"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out 'till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." John Muir

Few runners enjoy the trails in this 6,700-acre watershed park. Maybe for good reason.

Few know about them. Most of the trails are not maintained. Few are blazed. There are stinging nettles. It is not hard to get lost. If it has rained recently, the trails will be muddy, the many creek crossings can get knee deep. Compared to well- maintained trails found in, let's say, Rock Creek Park, why would a runner want to leave the security of knowing where he or she was all the time, knowing that there were many easily accessible streets in case of bail out needs or problems, rest rooms, water, traffic, other trail runners, "civilization," and the like?

Why indeed?

Some trail runners enjoy a little "Lewis and Clark adventure." Some do not want to know where they are all the time. For some, running trails involves getting away from "civilization" even if only for a few hours. If this appeals to you, head up to upper Montgomery County/western Howard County and give these trails a shot.

There are many, many miles of single-track dirt trails accessible from several parking lots.

Runners can access the trails at the county line (the Patuxent River is the county line in this part of the county--the 12 miles north of the Triadelphia-Brighton Dam area) as it crosses Hipsley Mill, Annapolis Rock (Rt. 94), Long Corner, Mullinix Mill, and at both ends off of Routes 27 and 97 (Ridge Road and Georgia Avenue). There are also a few farm roads off of New Hampshire Avenue (Rt. 650) and coming in from Howard County but there is generally no parking except for the roads listed above which cross over the river.

Looking at this river in upper Montgomery County, it is hard to imagine that 11 billion gallons of drinking water to Montgomery County and Prince George's County (and this was in 1995) flow through this wetlands area. This little "crick" certainly could not be the same river upon which boaters troll for rockfish near Solomons Island in Southern Maryland. It really is an amazing night and day comparison to see the river in this stretch and then consider the Patuxent down in Benedict or Solomons where monster steel bridges have been erected just to get across it. You can jump across it up in Upper Montgomery County.

On the Montgomery County side, runners will see the ruins of a log cabin--right on the trail (between the Long Corner and Mullinix Road section), cattle within just a few yards of the river, thousands of mature hardwood trees, fields of wildflowers on the edge of the woods including our state flower the black- eyed Susan, tons of lilies, and pretty working farms, large by Montgomery County standards. Be prepared to cross several side creeks and, depending on the time of year, the growth on the trail can be substantial. Be prepared to hear woodpeckers and frogs and to see goldfinches fly around and tadpoles swim right by your feet.

On the Howard County side, there seems to be more activity and the trails in general are better maintained. This is partially due to some regular equestrian use off of Annapolis Rock Road. There are also some very nice run-able sections of mixed double- and single-track within the Annapolis Rock-Hipsley Mill-New Hampshire Avenue section. There are some blazes and even numbered trail points on some of the trails used by the equestrian folks in this section. Closer to Hipsley Mill Road is a nice pond down an abandoned road.

Road bikers seem to enjoy the surrounding roads but there is little evidence that mountain bikers use the trails much.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources reports that there are naturally reproducing brown trout in the river in this section, some of the best bird breeding habitat in Montgomery County, and that the streams in this area are some of the best in the state. There are some camping sites and one canoe campsite within the state park.

It is easy to run for hours in just one of the sections of this beautiful, undeveloped park.

Now here are some trails for the adventure seekers tired of always knowing where they are.