Chesapeake Beach Railway Trail
Ever since we moved here, I have been searching for good walking trails. Preferably wide trails that are paved, gravel, or planked. Reece and Blitz picked up about half a dozen ticks between them at Flag Ponds. The trails there were too narrow with too much tall grass along the sides. King's Landing here in Huntingtown didn't have much of a trail. American Chestnut Land Trust trails are also too narrow and difficult to navigate with dogs. Dunkirk District Park has some paved jogging paths, but they're not particularly scenic and the main attraction there (for us, anyway) is the dog park. I have only walked the dogs around those paths to cool them down after a game of fetch.
Today, I drove to Chesapeake Beach. Honestly, I don't know what took me so long to drive there. It's about 6 miles away and getting there couldn't be easier. I didn't even need my GPS. Anyway, I thought I'd try the Chesapeake Beach Railway Trail, which spans 39 miles through 3 counties. Obviously, we aren't ambitious enough to walk the entire thing, but I covered probably 2 miles today with the dogs. Had I gone earlier in the day when it wasn't so close to lunchtime, we would've walked a few more miles.
The trail is a boardwalk where it goes over Fishing Creek (a small channel off of Chesapeake Bay) and it is paved when it's on land. It's also wide and goes through a lot of very nice scenery. I imagine there is good wildlife watching, too, if one happens to be there at the right time. I wasn't, or maybe I was distracted too much by the dogs to notice. All I really saw was a grasshopper on the trail. No turtles, birds, fish, or frogs.
The trail was kind of hard to find. I heard it was near the water park, so I aimed the car in that direction, turned down the road that runs alongside the water park, and found a sign for the trail next to an apartment complex. I parked at the "Tot Lot" - a public playground right next to the apartments. I asked, and I was told I could leave the car there without problems. One of the mothers at the playground told me there was a different parking area I could use specifically for the trail, but I never did find it. All the parking right by the trail entrance was permit only. No matter...where I parked was only a short walk from where the trail started.
Anyway, here are the photos I took during our walk. I love, love, LOVE this trail and I'm so sad I didn't find it sooner. I will be coming here a lot with the dogs. And Lance is looking for good places to jog. This fits the bill nicely.
The beginning of our walk
Fishing Creek from an area called the Forest Canopy
Looking back toward the Chesapeake Beach town center
Where Fishing Creek meets Chesapeake Bay
Today, I drove to Chesapeake Beach. Honestly, I don't know what took me so long to drive there. It's about 6 miles away and getting there couldn't be easier. I didn't even need my GPS. Anyway, I thought I'd try the Chesapeake Beach Railway Trail, which spans 39 miles through 3 counties. Obviously, we aren't ambitious enough to walk the entire thing, but I covered probably 2 miles today with the dogs. Had I gone earlier in the day when it wasn't so close to lunchtime, we would've walked a few more miles.
The trail is a boardwalk where it goes over Fishing Creek (a small channel off of Chesapeake Bay) and it is paved when it's on land. It's also wide and goes through a lot of very nice scenery. I imagine there is good wildlife watching, too, if one happens to be there at the right time. I wasn't, or maybe I was distracted too much by the dogs to notice. All I really saw was a grasshopper on the trail. No turtles, birds, fish, or frogs.
The trail was kind of hard to find. I heard it was near the water park, so I aimed the car in that direction, turned down the road that runs alongside the water park, and found a sign for the trail next to an apartment complex. I parked at the "Tot Lot" - a public playground right next to the apartments. I asked, and I was told I could leave the car there without problems. One of the mothers at the playground told me there was a different parking area I could use specifically for the trail, but I never did find it. All the parking right by the trail entrance was permit only. No matter...where I parked was only a short walk from where the trail started.
Anyway, here are the photos I took during our walk. I love, love, LOVE this trail and I'm so sad I didn't find it sooner. I will be coming here a lot with the dogs. And Lance is looking for good places to jog. This fits the bill nicely.
The beginning of our walk
Fishing Creek from an area called the Forest Canopy
Looking back toward the Chesapeake Beach town center
Where Fishing Creek meets Chesapeake Bay