Our third hike in the series took place yesterday in Little Bennett Regional Park in Maryland.
16 Scouts were joined by 4 dads and more importantly on their special day 7 mothers. Shelly, (aka Mrs. Coopersmith), Anne (aka Mrs. B), Kathy, (aka Mrs. Munoz), Alexa (aka Mrs. Barnett), Ellen (aka Mrs. House), Jan (aka Mrs. Skoric) and Wendy (aka Mrs. Salt). I couldn’t have thought of a better way for them to spend their day than hiking with their sons for 10 miles, sloshing through mud and wading across rivers. Sounds perfect to me!
We met at the Total Wine parking lot and then headed north up 270 for about 30 minutes. This park is a gem that seems under used considering how pretty it is.
Once parked we struck out down the trail and immediately hit mud and water. I tried not to make eye contact with any of the mothers as I had a feeling one or two of them might not have been too happy with the state of the trail and the promise of another 9.9 miles of sub-prime under-foot conditions.
Wet feet and muddy legs were the order of the day and all, thankfully, seemed surprisingly chipper as we meandered around the park. Beautiful woodland gave way to buttercup-filled meadows and the occasional shoes-off fording of a river. It has to be said the water was a tad chilly, but refreshing.
After a couple of rest stops for snacks and the odd sandwich we made it back to our cars having hiked just more than 10 miles. Again Mr. B and I had varying measurements on our GPS machines which one day we’ll work out why that is the case. Not one hike in the past 4 years have our devices agreed.
This was the last of the lowland hikes and next we’re off to Old Rag. Elevation will now become an issue but as with all our hikes in the hills we try really hard to make sure there is some payoff at the top. And with Old Rag there certainly is.
Thanks again to the mothers for spending time with their boys on Mother’s Day. One day I know they’ll appreciate everything you do and have done for them.
Thanks also as always to Steve (aka Mr. B) for leading the hike.
See you all tomorrow night for another exciting installment of cycling month hosted by Aaron.