Laura Haberkorn of Lorton is adding a mile a week to her walks, aiming for 26 miles by the end of the year. In September she told the Springfield Connection why she uses the Pohick creek trail to do it: "As soon as you walk here you leave the hustle and bustle of I-95." Another Lorton walker, Vilma Castro, told the paper she walks it every day and "was waiting and waiting" for it to come back.
The waiting is over. The southern piece of the Pohick Stream Valley section of the Gerry Connolly Cross County Trail closed in March 2025, and it reopened this fall after more than a year. November turns out to be an unusual time to go. The new plantings along the creek are easiest to pick out right now, and the two small parking areas at the trailheads are also the county's authorized parking for bowhunters six days a week until mid-February. If you live off-post near Fort Belvoir, the day you choose shapes this walk more than the weather does.
A sewer project paid for the new trail edges
The closure had nothing to do with the trail itself. Fairfax County's Department of Public Works and Environmental Services shut the section for safety and to move equipment during the Pohick Interceptor Rehabilitation Project. The $7.3 million job renewed 6,500 feet of sewer pipe, 20 to 54 inches across, that runs along the creek and carries wastewater by gravity toward the treatment plant.
The crews didn't dig the pipe up. They used cured-in-place piping, which threads a resin liner through the old pipe and hardens it with a train of UV lights. According to the Springfield Connection, that method spared most of the existing trees and wildflowers. Some trees still had to go to make room for a large temporary bypass line and to clear the sewer easement.
Two changes are easy to spot on the ground:
- Drier footing at Wadebrook Terrace. The resurfacing got rid of the muddy spots where water used to stand near this trailhead entrance. Deniz Polat of Lorton told the paper that, especially near the beginning, "it won't flood now."
- A replanted trail edge. The verges were planted with native trees and shrubs "at forestry level quantities." For every tree 6 inches or more in diameter removed outside the easement, the county put back twice that diameter in new trees, following Fairfax County Park Authority rules. Landscaping came to roughly 6% of the project's cost.
You won't see new trees right over the pipe. DPWES doesn't allow planting in its sewer easements, because roots can get into the pipes and cause blockages. So the new growth sits along the edges, set back from the corridor.
What the new plantings look like in November
The species list came from Dewberry, the engineering firm, and Park Authority natural resources staff reviewed it. A few of the plantings are species that weren't growing in this part of the woods before, including buttonbush, hornbeam, hophornbeam or ironwood, sweetleaf and witch-hazel. Most trail plantings are hard to tell apart in late fall. Several of these are easiest to recognize right now.
| Planting | What to look for in November and December |
|---|---|
| American witch-hazel | Bright yellow flowers that appear in mid to late fall |
| Buttonbush | Burgundy fall color, plus round fruit clusters that stay on the branches into winter |
| American hornbeam | A heavily fluted trunk with a "muscular appearance," and fruit bracts that scatter through the winter |
| Hophornbeam | Male catkins that hang on all winter, hop-like fruit that stays through winter, and shreddy bark on older trees |
Many of the new plants are inside wire cages. That's on purpose. The Springfield Connection reported that white-tailed deer had already been seen at the new plantings. The county's contract also pays for a year of extended watering, and after that the trees become the Park Authority's to look after. Lisa Bright, co-founder of the Springfield native plant nursery Earth Sangha, was out checking the stream valley for invasive plants and noted the wider variety of species.
Two small trailheads, shared through February
The deer that browse those cages are also the reason for a county program that shares this trail through the winter. Fairfax County's Deer Management Areas map lists Pohick Stream Valley as an archery area, along with nearby Laurel Hill and South Run Stream Valley. The county's August 2026 deer management program presentation says the archery program had no new additions for this season.
Here's where that touches your walk. According to the Park Authority's trail map for this section, the two places to park are a small spot at the Wadebrook Terrace cul-de-sac at the end of Rolling Road and a few spaces along Hooes Road near the north end. The county's approved parking locations for archery hunters on Pohick Stream Valley are the corner of Hooes Road and Pohick Ridge Court and the north end of Wadebrook Terrace. Hunters in the program can park only in those signed areas. Walkers and hunters are using the same small lots.
The county posts the season's schedule:
FY 2027 archery season: September 12, 2026, through February 13, 2027 Days: Monday through Saturday Hours: 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset
The county says parks in the archery program stay fully open to the public, with signs at park entrances and trailheads. Its rules require tree stands to sit at least 50 feet from park trails. Because the program runs Monday through Saturday, Sunday is the one day of the week outside the hunting schedule. Through mid-February, that makes Sunday the day the trailhead parking isn't also being used by hunters.
Getting onto the trail and where it leads
The Park Authority map covers the full Pohick Road to Fairfax County Parkway stretch, about 3 miles. It shows a mix of asphalt, stonedust and natural surface, some steep neighborhood access paths, and no restrooms or other facilities along the way. That map is several years old. The September resurfacing near Wadebrook Terrace is newer than what it shows, so the footing at that end is better than the map suggests.
Heading south, the trail connects to the Laurel Hill Greenway, and the Cross County Trail keeps going toward the Occoquan River. The creek itself starts in Burke and runs about seven miles through Springfield, Newington and Lorton before it empties into Pohick Bay. That makes this short reopened piece part of a much longer route. Two run-walkers from Springfield and Fort Belvoir told the Springfield Connection they had only just found the trail and hadn't known it was ever closed.
The details that matter for a short-day visit:
- Wadebrook Terrace has the newly resurfaced entrance, at the end of Rolling Road. Parking is limited, and hunters can use the north end of Wadebrook Terrace Monday through Saturday.
- Hooes Road puts you at the north end of the mapped section. Parking along the road is limited, and the Hooes Road and Pohick Ridge Court corner is also signed for hunter parking.
- Neighborhood access paths come down from the surrounding streets. Some are steep, which matters if you're pushing a stroller.
- Pack what you need. The trail has no facilities, so bring water.
Fitting it around the Turkey Trot weekend
The Bunnyman Turkey Trot 5K and 10K runs November 21 at 2 p.m., starting and finishing near Bunnyman Brewing at Workhouse Arts Center, 9518 Workhouse Way. That date falls on a Saturday inside the archery season. If you'd like a shakeout walk along the creek with the trailhead parking free of hunters, Sunday, November 22 is the day the schedule leaves open, and the witch-hazel along the replanted edges should still be in its mid-to-late-fall bloom window.
Our family-led team follows changes like this trail reopening across Fairfax County's Route 1 and I-95 communities. If you're thinking about your place near Fort Belvoir and want to know how nearby amenities like the Cross County Trail show up in local values, YAMO Premier Properties is glad to talk it through. Get Your Free Market Report and we'll send you a neighborhood-level look at your part of Lorton, Newington or the Fort Belvoir area.
