Scouting Goose Creek, A Potomac River Tributary

Goose Creek is a 50+ mile tributary of the Potomac River that meanders through Fauquier and Loudoun Counties in Virginia. It serves as principle drainage for the Loudoun Valley -- bordered to the east by Catoctin Mountain and Bull Run Mountains and to the west by the Blue Ridge Mountains and Mt Weather.

Evidence exists on the Internet of varying sections of the creek being paddled. This HOA forum post, published in 2014, provided the impetus for investigating further. The OP describes several locations they had paddled, Goose Creek being among them. Always in search of good creeks to paddle, my interest is now piqued.

Surely, there's a fair chance something might turn up on YouTube, right?

Booyah! These videos -- posted in 2011, 14, and 15 respectively -- show people kayaking on Goose Creek:

Back to the forum post where a reference to this blog post is made. Read the blog post, published in 2009, and it describes a trip from Goose Creek Stone Bridge presumably to the Rt. 626 bridge. It sounds like a winner. A new trip to scout.

An illustration identifying the put-in and take-out locations at Stone Bridge and Rt 626 bridge respectively.

I set out to plan a kayaking trip and, like always, scouted the area via Google Maps first. The creek absolutely looks paddle-able (?). The put-in and take-out appear -- at least from satellite view -- to have reasonable access. More on this below.

This is where "Paddler's Access Network" is discovered. This is a program by the Monocacy Canoe Club to publish paddling advisories for area paddlers. It track(s/ed)? water access at various locations in the Potomac watershed as well as others in the mid-Atlantic region of the US. Goose Creek is included in their list, which tracks water, location, accessibility, and additional notes and advisories. The stone bridge turns up with an advisory apparently dated August 2004 asserting "Some big money has closed the road to the bridge from the east end and probably donated the west side for a historical site".

Well, I don't know about all that, but it certainly was not apparent that putting-in or taking-out at this location is easy, if possible. In my estimation -- after having physically scouted the location -- the advisory is correct about it's physical status. Consider this access no longer. It's unclear if the above assertion is supported, but my plans must now be altered.

So -- due largely because of information on PAN -- I never made it out to the prospective take-out and instead checked Evergreen Mills Rd and Watson Rd. The linked advisory concerning this location was also correct as there was only enough space for 4 vehicles in the first location on Watson Rd. There were already 4 there though one would leave within a few minutes. Putting-in and taking-out here can be done, but will prove difficult as described in the advisory. The location across the creek, accessible from Evergreen Mills Rd via a gravel drive immediately on the other side of the bridge, which was currently in use, can be occupied by multiple vehicles. The road is more dirt than gravel and is prone to rutting. This may or may not provide more suitable put-in or take-out. It was not posted and a PAN advisory documents the land owners permission to use.

I had hoped to gain enough information to form plans to take the trip this weekend, but ambiguity warrants further research. So, more scouting posts are on the horizon as the feasibility of paddling this creek is assessed.

In summary, Watson & Evergreen Mills offered prospective put-in and take-out access that would be difficult to manage while stone bridge access was non-existent. The Rt 626 bridge recon has been deferred.

UPDATE: July 11, 2018

Bing Garthright, PAN's organizer, confirms the information should only be considered current as of 2004. This post serves as an update for these particular sites found on PAN's website and finds the original description continues to apply with exception to the landowner's permission to use at the Evergreen Mills location.

UPDATE: May 30, 2020

Both access points around Evergreen Mills and Watson are closed to public use.

Published: July 10, 2018

Disclaimer: The information presented here represents my personal observations and may be inaccurate. All paddlers are responsible for exercising appropriate judgement on their own part. "Most private owners and organizations never invite paddlers to use their land. Many are kind enough to tolerate it. Just as we paddle at our own risk, we use advisories, parking spaces, and access sites at our own risk." --Paddler's Access Network.