After National Trails Day

One day after National Trails Day and three parks later, it looks like I didn't wear enough sun screen. Saturday began with the usual wash out here in Sterling, VA. My daughter's soccer game was cancelled because the field was too soggy from all the rain we had the previous couple of days. You have to wonder with soccer being the major suburban game that it is and Loudoun County having one of the highest household incomes in the whole USA, why is it that the soccer fields turn into a bog after just a couple of days rain?

The walk from the parking lot to the fields adjacent to NoVA Community College on Route 7 is at turns a stroll through dry grass and a soggy slog across poorly draining fields. Are we misspending our tax dollars or do we need more for the fields our children (and quite a few adults) play on?

Compared to the near-surgical care that is taken with the trails at Claude Moore Park, Algonkian Park and Riverbend Park, the soccer fields are like clean restrooms on I-95 -- hit and miss.

But like I said, the Saturday soccer game was cancelled so I had the opportunity to take full advantage of National Trails Day. First stop was Claude Moore, just a few blocks from the house.  Ran some of the trails for a couple of miles and stopped to watch the local kids try their hands at fishing in the local ponds. Great time, and highly recommended for next year. While I never was much of a fisherman, in fact, an old friend of mine teases me these thirty years later about the time I brought a book with me fishing. It was more exciting than the fishing that day, believe me.

But the dozen or so kids who cast and reeled and cast again, had a great time.

Later on, I drove down to River Bend Park. It's right near the more popular Great Falls Park, but without the larger crowds and the parking fee, River Bend is more my style. The trail from their runs north east to Great Falls or south east back toward Sterling. Great plants, wide trails and the Potomac River flush from all the rain we've had the past five or six weeks. Another great time, even counting the german shepherd that got a little too close on the trail. Six foot leash law people!

The day wrapped up in Algonkian Park on a bench overlooking the river and a half-dozen water craft zipping up and down the river. The noise was ok and the wakes they created were wonderful. I slapped at a gazillion gnats and when I nearly knocked my glasses from my face swinging at a particularly pesky swarm, I called it a day.

National Trails Day 2009. Some kids, some fishing, a slobbery dog and a face full of gnats. Beats working every day of the week.