Making Hoyles Mill almost a loop

Sunday had beautiful weather, although I wasn't really in the mood to hike. Still, I needed to train, so I stayed pretty local and did a loop across Black Hill, down Hoyles Mill, to the Soccerplex.

Hoyles Mill Trail loops to the south of the Soccerplex and terminates at Schaeffer Farm, but instead I cut across the park into the neighborhoods. From there, it would have been feasible to close the loop, but it would have been open (and boring) sidewalks past houses. I opted to get a ride home instead.

The Hoyles Mill Trail is rather disjointed. From north to south, it's trail, roadwalk, trail, roadwalk with a crossing, trail, short and safe roadwalk, really pretty trail, paved Soccerplex connectors, and a last bit of dirt trail. The nicest part (which I do least often) is the bit in the middle. This section is an old one-lane road. The northern bits of trail are nice too because of lake views.

I hiked 11.5 miles total, with minimal elevation gain.

Trail work off the trail

Our trail work this past weekend was not actually on a trail, but helping to build a shed to store trail work tools. Mostly, I nailed things.

We did not finish the project that day, but here it is as we left it:

Not quite end-to-end on the Seneca Greenway

I intended to do a 25-mile hike, similar in difficulty to the C&O, as a training hike. The Seneca Greenway at 24.2 miles is almost long enough; you could easily add a bit on the C&O at the end. But a second problem is that there isn't really parking at the northern trailhead. So instead I added on the shortest possible bit of the Magruder Trail, which feeds into the north end of the greenway. The total would have been just over 26 miles.

However, I didn't make it to the end but stopped after 20 miles. Primarily, this was because I probably couldn't make it to my car before dark - and certainly I would have not gotten back to my vehicle at the start before it got dark and started pouring rain. In hindsight, I should have started earlier and not wasted daylight.

Then again, the Seneca Greenway is a little harder than the C&O. Maps show pretty insignificant elevation gain, but there are more tiny dips and rises that probably don't get counted. It's not hard, but you can't eat up the miles like you can on the C&O. (Note: To me, "greenway" implies "paved" - it is not.) My pace was definitely slower.

So that's what this hike wasn't. What about what it was?

This trail is one of several that allows you to follow a creek from somewhere in Montgomery County to the Potomac. There is also Rock Creek and Cabin John. Of the three, this is the most remote from houses. It is therefore reasonably scenic and mostly in the woods. The section from Riffle Ford to Germantown is an exception; plenty remote, but in open fields and in many cases along power lines. That section would not be great on hot days. 

Overall, it offered variety and at least as much scenic power as I expected.

Note that there are no restrooms at any trailheads, except at the southern terminus at Riley's Lock. Where it crosses Frederick Avenue, there are businesses a couple of blocks away. Otherwise, prepare to use the trees.

Trail work is back

Our trail crews have started back up for the season, and while T and I missed the first Rock Creek day, we couldn't miss opening day for the Old Line Crew at Monocacy.

Most of our work was focused on covering over a culvert, but we also sawed a blowdown, trimmed a few invasives, and planned for the next trip.

W&OD training hike

I finally had the chance to join the Sierra Club for a training hike for the upcoming One Day Hike. This one was on the W&OD trail, starting in Ashburn and going as far west as one pleased up to Purcellville, then back. For me that was 20 miles, 10 each way.

The W&OD is best known as a bike path, with its suburban eastern end and more green western end. The section we did was mostly a thin green corridor. At first, there were high-tension power lines overhead, as I know from experience there also are at the far eastern end. Eventually, the trail diverges from them. It passes through Leesburg, then heads into the countryside.

Since it's a paved greenway, well, it's hard in one very literal sense. Gravel bridle trails run parallel to much of it, and I preferred those on the way back. But the trail is flat, so it's easy in that sense. Still, the miles do add up.

I could see myself doing the final leg to Purcellville some day, but it wasn't an interesting enough trail to redo this section.

C&O end-to-end, miles 27-36

As I follow the C&O Canal Towpath headed northwest, I've also been following the seasons. Mile 0 started in packed snow. Later hikes had small spots of green. The latest one was carpeted in wildflowers, including bluebells a few days short of peak. 

The weather was misty gray, with occasional mild showers, keeping traffic down. This was also a section with fewer highlights - one lockhouse, no waterfalls, no impressive aqueducts - so somewhat less popular than sections at either end of it. The sheer number of wildflowers made up for any charsimatic megascenery, however. 

I started at Sycamore Landing, which is nothing but a parking lot, bench, and kayak launch. From there, it was almost nine miles to White's Ferry. Some day the ferry may be operational again, but for now there is a store/restaurant and multiple port-a-potties. Here I turned around and headed back.

This section was just under 9 miles one-way, 18 round-trip. However, I lost an earring on the trail and backtracked looking for it (unsuccessfully), adding on unnecessary extra mileage. This was my first 20 mile hike in ... er, since spring 2019, when I did the Ramapo-Dunderberg End-to-End. I've spent 2024 and 2025 getting myself back in shape for long hikes. Admittedly, I've been training for long but flat hikes - the RD is hillier, with 6,000 feet of elevation gain. 

Just another local trot

My hike plans for Sunday were disrupted by a lag bolt through a car tire, so after a morning of yard work I set out in the 82-degree weather to do a hike around Black Hill. 

The weather has been very up and down, and I am not acclimated to that kind of temperature yet. That plus yardwork meant I kept the hike down to 6.5 miles.

The highlight of the hike was an area with a lot of different daffodils planted, and each spring it's fun to see what has come up.