Last Saturday I hiked 20 miles through DC from Clarendon Va (where I live) to College Park MD (where I used to live). I was inspired by the Howie Bivy Bag Challenge, which required participants to hike out their front door, stay gone for 36 hours, and cover 30 miles. While sleeping in a bivy sack. I found out about it through Alastair Humphreys’ blog. Apparently he and a buddy went off and did it through South London.
I didn’t go fully 30 miles (because I’m weak) and didn’t sleep outside (the couch was too comfortable to resist), what I liked about it was the emphasis on exploring your surroundings. In the past, when planning hikes and overnight outings, the assumption was always that we’d head away from the city somewhere. Now I don’t have any excuses for not hiking on the weekends - time being my favorite one. There’s tons of interesting stuff to explore right out my front door.
For this hike, I headed towards Arlington Cemetary, less than a mile away and spent most of my time wandering around the monuments area of South DC. It had been years since I spent any time there. I figured out a great six mile walking tour of the monuments and museums with stops for beer and food. I like to rough it. Now I just need some guests to try it out on.
I headed out at 8:30am and entered Ft Myer by the back gate with no problem. Bring an ID - foreigners might have some hassle, but the guards are very nice. Right behind the fort is the back way into Arlington Cemetary. What a fascinating place. Right off, I saw many graves from the Civil War - mostly Union I suspect. It looked like officers were on one side, and enlisted on the other. I also saw a tomb for Robert Todd Lincoln - Abraham Lincoln’s son.
In the center of Arlington Cem is Arlington House, this lovely old sandstone house where Union troops quartered during the siege of Washington. I found the best view of DC right outside; since it sits on a hill, it overlooks the river and the monument area.
The map shows my route and I noted all the stops I made but I’ll tell you that all the interesting stuff stops at Dupont Circle. I realized at about 1pm that I’d been dawdling and still needed to cover a lot of ground before dark. DC is perfectly safe, but there were a few sketchy areas I wanted to clear before the sun went down.
My dogs were killing me by the time I got to the MD/DC border, but I kept at it, knowing I was going to stop at Frankline’s for delicious local beer. I met some old MD friends there - what lovely friends I’ve got - and they walked me the 4.5 miles to Chez Paul. Beer and episodes of Horatio Hornblower, starring Mr Fantastic topped off the night. Sunday was Paul’s Superbowl party.
What a great way to end the month.
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