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Some people use their spring breaks to get away from their geographical region, either for pleasure or in service to other communities. I opted to stay put in the D.C. metro area and explore more closely one of the trails that has served as a backdrop for hours of contemplative walking throughout the past nine years.
In spring 2006 I had barely any inkling of how far the Northwest Branch Trail extended into Montgomery County. While taking a break from eye-straining FORTRAN coding and giving my legs a chance to stretch, I discovered the trailhead at the intersection of West Park Drive and University Boulevard. Following the trail south from there led me through lush forest to the West Hyattsville Metro, providing a long-awaited answer to my question from many a Green Line train as to what I might find using those paths visible from the elevated tracks.
After moving in 2009 to a group house in Hyattsville, I found that Wells Parkway, much quieter than the state routes 193 and 410, also connects with this segment of the trail. Even living that close to the Montgomery County border, though, I usually cut short my exploration where the trail becomes unpaved and rocky just before the crossing underneath the Capital beltway.
While working as an after-school tutor in the 2010-2011 academic year, I discovered the part of Northwest Branch Trail between Wheaton Regional Park and route 29. One spring afternoon on my way back from tutoring, I wasted several hours walking my heavy bike through mud and over exposed roots, only to emerge on University Boulevard still outside the Capital beltway, precisely where I would have been much earlier if I had stuck to the main roads. After this experience I promised myself never to walk this winding part of the trail unless I had many hours to spare.
In 2011, having moved to a group house on Adelphi Road for a laid-back summer, I started jogging regularly along the paved part of the Northwest Branch Trail, sometimes daring to hike through the rocky part leading to route 29. It was after one such outing that I ran into Larry O'Neil, then still studying in the math department at UMD and living just a few blocks away. We ended up sharing some home-cooked food and a self-parodying western movie once we realized how conveniently close our homes were located that summer.
With the arrival of spring 2012, I could legitimately call Takoma Park my home again, and I got into the habit of weekend runs from Sligo Creek Trail to route 29 and then downhill to the Northwest Branch Trail. These Sunday afternoon excursions helped to release the stress of high-school teaching and to get me ready for the next week of harrowing commutes into the District.
Only in recent years did I start to run the Sligo Creek-Northwest Branch route counterclockwise, starting from the Piney Branch-New Hampshire intersection. This new starting point eventually inspired a variant (clockwise) route, one that brought me back to the Adelphi neighborhoods familiar from summer 2011.
With all these travel itineraries in mind, I designed this week's exploration of the Northwest Branch Trail to cover every segment in four separate trips.