Brian Price Jerry O'Brien buckles his moutain bike shoes before leaving for a lap around the mountain bike trail at Fountainhead Regional Park in Fairfax Station.

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Brian Price Todd Mader, owner of the Bike Lane bike shops in Springfield and Reston, begins a lap of the mountain bike trail at Fontainhead Regional Park on Sunday.
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Brian Price Kim O'Brien, of Potomac Falls, watches as husband Jerry clamps down the quick release on her bike before a ride at Fountainhead Regional Park on Sunday.
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Brian Price Falls Church resident Pete Beers traverses a section of the mountain bike trail at Fountainhead Regional Park on Sunday. Beers has been riding mountain bikes in this location since 1989, long before the dedicated mountain bike trail was built.

Brian Price Jerry O'Brien buckles his moutain bike shoes before leaving for a lap around the mountain bike trail at Fountainhead Regional Park in Fairfax Station.

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While there are plenty of places for mountain bikers to take to the trails in the Washingotn, D.C. area, one of the most popular destinations for bike enthusiasts is Fountainhead Park, where on any given weekend you can find hundreds of bikers taking a turn on the challenging course.

“It’s the only mountain biking trail in the area where hikers and horseback riders aren’t allowed, so it’s the ultimate destination if you live in our area,” said Centreville’s Mark Harris, an adventure racer who has been riding Fountainhead since 2006. “It’s very technical and constantly changing up and down over short distances, so it really challenges even the best of the riders.”

Fountainhead’s original legacy trail was a combination of hiking trails and old deer trails, but in 1995, those trails plus an additional two miles of fresh-cut single track were inter-connected to form a five-mile loop. Today, the trail consists of more than seven miles of loops and track.

“This course is considered one of the more challenging courses in the area and I think that’s why a lot of mountain bikers like it,” says Kate Irwin, a park ranger at Fountainhead, a 2,150-acre regional park in Fairfax Station that abuts the Occoquan Reservoir. “It’s also very wooded, and almost remote, so you aren’t going to see anything other than nature while you are riding and I think that’s a big attraction.”

The trails open at 6 a.m. each day and the park allows riders to begin hitting the tracks as late as 7:15 p.m. All bikers must wear a helmet.

“This place sort of has its own mystique amongst the other options in the area. It’s positioned around a lake that offers a nice setting to take a breather, drink some fluids and have a Clif bar,” said Jeff Howard, a 27-year-old mountain biker from the D.C. area who has been riding Fountainhead for the past two years. “It’s one of those places that will definitely get your skills up and it’s one of the toughest in the area.”

As owner of The Bike Lane, with shops in Reston and Springfield, Anne Mader is well integrated in the mountain biking world, and has been riding for 14 years.

“Fountainhead was one of the first trails I rode when I first got into mountain biking and I think it had just opened,” she said. “It’s a very unique trail system because it’s for mountain biking only so when you go, it’s a one-directional route system and it’s very technical for a trail in such an urban area. It’s the only one available near here without having to drive more than an hour.”

The course is fairly long at almost eight miles, so it’s a good looped system where mountain bikers can feel like they will get a good workout and get a challenging experience at the same time.

“Some other mountain bike trails are smooth and you don’t have to work as hard. Here is continuous resistance and you are always trying to overcome something on every pedal,” Howard said. “Over an hour and 20 minutes my heart rate monitor indicated I burned 1,650 calories, more than I’ve ever burned on other trails.”

Each year, Jim Harman of ex2adventures in Fairfax oversees the Cranky Monkey Mountain Bike Series, which held its first leg of its ninth year last weekend in Wakefield Park. On Aug. 6, riders will race the Schaeffer Farms Trail System in Germantown, Md., before racing the last leg of the race at Fountainhead Regional Park on Aug. 22.

“Fountainhead has a great trail network, specifically a mountain-bike specific network, and it’s only getting better,” Harman said. “It’s really challenging and I think what attracts a lot of riders is that it’s not just this ride around a lake. It’s real technical terrain, deep descents, steep ascents, rocky, rooty — things that will make you have to focus on what you’re doing, or you will be in trouble.”

In December, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and the Fountainhead Mountain Bike Trail system were awarded a Recreational Trail Program grant in the amount of $100,000 from the Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation.

Mader was a big part of The Fountainhead Project, having written the grant, which also came with $25,000 in matching funds to go toward renovating the trails.

“The idea is to rehab the trail system so it’s sustainable and also make it better for the environment. With that idea, we are putting in a stacked loop system,” Mader said. “The first part will be a green loop that’s more ... beginner friendly, a blue loop will be for intermediate riders and a black loop will be for the advanced riders.”

NVRPA is sponsoring the grant, while partnering with Mid Atlantic Off Road Enthusiasts Inc. to implement the trail enhancement project.

“There has been a big push to improve the trails and a lot of money and volunteer effort has been put into improving the trails and making them more sustainable from erosion and overuse,” Harman said. “The grant money will help open it up to people who don’t have the technical skills or ability to do the more difficult terrain and there will be a wider user base.”

Phase one will involve Jack Rabbit Run, a long ridge top downhill trail that does not take advantage of any of the surrounding side slope. The enhanced trail will shift the existing tread from the fall line to the sides with slope and include banked turns and whoops for a fast and swoopy trail ride experience.

Another phase concerns the infamous “Shock-a-Billy,” which is a fairly steep downhill in the middle of the trail that forces many riders to walk their bikes down the path. The renovations will create a new alternate trail while leaving the original descent for those up for the challenge.

“It’s fairly steep and extremely challenging and a lot of fun,” Mader said. “A lot of people use it as a measure of how much they have advanced in the sport and beginners can use it to set a goal for themselves.”

With work expected to be completed in the next two years, Fountainhead should remain the go-to place for mountain biking for years to come.