Trail Maintenance Workday

For the past several years, the Friends of Royal Lake has organized periodic days when neighborhood volunteers have worked on maintenance of the trail that goes around Royal Lake. However, when the pandemic lockdowns began, this came to a screeching halt, and the work-day planned for late March last year was postponed indefinitely.

Now that older and more vulnerable people have been able to be vaccinated against Covid-19, we’ll once again be doing these work-days. Considering that most people have not yet been vaccinated, and that variants of the virus now exist, we will require all volunteers to wear face masks and to maintain social distancing.

Neighborhood volunteers, supervised by the Friends of Royal Lake (FORL), are needed to do this sort of trail maintenance because the Fairfax County Parks Authority (FCPA) only has enough staff to deal with major trail work, such as replacement of deteriorating bridges. However, the FCPA provides all needed materials, such as crushed stones, and it approves all trail work projects before the FORL commits to them.

On Saturday, May 15th, we’ll meet at the dam spillway to work from 8-11AM. Each neighborhood volunteer can participate for any part of the three-hour work period that they are available. All age groups are welcome. If you have them, bring shovels, rakes, tampers, and especially wheelbarrows. Otherwise, just bring yourself. We’ll be working on the trail between the dam and the Shanes Creek bridge, installing culverts and spreading crushed stone to improve stretches that become muddy when it rains.

If you’ll be arriving by car for the workday, the nearest place to park is at the end of the cul-de-sac on Starboard Drive. To get there, go on Guinea Road and, across the road from the Public Storage sign, turn onto Falmead Drive in the direction of the lake. Make your next right onto Starboard Drive. Then drive straight until the end of the road, and park. Just beyond the end of the road, turn left onto the pedestrian path on the spillway and walk a short distance until you reach the lake. That’s where we’ll be meeting.