Next year the group hopes to encourage more dog owners to run with their dogs, making it a fun, family outing for all.
The group found people in the community very generous during the Run, allowing participants to avoid dangerous traffic and run on their property as did a family on Walker Road.
The group is also delighted that the Great Falls Citizens Association is also coming up with some great ideas for trails.
"We are always very grateful to members of the community who can help out in one way or another with the advancement of trails. If there are any high school students who need community hours we are more than happy to find work for them to do," Karen Jones Niedringhaus added.
"We also embrace all scout project efforts."
"We feel the more community interest there is in trails, the better off we are as a community," said Sue Bennett.
The next meeting will be on Oct. 20 at 7.30 at the Great Falls library. The group meets at the library every first Thursday of the month at 7:30 till 9 p.m.
The group can also be contacted through PO Box 844, Great Falls Post office, or at greatfallstrailblazers.com or visit www.GreatFallsTrailbazers.org.