Trail Liaison: Mike Pattisall,
Larry Cautilli and
Neil Arnold
The Wakefield Park multi-use trail system is possibly the most popular riding spot in Northern Virginia. What NOVA-bred mountain biker hasn’t cut his or her teeth (sometimes literally) riding these trails? Wakefield is home to two of the area’s best mountain bike races: the Wednesdays at Wakefield series, sponsored by the Potomac Velo Club (PVC), and the Cranky Monkey Series, sponsored by EX2 Adventures.
The Wakefield trail system is really composed of three trails referred to in the local vernacular as the “creek trail,” the “racetrack,” and the “bowl.” Each section has its own flavor and you can mix and match to suit your tastes.
Head out beyond the softball fields and the powerlines and you run into the creek trail. In terms of difficulty, the creek trail is the easiest of the three. Although it’s relatively flat as far as mountain biking trails go, it has enough twists and turns to keep anyone entertained. Novice riders will gain from the cornering skills needed to navigate this trail, while speed demons will enjoy the trance-like state which comes from ripping this trail at top speed. But please, always be courteous and yield to hikers and other trail users since there are quite a few on this trail.
Go to the north end of the creek trail and start looking for some upward going trails on the left and you’ve found the racetrack section, so named because of the PVC-sponsored race series held there. The racetrack section is a maze of short and steep climbs and fun, twisting downhills with an occasional log pile thrown in to blow your rhythm. Add a few fireroad climbs under the powerlines and you have a bonafide XC race course.
The bowl is the section of trail near the parking lot on the right side of the park access road as you enter the park. A couple of trailheads are clearly visible from the parking lot: one behind the playground area, and another on the south end of the parking lot. You can also ride to bowl from the Audrey Moore Rec Center parking lot via the tunnel under the access road. Compared to the other two sections, the bowl is probably the more technical. Think rocky stream crossings, off-angle log piles, really twisty singletrack, and one treacherous up-down hair pin turn that used to be marked with yellow “caution” tape. Yeeha!
If you’ve ridden all three sections and still haven’t had enough, take the fireroad to the Lake Accotink Park singletrack and get your ya-yas out over there. Between the two parks, it’s possible to put in a 15-mile loop of fireroads, cinder-trail and sweet singletrack. Not bad for an after-work ride that won’t have you driving for hours to get to.
Need someone to show you around? MORE offers several after-work group rides at Wakefield. They happen on Mondays and Tuesdays at 6:30 PM, and Thursdays at 6:45 PM. Rides are typically broken into two or three groups, each with its own ride leader, in order to accommodate the paces of the riders. The Tuesday rides, however, are traditionally meant for beginners looking for a more casual ride and some good pointers on how to get over those pesky log piles. See the MORE event calendar (
www.more-mtb.org) for more info and for ride status. You can also find a map of the trail system on the Fairfax County Park Authority web site (
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/c...loads/cct4.pdf). To help preserve the trails, rides are cancelled in the event of rain or muddy trail conditions.
Night Riding Policy
The Park permits night riding on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday's only. Riders do not have to join the MORE-sponsored rides on these nights.
Directions to Wakefield Park
Wakefield park may be reached by taking Beltway Exit 54A which is Braddock Road west for one quarter mile to the park entrance on the right. For MORE rides, follow the entrance road until it ends at a left turn into a parking lot. This is the parking lot for the rec center. Rides leave from the large recycling bins in this lot.
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