On a changeable Saturday out here in the northern suburbs of the Washington DC area, my club, the Seneca Valley Sugarloafers Volksmarch Club, sponsored a 10 km volksmarch in Darnestown MD out of the Jones Lane Elementary School. Just a one day event, with a two hour start window, but we still had a good crowd of 227 walkers experience this walk through the neighborhoods surrounding the school. The day started with some light showers, but as the morning progressed, the skies brightened a bit , the rain stopped, and the sun started to come out.
My pooches, India and Peaches, joined me on this walk, as we got there just before "closing time" of 11:00 AM. I had to leave the puppy Cosmo home since I really cannot control 3 dogs by myself on a walk. I left India and Peaches in the car while I went inside to register. I took care of business, including picking up the excellently written directions and saying hi to many other fellow club members working and socializing inside.
The route consisted of mostly sidewalks and streets through a myriad of neighborhood streets in the area surrounding Jones Lane Elementary School. The rolling terrain and twists and turns through mostly single family houses with nicely sculptured lawns and gardens, dormant through the winter kept things interesting along with paying close attention to the directions to keep on the route. The pooches met up with the occasional fellow hounds on the trail but we generally walked alone. About the 2 km mark the highlight of the walk for me was reached at Aberdeen Park, a recreation area of open fields and lightly forested paved trails where I sat on a bench for a few minutes to relieve my slight back pain that had developed and then, walking through the park, enjoying the open athletic fields and grander vistas. Checkpoint 1 dealt with a question dealing with the athletic courts in the park.
I have been having some back pain while walking any significant distance of late, and not walking enough with the winter lull of walking events, so for the second week in a row only did 5 km today. The walk route worked out that I could follow the 10 km trail for about the first 4.5 km before I made the decision to just do the 5 km walk and return to the finish. I also was not in a particularly good mood to walk alone for another hour and 20 minutes, which is how long it took me to do the first 5 km. After leaving the finish I did drive the rest of the 10 km route I missed. It was basically more of the same, with some greater variation in roads, including walking on some busy state highway routes for short stretches, and some older neighborhoods.
Many thanks to several of my fellow club members for helping out on this walk. We even had some of our club clothing like shirts and sweatshirts on sale at the finish. I am so grateful for having this great variety in different areas to walk in each month, and having this opportunity so close to my home (it was about a 10 min ride there) to get some walking exercise in, and getting slowly back in shape. I hope to get over this bit of a rough time in my walking life soon and out on the full 10 km trail very soon.
Seneca Valley Sugarloafers
Upcoming walking events in Maryland
Volksmarch and Walking Index Web page
About.com DC/Annapolis
US National and State Parks
