1st Sunday Breakfast and Hike

We met at the Petersburg Battlefield Visitor’s Center and viewed a brief but very interesting but short video on the 9-month siege of Petersburg, the skirmishes that were fought, the climax of the big explosion that caused the huge famous crater and the bloody battle afterwards that didn’t, but could have, ended the war early.

We left the Visitor’s Center and walked toward Battery 5, then down to the famous Dictator 17,000 lb mortar, largest of the war. We walked back to the visitor’s center and drove down the Park Tour Road to Confederate battery #9, toured the battery and tiny field houses and began our 6 mile hike.

The hike began by walking down Water Line Trail, connected to Birney Trail and then down to Taylor’s Creek Trail.  We then walked down Park Tour Road to the old ruins of Taylor Farm house (foundation and chimney still stands) and got a good, but far away view of the Crater.  We continued on Park Tour Road for another ½ mile and got to the Crater and the mine shaft that was dug by Pennsylvania miners to place the 8,000 lb. dynamite charge.  We walked back along the road back to the trails and picked up the Encampment Trail, back on the Birney Trail, but instead returning to the Water Line Trail, we dropped south a bit to pick up the Harrison Creek trail, then Attack Road trail and the last bit of the Water line trail.  Total mileage was about 6.6 miles.

We then drove to the Blandford Cemetery and toured the very old Blandford church, built in 1704.

Breakfast at 8:30 a.m. IHOP, 12251 Bermuda Crossroad Ln, Chester, VA 23831

Hike at 10:00 a.m. Petersburg Battlefield,  https://www.nps.gov/pete/index.htm

Come join us for a great hike and history tour of one of the great Civil War battlefields with pleasant hiking trails and informational Civil war Points of Interest, including the iconic Crater, Point of Interest (PoI) #8 on the GIF map file).

We’ll start at the Visitor’s Center and spend 20-30 minutes time there soaking up the history.  We’ll drive to PoI #3 where we’ll leave our cars and hike towards PoI #4, PoI #6 and then PoI #7.  We’ll then loop back to our cars and drive to the crater, walk around the crater and the mineshaft and then exit.

Total hiking is about 6 miles and approximately 3-3.5 hours.  There is no fee for this park.

For those interested, we can have lunch in downtown Historic Petersburg, VA. (Trapezium Brewing Co or Saucy’s Sit-Down BBQ are just a couple).

Bring some water and a snack. And comfortable walking shoes. And bug spray for ticks.