This Week's Highlight: WalkingTown, DC is a festival of more than 120 free walking tours (and some biking tours) across Washington, DC. On both Saturday and Sunday, there are a wide variety of walks, each with a theme. Topics include specific neighborhoods, DC and National history, architecture, graveyards, and an interfaith eco-tour, as well as natural areas such as the Anacostia River, Kingman Island, and various gardens. Reservations are required; some walks fill up.
Runner Up: We're hoping to go on the MD Native Plant Society hike to Buck Lodge Magnolia Bog in PG County: "Buck Lodge Park is a wooded park in the Paint Branch watershed that harbors many rare and uncommon plants, a diversity of habitats of the coastal plain, and high quality forest...Buck Lodge is one of the last remnants in the area of pristine oak-chestnut-heath forest and low-lying seepage forest, dominated by scarlet oak, chestnut oak, American holly, American chestnut, pines, mountain laurel, and evergreen groundcovers. Part of the park is a forested swamp with pin oak, sweetgum, and pitch pines. The bog contains Alnus serrulata, alder; Cypripedium acaule, pink lady's slipper orchid; and Saccharum giganteum, the sugarcane plumegrass." Contact linda_s_keenan@yahoo.com for directions.
MORE EVENTS:
K9 Trailblazers
Sun: Gunpowder Falls SP (5 mi)
Maryland Native Plant Society
Tue:monthly meeting: "Whither Potomac Wildness?"
Sat: Buck Lodge Magnolia Bog in PG County
Sierra Club
Sun: Hike part of the Inter-County Connector Route to see what will be lost when this road is built. (5 mi, moderately paced)
Sun: Fairfax Cross County Trail (7.5 mi)
Potomac Appalachian Trail Club
Many cabin and trail crew work trips.
Tue: Great Falls/Billy Goat Trail (15 mi)
Wed: Sugarloaf (5 mi, some carpool available)
Sat: Gunpowder Falls (north of Baltimore) with K9 Trailblazers
Sat: Tuscarora/Shockeys Knob (6 mi)
Sun: Wanderbirds 75th Anniversary. Potomac Heritage Trail (9.5-13.5 mi)
Audubon Naturalist Society
Wed: Caddisflies.
Sun: Geology in NW MoCo (4 mi).
Center Hiking Club
Sat: Great Falls (8 mi)
Sat: George Washington NF - Trout Pond (10 mi)
Sun: W&OD trail (4 mi)
Capital Hiking Club
Wed eve: Brookland neighborhood walk (4.5 mi, meets at metro)
Sat: Mt. Marshall/Big Devils Stairs to Skyline Drive (11.7 mi, bus available)
Washington Women Outdoors
Sat: Gunpowder Falls State Park (9.2 mi)
Rock Creek Park
Sat: Hike following the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt (ages 8+)
National Arboretum
Sat: hike through the Arboretum (5 mi)
The Nature Conservancy
Wed: early morning birding at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Sat: James River Days paddle along Four Mile Creek
Northern Virginia Hiking Club
Sat: Bird Knob (11 mi)
Sun: Lake Accotink (4 mi)
FOR KIDS:
Rock Creek Park
Fri: Creature Feature
Sat: Hike following the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt (ages 8+)
