Northwood News ♦ February 2005

Familiarization Hike on the Rachel Carson Trail

By Charles Pritchard

At the last meeting of the North Four Corners Civic Association executive committee, some newer arrivals in the committee and neighborhood expressed a desire to know a little more about this trail and how to access it.  The trail can best be accessed in our neighborhood from the terminus of Lockridge Drive into the Northwest Branch Stream Valley Park.

The Northwest Branch is one of the major tributaries of the Anacostia watershed.  It rises in the Sandy Spring area and flows south through Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties and merges with Sligo Creek before entering the Anacostia Estuary.  In our area, this park is one of the few remaining natural areas in southeastern Montgomery County and the stream is of great interest to a number of environmentalist organizations, which wish to protect and preserve it.  It is also considered a major recreational and educational area for hikers, nature lovers, bird watchers, and amateur botonists.

The former Northwest Branch Trail was renamed the Rachel Carson Trail in our area in 2004 in recognition of Rachel Carson, one of the significant environmental activists in the last century.  Her home is now a historical structure on the west bank of the stream in the Quaint Acres neighborhood [accessed from New Hampshire Avenue].  In our area, the west bank Rachel Carson Trail extends north on the west bank from Colesville Road (Route 29) and the Burnt Mills dam and reservoir and former WSSC building, passing through the Kent Mill subdivision to Randolph Road, a distance of about three miles.

An east bank trail also parallels the stream and can be accessed from the Burnt Mills dam parking lot off Route 29.  This east bank trail passes through somewhat more rugged terrain and is connected to the west bank trail via a foot bridge about two and one half miles north of Rte. 29.  A circular hike of about six miles is thus available for the hardy hiker.  Both banks abound in native plants (especially ferns) and wildlife, for example, deer (on the west bank) the occasional fox, raccoons, as well as beaver who have lodges in the banks.  The scenery is striking.

Our neighborhood had a long struggle with the Park and Planning Commission to keep the Rachel Carson Trail as a natural surface as opposed to a paved surface trail.  Use is restricted to hikers and equestrians from the Wheaton Regional Stable.  Mountain bicycles are not permitted for environmental reasons.  Crossing Route 29 to the parking lot and other former WSSC building provides access to a continuation of the eastern RC Trail through the Woodmoor neighborhood to Long Branch Road.  From here, a paved multiuse trail extends the rest of the way to Anacostia mouth of the stream.

It was discussed and then moved at the executive committee meeting to have a short familiarization hike for newcomers along the Rachel Carson Trail of about a mile or two, including a view of the Burnt Mills dam and extending north to the Lamberton Drive tributary and return.  This will be held on Sunday, 13 February, with a rain alternative on 20 February.  Hike leaders will be Charles Pritchard and Michele Frome.  On the 13th, the hike will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the end of Lockridge Drive.  (The rain date on the 20th will begin at 1:00 p.m.  The time difference is to avoid a scheduled river walk on the 20th by the Neighbors of Northwest Branch group, which will be conducting a water quality survey of the Branch in the morning.)   ■