Walking Hagerstown, Maryland

Filed In:

Walking

Walking with the Walrus

Hagerstown MD USA Volksmarch
Saturday August 15, 1998

by Kevin Shaw

The Piedmont Pacers put on their now annual event of an Oktoberfest walk in August, in conjunction with the City of Hagerstown's Augustoberfest . The start point for the walk was in the front of this giant tent on Potomac Street in downtown Hagerstown, which was the comfortable, protected home for this year's festivities.Fortunately this year the temperatures were around 80-85 in contrast to 100+ readings at last August's event. While still humid, the conditions were much more tolerable and helped swell the walking turnout of 110 last year to about 243 this year. For an additional discounted fee, volksmarchers could take in the great experience of this Augustoberfest after finishing the walk, with live German music and dancing and authentic food and drink from 11 AM till 9 PM.

Because I had plans to check out a newly opened outlet mall just south of town after the walk, and because I wasn't sure how warm and arid the trail would be, I kept my usual canine buddies at home for this walk. I think it was wise, as water really wasn't available for them until about 2/3 into the walk, and the outlet mall parking lot was a warm one without shade. The walk itself wasn't too hot for me for the most part, but clouds kept the sun from reaching full strength, and there definitely was some shade along this trail. There had been overnight rain and showers into the morning, but by the time I got there just before closing of the start table at 2 pm things had dried up.

As usual, the Piedmont Pacers had everything well organized, with free parking in the lot across the street, a start/finish table, and tables with upcoming brochures and other volksmarch information. They had trails with many distance options available i.e. 5, 6, 10 and 11 km. I opted for the 10 as opposed to my original thinking of doing the 6 km option. I was glad I did! The 6 and 11 km options were just the 5 and 10 km walks with an additional 1 km loop added through a cemetary near the end of the walk. The walk was rated 1+ as there were a few short, small hills, and some rough cobblestone sidewalks to walk on.

The trail started out heading north out of the old, historic downtown area on Potomac Street for a few kilometers.We gradually came into an old residential area, and made a few turns to complete this northern loop. A question about a store on the route took care of the unstaffed checkpoint for this part of the walk. We eventually returned to Potomac Street heading south, but turned at Church Street to head west briefly to pass through the Farmer's Market area. I was walking too late to experience this open air market in action, but I could imagine it was full of interesting sites and smells earlier in the day. I found this nicely kept up brick sidewalk, and helped out a man who was trying to run down his wayward ball rolling down the street. A few turns here in the downtown area, including travelling over a "Dry Bridge", We eventually started to leave the downtown are again, this time in a southwesterly direction.

A City Park at about the 6 km mark broke the pattern of city sidewalks and streets for our route. A large lake in the park was kept to my left per the instructions, but much of the lake was void of water, drying out in the hot summer sun into mud flats and very shallow separated small pools of water. Many waterfowl, including these huge swans, were in evidence on the trail today. Peaches would have loved this part of the walk!

There was a restored historic house (the "Jonathan Hager Haus and Museum") and museum ("The Washington County Fine Arts Museum") open along this part of the route, but I kept on going, as the breakdown committee was not far behind me collecting the markers on this excellently marked trail. Walkers were also given written directions, which weren't really needed except for checkpoint information and in getting a bit more information on what we all were seeing along the trail. After leaving the lake and museum area, I turned up some steps and entered this restored house area, the "Mansion House Art Center." Once again I didn't check it out, but forged ahead. But at least all these places had restrooms and I did make use of the facilities as necessary.

A turn after passing some horseshoe pits and a neat short wooden bridge over a nice pool of water with plenty of birds, including a cardinal and several swallows flying around the bridge got me on City Park Drive and the Scout Pavilion, the only staffed checkpoint on the walk at the 6.9 km mark on the trail. My long time friends from the Piedmont Pacers, Chuck and Jo Merkel, were staffing this nice shady spot, and I stopped and chatted a while with them, since I had been walking alone and had not seen any walkers on the trail up to this point.

They reminded me of that "breakdown committee" coming, so I got moving again, passing along the water's edge to see many more birds, including the very large trumpeter swans. Crossing a stone bridge, I exited the park and back onto city streets. A few more turns in nice residential areas and I was at the Rose Hill Cemetery on South Potomac Street. I skipped the 1 km optional loop around the cemetary, and headed into the downtown area once again, this time heading north on Potomac Street for the last 2 km of the walk. I found that the little 10 minute stop at the checkpoint helped cool me down on this rather humid day, and the candy at the checkpoint plus some cold water really helped energize and revive me for the rest of the walk.

I got my books stamped, thanked everyone, picked up some new brochures for upcoming walks, chatted with some Pacers at the finish table, and then headed out to the outlet mall. I would have stayed for the "Augustoberfest" but with more places to go and things to see elsewhere, I opted for checking this out in a future year. Piedmont Pacer Vice President Cheryl indicated that they most likely will be back there in coming years, as more and more people check this out and start thinking and planning ahead of time. I had never walked in historic Hagerstown before, and now I most certainly have a much better appreciation and understanding about the gateway town to scenic western Maryland. Thanks so much Piedmont Pacers for another outstanding event!

Photos by Kevin Shaw

Seneca Valley Sugarloafers
AVA Walking Clubs and Events
About.com Washington DC
About.com Baltimore, MD
US National and State Parks