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This 10 mile hike took place on Sunday, August 29, 1999 within Lake Anna State Park, VA. Most people associate Lake Anna, VA with boating, fishing and swimming.  There's lots of that. But most people don't realize that hiking can be added to the list of activities available at Lake Anna, VA.

I got the idea to hike this series of trails from the book 50 Hikes in Northern Virginia by Leonard Atkins.  This is a very good book with lots of great places to hike in the Old Dominion.  The drive to Lake Anna took about two and a half hours.  I arrived at 9am.  The ranger at the gate was very excited because someone got a good size nugget of gold at the gold panning activity at the park on the previous day.  That person was very lucky!  It was supposed to be a sunny day with temperatures in the mid 80's.

I started off doing the Old Pond Trail at the left side of the visitors center for .3 miles. Nice views.  This trail intersected with the Railroad Ford Trail, which hugged the shore of Lake Anna south for about a mile, then turned north along an old railroad bed for about a mile.  This railroad line brought raw materials for making bullets for World War I to Mineral, VA to the south.  

The Railroad Ford Trail intersected the Glenora Trail. I turned right and went east for about 2 miles to the ruins of Glenora Plantation, built in 1832.  The house is fenced off and in disrepair now.  But you can see that it once was a grand house.

Then I turned right onto the Big Woods Trail for about a mile.  Then I turned right onto the Turkey Run Trail, which ended at the Taylor homesite.  Not much left there now except a chimney.

I then backtracked about half a mile and turned right onto the Cedar Run Trail for .7 miles which looped through a Cedar grove and gave me my last shoreline view of Lake Anna until the end of the hike. Then I turned right back onto Turkey Run Trail and proceeded another mile.  The book said that I would be on trail until I hit the intersection for the Mill Pond Trail.  However, 3 years ago they built a road along what was once the trail and created picnic area C to the east about a mile.  So I turned left onto the access road for a quarter mile, then turned right onto the Mill Pond Trail, which goes to the site of a former grist mill.  

I then backtracked to the road, and turned right.  I wanted to get some water at the forest office, but it was closed and someone took the key to the outside faucet. UURRGGHH!! I had about 15 ounces of water left so I was OK.  I turned left onto the main park road for about a mile, turned right onto picnic area B road and went about a quarter mile, then turned left onto the Fishermans Trail for about a quarter mile.  This led me back to the beach parking area  which I had to walk from one end to the other (right to left), and my car.

I suggested to the rangers that they construct a trail from the park office to the Fisherman's Trail to avoid that mile long road walk, which they said that they would consider.  The temperature, I later found out, was in the mid 90's that day.  But the air was cooled by the waters of Lake Anna.

This was a nice hike.  Not too much elevation change, the weather was good and I did not see one other hiker that day.  I guess everyone else was boating, fishing or swimming.  Again, this hike would probably make a great weekend at Lake Anna, VA even better!

Mike C