Catoctin offers a change in scenery

“It’s supposed to rain Saturday,” Molly said. “You guys still want to go?”

We had been talking about going hiking together for some time — Molly started a massive group message with all the ladies she knows who live in Baltimore and like to hike, and there are a lot of them. She’s actually the founder of a Baltimore cycling club called the Crankmavens, free and open to all, and created because she wanted to bike with other girls. Later the Crankmavens was expanded to include any feminist person. Basically Molly is the coolest.

Everyone else in the message is also the cool, because those of us who were planning on going on Saturday all said yes. Yeah, we’re hardcore. It was also supposed to be cold on Saturday, so when I packed for the trip, I put a whole mess of layers as well as my rain jacket into my pack. Our destination was Catoctin Mountain Park, a national park in Maryland. The drive is an hour and a half to two hours. If you have Zipcar and share the cost between passengers, or have a friend with a car, it’s not too terrible to get there.

When we left it was raining, but by the time we were at Catoctin, it was still cloudy but dry. The yield from a stop at the visitor’s center was a map and a picture of a children’s book they were selling called “Who Pooped in the Park?”

The hike itself wasn’t strenuous at all, and included many cool places to stop. The first of these was a waterfall. There are a lot of very climbable-looking rocks there, but the ecosystem is fragile, so don’t climb on them if you visit! Even if you see other people doing it.

Next was a long, gradual uphill, with a couple of lookout points. We stopped at the top of the mountain for a picnic and some tea and relaxed for a while there despite the chilly temperature. The rest of the hike was for the most part downhill to Wolf Rock, which is a big piece of rock you can scramble around on — well, more like a small cliff-like area you can scramble around on. The next part was my favorite: Chimney Rock. If you’re brave enough, you can jump a short distance (with a very long drop!) and stand on what I guess must have been Chimney Rock itself.

It was at that point in the hike that it began snowing — just a tiny bit — scattered bright flurries that, combined with the occasional bit of sunlight and the wide and beautiful view as well as the lack of other hikers on the path, made us all quiet for a little while as we took it all in.

The rest of the hike was pleasant but fairly devoid of landmarks. The very end of the hike is alongside the road, which isn’t ideal. It was then that it began to snow in earnest. We could see the snow get heavier before it got to us. It was falling between the next mountain over and the mountain we were on, so we could see the currents of the wind as it approached. We got into the car a little wet but highly satisfied with the hike and got food in Frederick on the way back.

All in all, I would absolutely recommend a visit to Catoctin Mountain Park. It’s beautiful, and interesting landmarks nicely break up the hike. As the weather warms up, it’ll get even prettier, although it will certainly be more crowded. The park is free and open to the public, so the trip costs however much transportation to the park costs.

If you want to hike but don’t have a Zipcar account or a car, or maybe if you just don’t want to pay for a Zipcar all day (totally fair), you should check out Baltimore’s parks! Gwynns Falls Leakin Park especially is amazing. Yes, there have been bodies found in Leakin Park, but remember, they take ‘em there, they don’t make ‘em there.