Part One of a Series
When the News Review asked if I’d write an essay about walks around Greenbelt, I couldn’t imagine a better person for the job. As the farthest I’ve walked at any one time since March 2020 is from my bedroom to the kitchen and back again, an article about various walks around Greenbelt sounded like no problem at all. There was the small matter of needing to actually do the walks, but I am nothing if not delusionally optimistic about both my intrepid outdoorsiness and my level of fitness at any given time. Never mind my arthritic knees. Never mind I’ve gained 60 pounds since the start of Covid-19. I am the woman for this job!
Let me start by saying there are many places to walk around Greenbelt. I didn’t walk around neighborhoods, although I am sure your neighborhood is lovely and I really missed out. Instead I tried to find – and walk – places that were, or might be, designated walking areas, places with trails and birds and the remote chance of being eaten by a bear, my life’s ambition.
Research Road
To start with, I grabbed my friend Sieglinde and walked from Research Road down into the USDA farm. Sieglinde and I did an easy three miles, at the end of which she got in her car and drove away and I sat down and called Dan to come pick me up, even though it was only a further three blocks to get home. All I am saying is that if you go down the Research Road hill you also have to get up the Research Road hill, and the 6,657 steps I took with Sieglinde approximately equaled the total number of steps I had taken in all the preceding 365 days added together.
I went home and iced my knees and cried a lot but the next day I was at it again.
Greenbelt Lake
The 1.25-mile loop around Greenbelt Lake is a tried-and-true favorite for a reason. It’s not horrendously long and one can do several laps if looking for increased distance, there are herons and pileated woodpeckers and wood ducks and beavers and friendly people walking dogs, and sunrises there are lovely. When going counter-clockwise around the lake, after crossing the dam at the spillway, if you turn right instead of following the main path to the left, you can add some height to your walk by taking the long grassy hill up towards Charlestowne North apartments and cutting back into the Lake path from the road.
Schrom Hills Park
Schrom Hills Park, with playing fields, picnic tables and several different walking trails, provided a short half hour of exploration. I walked all the paths I could find, including one of newly laid woodchips that brought me to a construction site that looks hopeful: I imagine a future in which there is a walking trail beside a small pond, the water attracting mallards and hooded mergansers and buffleheads and American coots. For now there are deer in the woods there – calm, urban deer that didn’t startle as I passed them.
Paint Branch Trail
There’s a beautiful wooden boardwalk that overlooks a small pond behind Greenbelt Station; if you don’t live in that area, park on the back side of Beltway Plaza near the Shell Station, cross Cherrywood Lane at the crosswalk, and head down the pathway marked by a sign reading “Indian Creek.” This is also a great way to bike to Lake Artemesia and points beyond, but for walking purposes I stayed in the vicinity, walking up to Greenbelt Station and following a paved path to nowhere and back again. Even taking random trails that appeared here and there along the walk did not take me anywhere in particular – I had made it my mission to find a shortcut to the Metro Station but to no avail. If there is one, I couldn’t find it, so please write in and tell me what I missed.