Mountain Bike Bill, Get the Dirt on the Dirt

Harwood Mills Park, Newport News VA

Harwood Mills Park located near Newport News is a fairly sizable park that offers three one-way loops that combined are a little over 8 miles of singletrack near the western edge of the Harwood Mills Reservoir. While there is little in the way of elevation change, the trail designers did a really good job of using what was there and created a good trail experience. Combine these with some of the connector forest roads in the area and you could rack up some mileage.
 
Directions: From the Newport News area on I-64 take exit 258 for US17 North. Take US17 for 4 miles and then turn left on Oriana Road. After a few miles you will Cross over the reservoir and turn left into the parking lot. The trailhead is 50 yards up the road you came in on and across the street.
 

Harwood Mills ParkMap: This is not really much of a map, but here is a mashup of a topo map and an aerial photo of the area.

Data Files from the ride: GPX, GDB, KML, TOPO

 
 
Ride Report:
Harwood Mills ParkHarwood Mills ParkThere are three loops in the Harwood Mills Park trail system: Novice, Advanced, and Expert. If you want to get any sizable mileage in out here you will need to do them all and maybe grab a second loop on one or all three of them. The trail system is laid out very nicely. From the the trailhead ride along the trail that is in the road right-of-way for about 50 yards and then cross the road. The Novice Loop is right there.
 
Harwood Mills ParkHarwood Mills ParkWhile this may be a novice loop it is still singletrack and it has enough mild undulations and turns to keep things fun, particularly if you try to go as fast as you possibly can. Once again I was digging the east coast greenery. The Novice Loop is about 2.5 miles long and it brings you out onto forest road near the intersection with a power line service road. There is a sign showing the forest road to the left takes you back to the trailhead. If you look down the power line service road you will see a sign point to the advanced trail loop. Follow the sign and you will soon hang a right onto another forest road that goes under the power lines and continues to the west.
 

Harwood Mills ParkHarwood Mills ParkAfter about half a mile you will see a singletrack heading off to the right and it is signed "Advanced". For most avid and experienced riders you will need to suspend your normal definition of "Advanced and Expert" The rating system here is different. The general thought I was able to gather from some of the locals is these ratings are from the perspective of a brand new mountain biker as well it represents how skilled you have to be to ride really fast on the trail.

 
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The Advanced Loop was much more twisting than the Novice loop and like the normal them that I had seen in the area, made good use of the available terrain. There was also a bit more roots on this trail which nothing too demanding.
 
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Harwood Mills ParkHarwood Mills ParkThere was a log features that was quite fun that involved a small ramp up and two stump steps down. It was fun to do it backwards as well. The Advanced Loop also went closer down to the lake than the other loops which was a nice bit of scenery. This loop was about two miles long and it brought you out on the same forest road you turned off of earlier at this start of this loop, except you are further down the road about 1/3rd of a mile.

 
 
Harwood Mills ParkHarwood Mills ParkWhere you come out on the forest road, there is signage to show you the way back to the parking lot, but there are no signs for the expert loop. If you look to the right you will see that the forest road continues on past a creek and the road then bends to the right while another (non-graveled) forest road continues straight. Hang a right and go over the creek and then continue straight on the non-graveled fireroad straight ahead. After about 300 yards or so you will see the signed Expert Loop going off to the right. Take this trail.
 
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The Expert Loop in my opinion is less challenging than the Advanced Loop from a technical perspective. This trail is much more twisting than the Advanced trail and requires much more effort and skill to maintain the same kind of speed you could carry on the Advanced Loop. Either way, I had fun on this trail. When you come off the Expert Loop you are near the Denbigh Blvd (Hwy 173). If you cross over the road there is a network of forest roads that go on for quite a ways. I only explored a little bit of them.