[at-l] Doesn't anyone hike anymore?

[spiriteagle99 at hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

FWIW - we had a lovely hike today along Seneca Creek in Maryland, a few 
miles outside DC.  It is one of those trails that make me think that the 
local government occasionally gets a good idea:  along many of the suburban 
watercourses, there are lovely hiking trails, as well as a few bike trails, 
that have been allowed to remain undeveloped.  I know several trails in 
Montgomery County that are very nice for an afternoon hike - but this has 
been a very fortunate discovery. We only started hiking on it a few months 
ago, after reading about it in a local trail guide. On those weekend 
afternoons when we just want to hike a few miles and don't want to drive two 
or three hours to get there, it is nice to find something relatively close. 
They are still building the trail, but so far it stretches about 25 miles 
from the Potomac River (and C&O Canal) eastward.  It just rambles along the 
creek and along the hillside above the creek.  Parts feel remote, though as 
you pass under I-270 and near the park by the rifle range, you get the 
feeling that maybe you aren't really in the country ;-)  About like the AT, 
really, though the trail is much narrower and less used.  Still, we have 
seen lots of deer, turtles (including an enormous snapping turtle one time), 
signs of beaver, birds of all kinds, squirrels and chipmunks and  
groundhogs.  We have been doing out and back hikes, which means that we 
still have a couple of weekends before we will have hiked the whole trail, 
and by then, the next sections will be built and we can keep going.  
Although we usually don't see many people, today we ended up hiking for 3 
miles with a woman who is planning an AT thruhike in 2006. It was fun for 
us, talking trail with someone who is in the dreamer stage.
Ginny

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