James and I continued our exploration of the Bull Run - Occoquan Trail this weekend. The trail starts at the Bull Run Regional Park, and continues to the town of Occoquan. Last week we started at the Bull Run Marina, and walked towards Occoquan for three and a half miles, discovering a dead squirrel in the process. This section of the trail is over rolling hills, and is moderately challenging is you are as out of shape as I am. This week we started at the Route 28 access point and walked down stream (towards Occoquan) for around three miles. This section is a bit easier, and we discovered the foreleg of a dear that had been gnawed and split for the marrow by an animal at least the size of a labrodor. For some reason there seems to be a lot of death on the trail, perhaps vengeful ghosts from the Civil War. A plaque at the Route 28 access point to the trail displays a map of the Battle of First Mannassas including a depiction of where Cocke was protecting Ball’s Ford. A two mile walk from Route 28 there are the remains of a Civil War Artillery Battery, the picture above shows James defiling this treasure of our past. It is very cool looking, and in pretty good condition compared to some of the ruins on Maryland Heights. To be fair, from the direction we approached, there is not a sign identifying the Artillery Battery.

We are planning on continuing to explore the trail, and if you want more information on the Trail check out the PATC destination guide.

Once I have accumulated a decent number of pictures I will put them up in the gallery, and hopefully James will post the pictures he took of the dead squirrel and deer leg.