Usually I start the year with a new year's day hike, but this year my day was spent on an airplane. My first real hike was a modest one, a restart after a few weeks of minimal hiking and walking. For this, I chose to travel well-worn trails at Black Hill Regional Park.
The weather was cold, high 20s, but it felt colder due to strong winds, and a light dusting of snow made it look more wintry. Few people were out.
The most interesting sight was this road, being built across the park entrance on Old Baltimore Road. The Field Crest Spur trail comes right out to the edge of OBR, but it is not a safe place to cross. There is only one pedestrian crossing of Old Baltimore, farther west, and the road in between does not consistently have walkable shoulders. West of that crossing there are sidewalks - but you can't get from the sidewalks to the trail. It would be nice if they found some way to link the park to the increasing number of homes built just to the north.
(Okay - sure, there is one other crossing of OBR 2.5 miles west of Field Crest Spur - but you can't get there from those houses, either.)
Aside from this, the hike was a pleasant jaunt in the cold. It came in just shy of 6 miles, with the usual sub-100 feet per mile elevation gain of the area.
