Elk Neck State Park, MD, Part 2 - South

Following my nice hike in the northern section of the park, I hopped in the car and made my way to the southern, or lighthouse, section. Parking in this section is just inside the park boundary, and the hiking was a good bit different here than in the other.

The northern section was single track dirt path through the woods. This part was 15 foot wide dirt and gravel road, accessible to just about anything but a wheelchair, which is understandable given the level of foot traffic the lighthouse must get. A very different feel though. I didn't see a single person in the first part of the morning, and was never really by myself in the second half. As can be seen on the map, the second part of the morning ended up being a 2.5 mile walk, slightly longer but much easier than the earlier hike. Parking is at the top, with the "lollipop" being clockwise this time. Detours, as always, are for retrieving geocaches.


Geocaching - using expensive electronics to find Tupperware in the woods.

The scenic highlight of the park is the lighthouse itself, situated 100 feet above the water level on the bluffs overlooking the junction of the North East and Elk Rivers. It was built in 1833, and was the highest lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay, measuring 135 feet above the water. The lighthouse and an adjacent outbuilding remain, although the lighthouse keeper's residence that stood nearby has been demolished. The park's website is here. As an aside, the two people on the bench with the dog would introduce themselves later on my hike with the question: "Are you a geocacher?" I said... "uh...yeah... hiking and geocaching, why?" The woman said, "because every now and then you stop and look at a GPS and a map and you don't follow the same trails everyone else does." Heehee. Guilty as charged. Nice people, and I am glad to have met a couple of geocachers from south Jersey.


A sentimental favorite view - the mouth of the Sassafras River from atop the bluffs - home away from home. More time than I can remember as I was growing up was spent at my grandparent's summer house on the Sassafras, and to this day there is not a place on Earth that holds more fond memories of my childhood than "The River".


While much of the path down here was a road, the western section of the Lighthouse Trail loop was a woods path, which was nice because none of the other foot traffic seemed to want to go here. That suited me fine. All it took was a few strides down this path and I had regained my solitude.

At the far western end of the Lighthouse Trail, the path dropped down off the bluff to the water level on the western side of the peninsula. A man and his son were fishing off the seawall, and we talked for a few minutes. They were bottom fishing for catfish, and unfortunately were not having much luck. It was very nice to be by the water on such a lovely day.

And you really can't be by the water and not get wet, so here I am dipping my toes into the waters of the Chesapeake. Ahhhhhh...feels good. I'm not sure exactly what precipitated this little quirk of mine, but any time I am around water, I have to put my feet in it, even if it is just to dip the toes of my shoes in the water. I suspect this ritual is in remembrance of all the times as a kid that Leo and I would be off in the woods somewhere, getting wet and having fun. It just doesn't seem right somehow for me to be near water and not get some on my shoes...

On the way back to the car, I was able to get this good shot of the side of one of the bluffs to give an impression of their steepness. I couldn't help thinking as I looked at this view that if I had just a little more time, I would've liked to go scrambling down there... It may be a good 30 or 35 years since I first discovered how much fun it was to slide down an embankment like this, but I haven't forgotten. Not yet. And speaking of Leo... I'm sure if he had been with me we probably would have found the time to do just that.

I really couldn't have been much happier with how the day worked out. I was able to get out early, get all this done (9 caches total and almost 5 miles of walking) and still be home to the family by 12:30. As much as I love my family and the time I get to spend with them, there is something to be said for some solitary time in the woods. Maybe this is just my introverted nature coming out, but hiking gives a sense of peace and contentment, and recharges my batteries in a way that is hard to explain. Others who love the outdoors will understand.

When I first left the house this morning, I was a little bit disappointed in the prospect of doing this alone. In retrospect, I think it was just what I needed. Being out in nature and enjoying some alone time is not a bad thing, and in this case, I think it worked out perfectly. There is still one part of the northern section of the park that I haven't done yet, from a geocaching perspective, and I'm sure on the return trip I will be able to find some company to tag along. Dave is on his way back from an aikido trip to Seattle as we speak, and we exchanged a few text messages this evening. He was asking about my Elk Neck hike. I was asking about his Washington state cache finds (which make me EXCEEDINGLY jealous, by the way - so far west and so far north!!). I told him that I didn't have the time to get all the caches in the park, and I know that the last time he had been hiking down here I had not turned him into a geocacher yet. So I do sense a follow-up trip in the future. Maybe not real soon, but we'll get it done.

Elk Neck State Park, MD, Part 1 - North

It was very disappointing to me that last week's Elk Neck hiking plans fell through. Fortunately, today's weather proved to be just as nice, mid-60's and sunny, and while I didn't have company for my little jaunt, it was nice to get out and get into the woods.


As planned, I wanted to do a combination hike and geocache run, which is exactly what I did, especially since I was alone with no non-geocachers (aka Muggles). I ended up doing a two-part hike, one part in the northern section of the park, and one in the southern part, with a short car shuttle in between. This is unavoidable given the way that the actual park itself is split with a housing development in the middle...

Up at 6:30am and on the road shortly after 7:00 had me at the park by 8:15 or so, including the mandatory Wawa stop for coffee (at which I forgot to buy any Gatorade or water, a fact which I would not realize until later...), and grabbing one virtual cache along the way. The virtual cache was cool, requiring a stop at a sign explaining General William Howe's landing of the British army on Elk Neck, which was followed by the march to the Brandywine battlefield (September 11, 1777) where Washington's army lost (as it pretty much always did), and the subsequent loss of Philadelphia.

The northern part of my hike ended up being 2.3 miles of gently rolling terrain, and I was able to grab 4 caches along the way, including my 400th cache. In the map below, I parked at the blue square at the southern end of the "lollipop" and hiked in a counter-clockwise direction. The 4 black squares are the caches, with the one in the NW being #400. As always, little errant sidetracks show up in the hiking tracks. After caches 1 and 2 (the southern pair), I followed the White Bank trail further to the east, but it soon became apparent that the trail was not going in the direction that I needed to go, so I backtracked a bit and set off cross-country (follow the arrow!!). I have to say that the $3 park trail map that I bought at the park store on the way in wasn't any help in this regard - about half of the trails that were actually in existence were actually reflected on the map. Unfortunately, this is fairly typical of state park maps, where only the most major of trails are shown, and the rest is often either skipped or out of date. I spent much of the day hiking on trails that according to the park did not exist. I would consider the park map to be a nice souvenir, but pretty much useless beyond that.


This part of my hike was a very typical stroll through mid-Atlantic forest, with mostly deciduous trees with just a few evergreens mixed in. Leaf color was good (but probably two weeks short of peak), and many of the leaves were still on the trees, so it had a nice "closed in" feel to it as I walked. The walk was refreshing and energizing. And finding regular and small sized geocache containers in the woods is a nice change of pace from micros in the suburbs.


While I was spending way more time than one would expect finding a difficulty "1" (easiest on a 1 to 5 scale) cache (the one that turned out to be my 400th), I heard a tremendous racket, which turned out to be a wild turkey. I took it as a good omen that I got to see and hear a turkey while hiking on Turkey Point. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough on the trigger to get a photo. And good thing for the turkey that there is no hunting on Sundays in Maryland state parks. Come Monday, he should be more quiet.


The one thing that I didn't have the time to do this morning was take the trail down off the bluffs to the beach. Next time...

Next...Part 2, the southern park section.

The Best Laid Plans...

The weekend has come and gone, and my much-anticipated day at Elk Neck State Park didn't happen. Sunday morning dawned cool and beautiful, exactly as forecast. It also brought a call from home, where a neighbor was phoning me to tell me that she had been fetched by Chris because Chris couldn't wake my mom. She was able to get mom to wake up, but she was extremely confused and disoriented. Something like this had happened back in the summer, and that had turned out to be caused by a UTI. I wouldn't have thought a UTI would cause that kind of disorientation, but apparently it is fairly common in older women, and is a common side effect.

I called Dave, sent Leo a text cancelling our hike, and hurried to mom's house to get her to the ER. The scariest thought that goes through your mind is a stroke or something of that nature. At the end of a full day in the ER, a multitude of tests showed nothing unusual, but they decided to admit her and keep her overnight for observation. So she spent the night on the same floor as dad, a couple dozen rooms down the hall. Go figure.

As for Elk Neck SP... maybe next weekend.

Elk Neck State Park Plans

I have done a lot of geocaching recently (just ask my family), but I haven't done a real hike in a while. Inspired by brother Dave and the boys' trip to Great Smokey Mountains National Park and having done some serious hiking last week (a post on jealousy may be forthcoming), and with the weather Sunday forecast at 64 degrees and sunny, we (Dave, Leo and I) are planning an afternoon of hiking (and geocaching) at Elk Neck State Park in Maryland. It is a beautiful location, between the Elk River and the Susquehanna basin, and has a number of hiking trails that cover several different types of terrain, including water side bluffs, inland forest and swamps. In the two main sections of the park, there are also 16 geocaches. Hee hee. What a coincidence...

An especially beautiful sight, as seen below, is the old lighthouse on the very tip of Turkey Point.

The map below shows the two main sections of the park, with a residential area in between. One thing that we will need to be mindful of is the fact that it is hunting season, and properly permitted folks may be hunting in the park, so wearing some bright colors and a large sign that says "I am not a deer" may be warranted. I don't think I would look all that great strapped to the hood of someone's pickup.

The majority of the geocaches are strung along a relatively small area in the center of the northern park section. I don't have a trail map for the park, but I would bet that these are all very close to trails, and a carefully crafted plan of attack will have us walk right by all of them (in which case it would almost be rude not to stop and pay them a visit...).

All kidding about the geocaches aside, the main purpose of this little jaunt will be to get out on what looks to be a fantastic fall day with a couple of my best friends, stretch the legs, and see some sights. Dave has hiked some, if not most, of this park before and has recommended it highly. I can't wait...