First Bartram Ride today

[matth]

My wife and I were able to head to the West Dam lot this morning to ride Bartram for the first time. We got there and were riding around 7am.

This was her first time riding in the woods and she did very well. We took the yellow blazes until the T and then hung a right on the white blazes and followed it around. We did not do the other loop to the right (Lake Springs maybe??) Came back around and headed back to West Dam. Only 7 miles, but it's all new to us and we had a blast.

How many miles is the loop that we did not ride? Does it come back out where it starts?

[brianW]

Lake Springs Loop is about 3 miles in length. Coming from the dam Bartram goes to the left and crosses the road (going to Lake Springs) at the top of the hill. There is only one loop. Previously there were two loops but the trail was re-outed last fall to make just one loop.

[dgaddis1]

May 1, 2010 15:52:53 GMT -5 matth said:

How many miles is the loop that we did not ride? Does it come back out where it starts?

It's not actually a loop. It's more of a horseshoe.

[DK]

I rode Bartram for the first time today. I parked at the West Dam lot. Didn't ride the loop (horseshoe), but did manage to ride some of the new stuff past Petersburg. Maybe only a mile or so of it. Some really fun stuff.

[matth]

So it sounds like we did not ride all of the Lake Springs trail. We came to an intersection with a sign pointing right (we were facing the paved road) and then left was the way to get back to Bartram.

[brianW]

No, sounds like you came to were Bartram crosses the road to Lake Springs picnic area(?) There is a small area to park, a outhouse and kiosi across the street and the trial continues in that direction. Bartram is about 18 miles one way and comes out on Washington Rd near Wildwood park.

Besides West Dam, you access the trail at Lake Springs, Peterburg, Washington Rd and i would have to assume Wildwood (do not know were to park for easy trail access though)

[matth]

Looking at two different maps that people have posted, one has a larger area of Lake Springs portion. One map takes you all the way to the end of Bluebird Dr. I dont think we made it that far.

We rode a total of 3 miles on Lake Springs.

We rode 1.9 to the first intersection on Bartram from West Dam and then another 1.9 back to the truck from that same point when we headed back. The rest was on Lake Springs East/West.

[dparrott]

Lake Springs Trail has a small tail that crosses a bridge and ends at the fishing dock in Lake Springs Day Use Area. You can continue on a series of paved (mostly) trail that ends up at a very nice observation tower that's about 50' high. The last bit of that piece crosses a causeway to an island where the tower is. It can be a bit of a challenge to find your way through the Lake Springs picnic areas, though.