A loop in Rock Creek

We actually spend more time doing trail maintenance in Rock Creek than hiking it, so for the "other national park" hike as part of Hike with PATC in 2023, we went down to Rock Creek. Our loop started at the Nature Center and went clockwise, for a little over five miles. 

On the western side of the park, we started off at Fort Russy, which we have visited before, and then return to the outer loop, spending time on paved trails. Since we never do trail work on paved trails, that section was new to us. We then crossed over to the Valley Trail. Personally, I enjoy the valley trail, since it follows the creek. We then crossed back over, returning to the Nature Center. 

We enjoyed nice weather, and a chance to get out without carrying any tools!

Patapsco Valley State Park

Patapsco Valley State Park is a heavily used park on the edge of Baltimore. T had been there before, but not I, so we decided to visit it for Hike with PATC 2023 as our other state park.

The one really unusual thing is that is has a large network of unofficial, unmaintained trails that the park administration is fine with. Usually, parks try to close down most or all unofficial trails. But Patapsco says right on their website that, "We have over 200 miles of trails, with 70 of those miles identified as maintained trails." 

In practice, this meant that signs and blazes were very inconsistent, so we did a lot of route-checking as we went along.

We set out to do a loop from one of the PATC hiking guides, but we got a late start to our day and did a truncated version. After parking at the Orange Grove area, we crossed the swinging bridge and did a loop on the other side of the Patapso River. It was a pretty hike, and it's definitely a park I'd like to go back to.

Cool Springs Run loops

I'm slowly getting to know all the trails in Black Hill Regional Park. The eastern portion is right on the edges of neighborhoods, with lots of entrances; the center has a lot of park infrastructure, like picnic pavilions and boat rentals. The western section has only natural-surface paths and a more remote in feeling than some of the other parts of the park.

The Cool Spring Run section is in the northwest corner. From the parking by the side of the road, the trail heads downhill towards the lake, and from there roughly follows the shore all the way the the southern end of the lake. Along the way, though, there are several loop trails. While Cool Spring Run is used more by cyclists than pedestrians, some of the loops see very little traffic. This was made immediately clear by how crunchy with leaves various segments were!

My most recent hike was 7.5 miles, and while there are no big hills, total elevation gain was close to 900 feet. I started pretty early in the morning, while fog was still rising off the lake. It had cleared off by the time I returned to my car.

Into the Paw Paw Tunnel

As part of the Hike with PATC 2023 challenge, we visited a rather distinctive part of the C&O Canal - the recently reopened Paw Paw Tunnel.

This tunnel was built in a spot where the Potomac is quite sinuous and the hills are tall, so it was easier to tunnel through than going around. The NPS had closed this tunnel for some repairs, but it re-opened this fall.

We hiked from the nearest parking lot, through the tunnel to a campsite by the river, and back. There are alternative overland trails, if you prefer not to double back. As we did it, the hike was relatively short, and very flat.

Another loop in Little Bennett Park

I returned to Little Bennett Park to the second loop from the PATC Part A book, one that focuses on the southern portion of the park. It first does a loop east of Clarksburg Road, then a loop to the west. The eastern loop was more interesting, in my opinion, but it's solid exercise in both halves - 8.5 miles with 1,000 feet of elevation.

The schoolhouse, which is pretty close to the road, is one of the highlights.

A short section near the campground was set up as a Halloween attraction.