Seneca Greenway

[saxman]

Just a heads up that a large tree has come down right on the Seneca Creek stepping stone crossing where the Greenway hits Lower Magruder. It makes for a hazardous crossing on foot, and even more difficult with a bicycle. I've reported the downed tree, so hopefully, they'll clear it next week.

There's been a couple of official reroutes in the 355 to Watkins Mill Road section, one is around the creek crossing with the large stones where you had to dismount, the second is around the really eroded section at the bottom of the downhill north of the scenic overlook.

[DaveG]

It was frozen, but it's clear that it got a LOT of use when it was too muddy.

South of brink it looks like hikers and bikers were the biggest offenders; north of brink it looks like a bunch of horses went through and really tore it up.

If you go, make sure it's early when it's frozen; one this thaws it's going to be a mess.

Dave

[saxman]

The Lower Magruder section is really beat up, too. Even the typically bulletproof Damascus Regional Park to Log House Road section was very rutted up. Log House to Watkins was a mixed back, about 60 percent passable, 30 percent questionable and 10 percent forget it! Typically conditions are much softer once you get south of Watkins road, so I didn't even try to ride it.

[jtauber]

Rode this trail yesterday from 355 to Watkins Rd. A fun ride and makes for a nice occasional alternative to SF. There were other bikers, and I wonder how a trail this nice gets so little mention.

[NullPointer]

Rode this trail yesterday from 355 to Watkins Rd. A fun ride and makes for a nice occasional alternative to SF. There were other bikers, and I wonder how a trail this nice gets so little mention.

This stretch of trail is near my house and is my weekday after dinner ride. Not technically challenging, but the hills give me a good workout. Over the last two years, I've seen more and more bikers there. The half of the trail near 355 can get very muddy after big rains.

[VFDRider]

Is this done the entire way to Damascus now? I've been wanting to do an out and back from 355 but wasn't sure. Thanks!

[saxman]

Yes. You can now go from 355 all the way to Damascus Regional Park on natural surface trail. The paved trail will take you all the way to Valley Park Drive, but just short of downtown Damascus (or into Damascus Regional Park proper).

The only thing tricky is a stepping stone crossing over Seneca Creek before you get onto the Magruder Branch Trail. A bridge is planned. In fact, M-NCPPC has the bridge sitting on a storage lot. However, they need to have the proper paperwork approved to install it because they are erecting it on wetlands.

It's about a 20 mile round trip. I can usually do it in around 2.5 hours at a fairly comfortable pace. I start at the Damascus end and head to 355 and then turn around.

[mbonsby]

I heard they were putting a bridge there. thats too bad it's a beautiful creek they should leave it alone

[saxman]

I heard they were putting a bridge there. thats too bad it's a beautiful creek they should leave it alone

Having made this crossing many, many, many times, I'm all for the bridge. If the creek is running even slightly above normal, the stepping stones submerge, particularly on the northern end of the crossing as a sandbar upstream has caused more water to flow on that side of the stream bed.

In addition, the rocks get really slick. As many times as I have made this crossing, I still end up with a wet foot (or feet) about half the time. Trying to do a 20 mile ride with wet feet isn't a lot of fun, even when the weather is warm.

It is very picturesque at that point. There's a grey heron that is resident in the stream valley. When it flys over the creek, it is really an amazing sight.

[VFDRider]

Thanks for the reply. Once I get the bike fixed back up I'll get out there : )

[VFDRider]

Scratch that - meant to put this in Muddy Branch -

[davidrhorn]

Any word on the bridge and whether or not it will be going in? I have avoided riding south from Damascus the past year or so because it's such a pain to have to try to cross the river. It ruins what could be a really good 20 miler.

[saxman]

Any word on the bridge and whether or not it will be going in? I have avoided riding south from Damascus the past year or so because it's such a pain to have to try to cross the river. It ruins what could be a really good 20 miler.

My guess is with the current budget crisis, the bridge is going to be put on the back burner in the short term, and perhaps even indefinitely. If you haven't been following what is going on in the County with regards to the budget and its impact on the parks, you can check out this website:

www.parksmatter.org

Basically, where the other county agencies are having to cut their budgets 6.5%, the Parks budget is getting cut 17%. The reality is that the County Council regards the M-NCPPC as an "unfunded State mandate" and wants to be rid of it so they can gain control of 35,000 acres of parkland, nearly 10% the acreage of Montgomery County. Given the Council's proclivity for selling prime land to developers (who fill their election coffers), this is a very scary proposition for anyone who enjoys Montgomery County Parks.

Okay...off the soapbox.

[Squirrel Girl]

Any word on the bridge and whether or not it will be going in? I have avoided riding south from Damascus the past year or so because it's such a pain to have to try to cross the river. It ruins what could be a really good 20 miler.

Ruins??? :confused:

I can appreciate that a bridge would make things easier, but we are riding in nature afterall. It's hard for me to think of a big creek as ruining a ride. Maybe to be avoided in winter (or maybe not), but I never thought of it as ruining my ride up that awesome trail.

[saxman]

Ruins??? :confused:

I can appreciate that a bridge would make things easier, but we are riding in nature afterall. It's hard for me to think of a big creek as ruining a ride. Maybe to be avoided in winter (or maybe not), but I never thought of it as ruining my ride up that awesome trail.

It is a tricky crossing, and almost impossible not to get a foot wet, and if the creek is high enough to cover the stepping stones, it's downright dangerous as the rocks are more slippery than a County Council member (sorry for the editorial comment...). In the summer it's not so bad to take the shoes off and wade across. During the fall & winter...not a lot of fun. I tried doing the creek barefoot in November. Not a smart move. My feet still are tingling!

"Ruin" is probably a bit of an extreme description. "Pain in the butt" is probably more appropriate. Since I usually run the Greenway "backwards" - Damascus to 355 and back, once you set your foot down, you have wet feet for quite some time. By the time they finally dry up, it's time to cross the creek again!

So far, we haven't "lucked up" like on the pre-Bridge Hoyles Mill Trail with a downed tree big enough to be an alternate creek crossing. There is a sandbar about 50 yards upstream, but it shifts constantly, and you still have the steep banks on either side. I haven't seen anything decent downstream either.

[saxman]

After speaking with the Regional Manager for the Seneca Greenway, she told me that they are going to try to install the bridge over the summer. However, budget issues and staff reductions may push that back, perhaps indefinitely depending on what other issues rear their head this summer.

When the weather is warm, like it is today, typically I wade across barefoot, first with the bike, and then go back to get my shoes. Today, I had the idea of attaching my shoes to the handlebar with the shoes' velcro straps. It worked wonderfully. As I congratulated myself on coming up with this idea, I wondered where my cycling gloves were. They were back on the northern bank. I had taken them off to manipulate the shoes better and forgot to put them back on. At least it felt good to wade through the creek on a day like today.

[riderx]

Seneca Greenway: hunting allowed there? Toying with the idea of heading down on Saturday. Also, where can I pick it up at the north end? I've always started at 355

[jmcgonigle]

Seneca Greenway: hunting allowed there? Toying with the idea of heading down on Saturday. Also, where can I pick it up at the north end? I've always started at 355

It is on scheduled, seems like today (friday is hunting). I don't see anything listed on Sunday.

Look at the MoCo Epic to figure out where you want to pick it up. Here is one I did recently.

http://connect.garmin.com/dashboard;jsessionid=B817F34B08750B 83B1645821CE65C4EA?cid=81409

[1SPD]

I dislike the creek crossing as the rocks are quite slippery though I made it across this past summer without taking off the shoes or getting wet feet. Made it down to the creek last a few weeks ago (at night when things were frozen) and didn't even consider trying to cross. I live about a mile from the Brink/Blunt cross roads so this would be considered my local trails. On Monday I went out when it was just nasty wet/muddy out there and instead of actually taking the trail towards the creek, I rode all around the grassy trail area heading towards Huntmaster out in what I call the wetlands if you will. I then ventured up the trail section that runs close to the houses up there as a friend of mines house backs the trail. Those areas were suprisingly dry compared to everywhere else and since I had never really been in these areas, it was a nice change of pace.

Heading home, I crossed back over at Brink/Blunt and headed towards Watkins Mill. It was nasty muddy there and yes, I walked. My plan was to head back to where I can take the first trail off to the left to head up over the hill and down the other side and come up behind the lake on MV ave. Once I crossed over the bridge there is a tree down about 100 yards past it totally blocking the trail. You have the creek on one side and the hill on the other. I forgot to mention that I pulled a ton of branches both large and small off the trails I was riding over by Huntmaster.

I am going to try to head back out today to ride that same area as it keeps me off the main portion of the trails and is still fun to explore. Today I am thinking I will try the trail that goes off to the right after the bridge but still heading out towards Huntmaster thru the wet lands.

[zaskaranddriver]

Would it be possible to rearrange/augment the current stepping stones so they facilitate crossing under higher water conditions? Is there as much red tape associated as with the bridge installation?

[1SPD]

The trails are looking better out there. I got to ride on a portion of them yesterday between Blunt/Brink to the creek past huntmaster. Still some wet spots out there but for the most part, much better. Hopefully, I can get out there some time early tomorrow morning.

Passed Mike out there headed the opposite direction. Nice to finally see another cyclist!

[1SPD]

Rode from the back side of the lake off Montgomery Village ave, out towards Watkins Mill, made the turn and then headed all the way back out to Damascus. Yep, even made it across the creek on the stepping stones without getting my feet wet!

In any case, when I got into the second section of trail (after the creek crossing and the first street crossing), I thought I would go ahead and take the trail off to the right at the "y" and go across the little bridge. Never been down on the other side of the creek so I figured why not? Well, I got down there and I will tell you why not...there is no frickn bridge! I could see it but apparently in a recent (recent to me-been about a month since I went out to Damascus on the trail) storm the bridge washed away! It is there but on spun so that it runs parallel with the water flow and is on the other side of the water...totally useless to me at this point!

Sorry, just thought I would post up incase no one knew that the bridge had been washed away.

I would also add that in the section before you get to the creek (after you cross over hunt paster) there is a series of two little bridges back to back. The first one has about 2/3 of it covered with debris (tree limbs/trunks...) from recent storms. It is still passable but there is only about 18-20" of bridge to pass on.

Aside from that and running through a spider web and having a spider the size of a small taranchula hit me in the chest, thus causing me to frickn kirk out like a little school girl sending my bike ghost riding on down the trail about 20' without me while I was screaming like a little Bi7ch about the spider, things went pretty well and the trail was pretty damn fun. Still can't figure out how I got out of my clipless pedals simultaniously and hopped off the back of the bike to have it keep riding on down the trail without me....

[1SPD]

So I rode from Brink/Blunt intersection (actually rode from my house but this is close enough), took the trail to the left back towards Watkins Mill. Rode all the way to Riffleford. I must say, aside from a few trees here and there that were down, I was more surprised with the number of areas that had been washed out. The area right before Riffleford was a gaping hole in the ground revealing the large 4' drainage pipes even more so! Then when I got to Riffleford, I decided to head up towards the connector so that I could hit 10 miles (only had like .2 to go). I then noticed that the bridge to the trails was somewhat...well...not where it was supposed to be. It was a good 20 some feet at least on down the street. Guess they really mean it when they say that the trail is not open yet! Not that you couldn't mind you but Riffleford was my turnaround point today for my 20 miler.

[1SPD]

Now I want to be honest here. I did ride the street from 355 over to Clopper today instead of taking the trail which is marked Hikers only. I am just curious as to why bikes are not allowed on this section of trail. Especially knowing that riding on that frickn two lane road is like playing chicken with the cars. Seriously, a good reason. I rode this section of the trail once early on this year prior to knowing that I was not supposed to. I actually spotted it while riding on the road and simply dropped down to it only to come up on the sign further on down the trail. None the less, I am curious as to how many hikers you have coming out to trail work days to help maintain the trails...I have watched hikers, climb over downed tree limbs without even a second thought of trying to clear the trail. I have spotted huge foot prints right in the middle of the trails demonstrating that they walked right through the mud puddles...I honestly believe that the cyclist take better care of the trails than the damn hikers!!!