4M Mod Pace/Women's Suffrage Memorial-Burns Museum/Scenic Occoquan River Loop

Weather: bit.ly/4kj2zJV

This walk is an ongoing, monthly recognition of the women suffragists' dedicated perseverance in pursuing their pivotal protest to get the right to vote. Their Lorton imprisonment and the horrific torture they suffered was largely due to their simply protesting outside the White House.

We’ll congregate in the workhouse's farthest south parking lot just beyond the Workhouse Arts Center's Visitors' building, with colocated restroom. Stay on Workhouse Way, bypassing the first parking lot until you see your guide's small grey suv with our US-HBC sign displayed on the windshield.
https://www.workhousearts.org/visitor-information
9518 Workhouse Way, Lorton, VA 2207

Our walk route will end at the Suffragist Lucy Burns Museum, building W-2, open 11-6pm in the southeast corner of the arts center. It's a one-minute walk away from our parked vehicles. You may also want to visit the other co-located art center buildings. Plus the now repurposed for retail main Lorton Prison Yard or Brickmakers Cafe at Occoquan Regional Park. The cafe is located next to the kiln that was used by prisoners to make the bricks that built the infamous Lorton Prison. Though it was envisioned by Theodore Roosevelt, and originally built, as a "work-house/farm" emphasizing rehabilitation: A model now used in some Scandinavian locales.
https://nvretail.com/liberty
https://www.novaparks.com/parks/brickmakers-cafe
https://suffragistmemorial.org/memorial-dedicated-may-16-2021/

We will strive to walk a 2.75 hour pace on this initial, 300' gain loop: The first mile of which we'll walk in silent remembrance. We'll utilize a lovely, pine-forested portion of the 40-mile Fairfax Cross County Trail (CCT) to reach the very scenic river view along the shoreline of the Occoquan Regional Park. Upon approaching the Suffragist Turning Point Memorial stop, we'll note the park’s Brickmaker’s Cafe’ location for your later reference. Then return to the CCT and Lucy Burns Museum, just beyond where your vehicles are parked.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/virginia/occoquan-regional-park-loop
https://www.novaparks.com/parks/brickmakers-cafe

Upon returning to the Workhouse Arts Center parking area and ending this first four-mile loop segment, some may choose to depart and others may visit the Lucy Burns Museum, open 11am-6pm, Saturdays. Though it’s generally “free of charge,” there is a $5 fee for an optional guided tour of a mock-up depiction of a suffragist prison cell. Some may chose to do another three miles including the quaint little town of Occoquan on the opposite side of the river.

The Occoquan Park's Brickmakers' Cafe’ is open 11am-5pm..
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Many of the nearby Laurel Hill former main prison ground buildings now comprise the repurposed Liberty Housing area. Perhaps, ask your host/interpretive guide what it was like to be “imprisoned” there, so to speak. Always, please ensure that you inform your guide upon ending your walk.

There are several restroom opportunities, starting with the Workhouse visitors' center close by the Lucy Burns Museum.

Manageable, maximum five-foot leashed dogs are welcome. Please keep your dog to the far side of you and avoid interaction with other dogs. It is important to drink fluids in any weather. Please wear well-broken-in, quality insert footwear. Using a hiking pole/walking stick is always wise though we will be walking on pavement, largely, and well-kept, hard-packed trails.

This monthly walk is personally dedicated to the memory of your guide's sentinel, Edwina Alverta Reeves: “A Girl of the Limberlost.” Who's your hero woman?