Purdum and Lewisdale

This past weekend I did another hike of some new-to-me trails in Little Bennett. Both are ones that start at the edge of the park, only connecting to other trails about a mile in.

I started at the Purdum Trail, which runs north-south most of the park's length. The southern portion is great for connecting loops. The northern part is not, but it is a pleasant enough journey. From there I got onto Browning Run, a segment I have done a few times. Then, finally, I did the Lewisdale Trail. It ends at a horse trailer parking area - not a place I would like to park a car. This trail feels like it was farmland somewhat recently; it is quite open and would be hot in summer.

Then, I did the same thing back to the car, for a round-trip of six miles.

Upper Rock Creek

I've been idly planning to do a series of hikes following Rock Creek from its source to the Potomac. I finally did the first of these earlier this month.

The creek starts just north of Laytonsville Golf Course, then flows through some residential neighborhoods. It then runs through the Agricultural History Park. I have no intention of playing the course, ever, but I probably should go back at some point and follow the creek through the neighborhood and into the park, just for completeness. But on this hike, I started in the Ag History Park and followed the stream south to the southern end of Needwood Lake.

A lot of this hike is parallel to - but not close to - Rock Creek. It is often out of sight. It is also a trail that is primarily used by cyclists. As always, people share the trail nicely as long as you stay alert. There are two road crossings as well that demand attentiveness.

Once the trail hits Lake Needwood, it changes dramatically. Here the creek is dammed to form the lake, and the trail follows its edge. It is also pedestrian-only and very heavily trafficked. I chose to follow the eastern side of the lake, then round back up the west side before retracing my steps back to the start of my hike.

At the southern tip of the lake, the trail turns into a paved greenway for 14 miles to the DC border. Most likely, I will wait until cool weather to do this (or at least an overcast day). Then, of course, it heads into Rock Creek Park. South of the zoo, it follows a narrow green corridor to the Potomac. The trail itself continues past the creek to end at the Lincoln Memorial.

My hike was 11 miles, but since it was an out-and back, I only covered about five miles of creek.

Bluebell season

It's bluebell season, so we went down to Bull Run Regional Park to see the Bluebell Trail in bloom. This hike was on the shorter and easier side - but the views were great.

There are lots of places locally to see Virginia bluebells; this one is very popular because the name makes it obvious what you are in for. It's also entirely flat, with the biggest challenge being mud from rain. So no solitude, although we didn't expect it.

Around Manassas Battlefield

I wanted a longer, but not too hilly, hike, someplace I had never been, but not too far away - and a loop, not an out and back. I managed all that at Manassas National Battlefield.

Battlefields aren't really my thing, which was why I hadn't made an effort to go before. I am not likely to go again, either, but it was reasonably nice. It's definitely not a place I would visit in summer; much of it is, unsurprisingly, open field, and the sun would be intense.

Luckily, it was sunny but cold. I chose to do the First and Second Manassass loops, going clockwise from the Visitor's Center, and a short loop to a historic house near the visitor's center. Both of these loops go in and out of fields and woods.

Notable points include a bridge closed on the First loop (you probably could cross it, but I took the horse ford), Stone Bridge, a stretch along Bull Run where the bluebells were starting to come out and the section around the Unfinished Railroad. If you want to see cannons, there are plenty of those too.

The hike came out to almost 11 miles, with about 650 feet of elevation gain. 

Cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin

The cherry blossoms peaked unusually early this year, so I took a quiet day off of work and we went down to the Tidal Basin to see them.

So, first thing - there are lots of other places to see cherry blossoms. Many of them are in the DC area. And DC does not have a monopoly on them (even assuming we are talking about the U.S.) - I used to really enjoy seeing the trees come into bloom along Riverside Park, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has a fantastic section. However, DC offers the chance to see them alongside iconic monuments, which is half the appeal. Admittedly, it does also offer crowds.

Which were somewhat ameliorated by it being a cold, blustery weekday - the temperature was in the low 40s. We also got there relatively early; there was still plenty of parking. (We were sensible and took the train in.)

Stumpy, we're gonna miss ya!

Dark Branch and Windy Ridge

The weather was nice, so I headed up to Little Bennett to explore some new trails. I started by looping around Dark Branch, then taking Pine Grove to Western Piedmont. After a brief bump on Wim's Meadow, I made a loop of Windy Ridge and Browning Run, then returned via Western Piedmont and Pine Grove.

The entire loop was just short of six miles. It's a pleasant hike, but not one with magnificent views or stunning waterfalls.

Froggy Hollow and Hard Cider

This hike traveled two trails new to me, plus some familiar ones, but all in an area I already knew, the southeast corner of Little Bennett. 

From the Froggy Hollow trailhead, I followed the Froggy Hollow trail all the way to the road, then back to the schoolhouse. I then used the Hard Cider to return to Clarksburg Road. From there, it would be roadwalking to Froggy Hollow, not something you want to do. I used the Kingsley Trail to loop back to the schoolhouse. Then, to get more miles, it was up the Purdum trail to its intersection with Browning Run. Then back down it, and back down Froggy Hollow to the car. 

While it sounds complicated, it was only 5.5 miles total.

Back on the C&O

T and I met up with friends to do a hike at the Carderock area. We ended up going west on the C&O to Great Falls, then back.

This meant exploring the detour I had skipped last time. It was a higher-quality trail than I expected - not just shuffling along the shoulder of a road. It was decently fenced off, and well graded. 

We then returned to the C&O until Great Falls. At the falls itself, the water was high, and well worth the trip to the overlook. 

We followed the same route back, doing a little over 8 mile total.

Last bit of Ten Mile Creek Trail

I had hiked nearly all of the Ten Mile Creek Trail, except for maybe a quarter mile in the middle. So last weekend I did a six-mile round-trip to get it.

There is nothing particularly special about that bit, just south of the Osprey Heights trail, but it's a nice trail overall. 

Unusally, because of the weather, there were no bikes out. In fact, I saw no one on my way out. (I didn't even get started that early - it was 9:45!)

Trek on the west side of the Black Hill park

For a long hike in February, I wanted to explore the new-ish Danger Noodle Trail. It starts in the northwest corner of Black Hill Regional Park, and it is designed primarily for cyclists.

I started at the Cool Spring trailhead and headed downhill. After connecting briefly to the Ten Mile Creek trail, I chose to follow the northern side of the Danger Noodle loop west. This is a pleasant little section on top of a ridge, with modest views of the valley below. In summer, these would be obscured by leaves. 

From there, I took the Jewelweed connector to the Whistle Pig loop, which circumnavigates a cornfield. Yes, I chose the shortest side, since it's not an interesting trail. Then I took the Bucklodge trail around the conservation area. When visiting a year ago, I said it was not a very interesting loop, and I stand by it. There is nothing bad about it - if you want to want around in a mostly flat circle* in the woods, it is there for you. But it's also, well, a flat circle in the woods.

I returned via the same side of Whistle Pig, then Jewelweed, then the south side of Danger Noodle. A good portion of this is close to some houses, and there is a lot of litter and trash in that section. It could benefit from a cleanup. As it travels east, it goes back into the woods and is cleaner.

I finished up via the Ten Mile Creek and Cool Spring trails, for a total of ten miles.

It was a nice hike for a local training hike - it's not one I would recommend traveling great distances to do. I was primarily intrigued by the idea of connecting these trails together. Bucklodge is as far as you can go with that; it has a couple of small connectors to streets around it, but that's it.

*That's topographically, not geometrically.

Gravel turnpikes

This weekend was forecast to be solid rain, but Sunday ended up giving us a break. Of course, the previous night's rain on top of previous rain on top of snowmelt meant everything was wet, wet, wet. I opted to take advantage of the weather without tromping through the mud by heading over to Little Bennett Regional Park, where a couple of old gravel roads make for reasonably dry hiking.

My plan was to do the Western Piedmont Trail, round-trip, but it was shorter than I thought. Thus, I added on Prescott Road and part of the Kingsley Trail. As old roads, these are probably the flattest trails in the park.

With the water very high, I was glad for stout bridges - there were no wet stream crossings. And the trails themselves were damp, but generally not muddy.

10 miles in the snow

I am trying to up my mileage and endurance this year to what it used to be, so one of my goals is to do at least one hike of 10 or more miles each month. For January, that ended up meaning doing 10 miles in the snow. The roads were clear at that point, so I chose a hike that was nice and flat - the C&O Canal from Great Falls.

I intended to go east towards DC for five miles, then turn around. A few miles in, though, I hit a detour and turned around. Back at the start, I went west, which was less traveled. I looped back on the River Trail - not flat but well worth it for the views of the icy Potomac. However, I still ended up having to kill about a mile by touring around the parking lot and visitor's center. Full disclosure, I was wiped out!

But it was a beautiful hike and worth seeing in the snow.

Last hike of the year

On the last day of the year, T and I drove to Monocacy Battlefield for a short loop hike on the Worthington Ford Trail. This was our final hike for Hike with PATC in 2023. 

This was my second time there. Neither of us are Civil War buffs, and the hike itself is not more interesting on its own than similar forests and fields near our house, but it's still a pleasant little walk. It's mostly flat, so it's an easy hike.