Harwood Mills Hike & Trail Lunch
The Harwood Mills Hike in Yorktown turned out very good for our Tuesday Group this year. In the past we have hiked in rain, mud and a couple of times in snow, none of that this time. I had gone over the week before and mapped out a new trail for our group to hike which would be on the east side of the reservoir and then coming back on the west side from Denbigh Blvd. This area we had never hiked and I had always wanted to do this, but getting to it was the hard part. From the parking lot we would need to hike across the narrow roadway to the other side of the reservoir and with hardly any shoulder on either side of the very busy highway I had never tried it. This time I said I would put it out for everyone and see what they wanted to do. By Monday we had 30 Groupers signed up to hike and this worry me about the road crossing, I decided to call the Sheriff Office in that area and see if we could get an escort for that short but dangerous 0.2 of a mile section. They said yes, we will be happy to give your group an escort, so we set up a time for them to meet us and it worked out better than I had thought it would be. They sent 2 sheriffs cars so we had one in front and one in the back holding back the cars coming from the west. We all hiked as fast as we could so not to hold up the traffic too long, on my GPS it said we had an avg. of 4 MPH and that had to be on that section of our hike for sure. We all thanked the 2 officers from Yorktown Sheriff Department as they drove away sounding their sirens.
Now we were on our hike with a speed of 2 and maybe 3 MPH sometimes heading towards Denbigh Hwy. A short distance down the trail we saw 4 deer, mommies and babies, crossing in front of us and a man in a truck that we talked to about the brown stuff on the ground which he said “was a somewhat clean waste product which they spread around the trees in that area”, we didn’t pick it up after that. In one area we hiked close to the reservoir and I turn off the trail and hiked everyone down to it. Here we found about 2 bags of trash and with the bags some people had in their packs we loaded them up very quickly (our good deed for the day).
Reaching Denbigh Blvd. and heading back on the west side of the reservoir now it was time for my GPS contest to start. Here we hiked only about 100 feet along the highway with a very wide shoulder and then back into the woods. I had 5 places for the group to find using their GPS or using the clues I had provided them with. I also had prizes at the end of the hike for who ever found the spot on our 6 mile hike. After they had found the third spot it was time for lunch so we walked over to the lake and sit on logs and ate our lunches that each person brought with them. On this trip we had Sophia, (8 years old) a Granddaughter of Pete S. and she hiked right along with us never complaining a single time and was very excited to see the deer.
Reaching the parking lot at 1:00 P.M. and hiking 6 miles it had been a great day with the 30 Tuesday groupers, all were ready for another 6 miles. NOT! I gave out the prizes which were Lighthouses we have around this area in Virginia and North Carolina. We skipped the ice cream this time and all headed home. Thanks to all that turned out for this hike and Thanks to the 2 officers from Yorktown Sheriff Department for coming out on this hike. Bruce