Holiday three-day weekends like Labor Day are generally the perfect time to not travel, and (weather permitting) do lots of outdoor stuff at home while everyone else fights the traffic.
Started out the weekend with a 40 mile bike ride from home. While cycling past the Blue Mash trail parking lot, someone was standing there playing the bagpipes - not something you see/hear everything, not that I ever rued a day that lacked hearing bagpipes. (Are bagpipes, like pants, inherently plural??)
On Sunday, Carl and I did a 4.5 mile hike checking out the Gateway trail that starts at the eastern boundary of Catoctin Park on what is called the Lewis Property. This meant a few hundred feet more climbing to get up to Chimney Rock and Wolf Rock.
The parking area was near a 40 foot tree that was dropping fruit on our heads. I bit into one, it looked and tasted like a pear but I've never seen a pear tree that tall. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever seen a real pear tree - I don't think Bradford Pears count.
The Gateway trail goes through a variety of woodscapes. With all the rain there was a lot of shade and many colorful mushrooms and assorted fungi.
Speaking of fungi, despite years of protests, the state of Maryland is going ahead with the stoopid Purple Line light rail project from Bethesda. The good news is this will eventually mean some trail improvements along the Capital Crescent/Georgetown Branch trails. The double bad news is (1) the stretch of the two trails from Wisconsin Avenue to Silver Spring will be shut down for 4-5 years due to construction; and (2) the tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue and the Air Rights complex will never come back for biking. Labor Monday would be the last chance to bike this section for a long time so Carole and I (and many other people, it turned out) decided to ride the GBT/CCT.
The coolest part of this section is biking on the old railroad bridge over Rock Creek. I'm not sure how this will work after the stoopid Purple Line is built.
We did a twenty two mile round trip, stopping at Georgetown Harbor to watch planes descending to land at National Airport and the snack boat ply the Potomac River trying to sell refreshments to the many anchored large boats and the paddling kayakers. The trails on the way back were jammed with both holiday weekend bikers/walkers/strollers but also many others saying goodbye to the GBT for the foreseeable future.
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