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General
Limited public access trails have been identified within Westmoreland County along existing public roads and on federal, state, and private historic and recreational sites.
Existing Trail Segments
Walking trails have been developed within Westmoreland State Park (1), Stratford Hall Plantation (2), and Washington's Birthplace National Monument (3). Virginia and Maryland completed a cooperative designation of the Potomac River Water Trail (4). The Northern Neck Bicycle Heritage Tour route (8), designated on public roads throughout the county, continues south into Richmond County and east into Northumberland County. None of the existing trails or bicycle routes have yet been designated as PHT.
Planned Trail Segments
The Potomac River Water Trail: DC to the Bay project is being planned with three spurs that will direct boaters to points in Westmoreland County where they can obtain lodging, food, and other services. The spurs are planned to Westmoreland State Park (5), George Washington's Birthplace (6), and the Colonial Beach Landing and beaches (7). Regional planning is also underway for a trail that will follow a power line right-of-way (9), which roughly straddles the centerline of the Northern Neck peninsula. This multi-use trail will interconnect with the bicycle tour route and lead hikers between the counties of the Northern Neck.
Issues and Concerns
A corridor for the PHT has not as yet been adopted by Westmoreland County. As is typical throughout the Northern Neck, the population is relatively scattered and little of the land is held in public ownership. Ideally a trail route would follow somewhat closely to the Potomac River shoreline and connect significant sites to form a continuous off-road experience. The Potomac Greenway proposed in the Virginia Outdoors Plan is based on such a route, but achievement of its vision is impeded by physical as well as political obstacles.
The Potomac River shoreline presents difficulties for trail alignment as it is dissected by numerous bays at the mouths of tidal creeks. There are at least six major creeks along this shoreline. A trail that followed the river's edge would be very long and require numerous easements from individual waterfront property owners. Due to the views along much of this shoreline many existing homes are oriented to the river and have boat docks and piers. A waterfront trail would likely seem intrusive to many of the current residents so their support for a trail would likely be difficult to win.
A trail alignment that passed through the county at the head of the tidal reach of the bays would be very close to the main road system and bicycle tour, that currently follows that route. Spurs of the trail could extend out to the shore along the ridges between the bays. These also currently have roads constructed along them, which branch out to reach the various points of land along the edges of the bays. There are opportunities to connect some of these branches to form loops if short sections of off-road trail could be established to connect existing country roads that end across the heads of the bays.
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