Hiking Along the Potomac

During what has become our regular Sunday morning brunch at Murphy's in Old Town, we decided it was too nice of a day to spend inside at a museum. We don't get many summer days like this--low humidity and temperatures in the mid-80s, at least for the part of the day we'd be out and about. We looked at several options and ruled about half of them out because they involved traveling south on I-95, and driving home in end-of-holiday-weekend traffic mess. We settled on Turkey Run Park, which is up the George Washington Memorial Parkway from Alexandria.

Access to the trail is not well marked, and when we finally did find the beginning of the trail, the map on the board was faded to almost totally white. Not helpful. There are several trails that run through the park, including one that runs along the Potomac down to Roosevelt Island. We stuck to the Turkey Park Loop, although it wasn't always clearly marked either. At times the trail reminded me of our hike in the Bull Run Mountains Conservancy. Twice we had to cross a run, which I managed to do without getting my feet wet.

I find that I have to be pretty careful on trails like this. My balance is off a bit. Part of it is I've lost a fair amount of weight in the past couple of years, which has significantly shifted my center of gravity. Part of it is I'm not as young as I used to be. I may be in much better physical shape than I have been in years, but I'm also 54. Slow and easy makes it to the end of the trail.

Who knew I'd become so much of an outdoor person! I still sit with a good book an play the flute, but I've really been enjoying exploring the marshes and the trails in parks around the metro DC area.