I caught up with an old friend to hike a loop incorporating the Difficult Run Trail and the Old Carriage Road on the Virginia side of Great Falls park. The water was quite brown as you can see and the weather looked a bit threatening for a while, but it was a great trip overall and the weather held out! We generally followed these directions:
http://www.hikingupward.com/OVH/DifficultRun/. However, instead of taking the Swamp Trail back, we took Old Carriage Road to the Ridge Trail to Wolfpack Trail to get back. Our total loop was about 5 miles which incorporated the jaunt to the water and back on Difficult Run Trail at the beginning of the hike and an accidental failure to turn off of the Carriage Trail at the end of the hike (we accidentally hiked to the end of Old Carriage Road and then had to return to the junction with Ridge Trail). For the proximity to UMD and the NoVa area, Great Falls is a must for anyone who enjoys exploring. However, finding solitude in this area seems to be close to impossible. As it was, even with thunder rolling in by the time we reached the picnic area, the area was bustling.
 |
| Muddy river view from an overlook along the trail |
 |
| Another muddy river view while the sky was still blue |
 |
| View of the River Trail |
