Arlington Eagle Scout candidates step up to restore trails at Potomac Overlook Park

Three Arlington scouts just wrapped up a series of heavy-duty trail restoration projects at Potomac Overlook Regional Park .

Sam Cruley, Michael Corso and Nicholas Fletcher — Eagle Scout candidates and long-time members of Arlington-based Boy Scout Troop 111 — spearheaded the efforts to combat erosion and upgrade some of the park’s popular walking trails.

The teens, all juniors at Gonzaga College High School in D.C., told ARLnow that they focused their Eagle Scout projects on Potomac Overlook Park because of their troop’s long history of fixing up the recreation area, as well as their personal connection to it.

For many Arlington scouts, Cruley said, the park was “a big part of their childhood.”

“Everyone in the troop grew up in the Arlington area, so everyone’s been to Potomac Overlook Park,” he said. “It’s just a place to go, whether to use the tennis courts, the basketball courts, or just walk around the trails.”

Robert Klein, a leader with Troop 111 since 1988, said the point of an Eagle Scout project is to teach leadership and service through authentic, hands-on community work.

“Boy scouting, in the end, is not just a camping program. It’s actually a leadership development program,” Klein said.

He noted that Troop 111’s work at Potomac Overlook Park started before he became a scout leader. Keeping the trails in good shape is a constant battle, he said, especially given the park’s location in a watershed.

For each project, Cruley, Corso, and Fletcher recruited dozens of volunteers, both scouts and non-scouts, to assist with the work.

Cruley’s project focused on addressing water erosion issues on one of the park’s main hiking areas, Overlook Loop Trail. He installed railroad ties and gravel to help slow down the flow of water and prevent further trail degradation.

Corso, meanwhile, took on the nearby Heritage Loop Trail. He constructed a bypass around a section of trail that had become unusable due to severe erosion, creating a new route for hikers.

Finally, Fletcher installed railroad ties and water bars to divert runoff away from trails and into a nearby creek, helping to protect paths from future damage.

Klein notes that many aspects of this kind of work — like hauling 200-pound railroad ties — demand both leadership and coordination.

“This is not for 10- and 11-year-old boys,” Klein said. “This is for high school juniors and seniors.”

The troop has been conducting restoration work at Overlook Loop Trail alone for about three years. Altogether, almost 100 scouts and non-scouts — mainly students from Gonzaga, Yorktown and Washington-Liberty High Schools — have put in roughly 1,300 hours of work.

Though physical work on the projects is complete, the scouts still have paperwork to finish, including detailed reports and photographs, before they can officially earn their Eagle Scout rank. Once completed, they will present their work to a Board of Review, which will determine whether their projects meet the requirements for the prestigious title.

“I don’t think the work is ever truly done at Overlook,” Cruley said. “There’s always stuff that can be improved on, but we’ve completed all the work we’ve planned on doing for our projects.”