A sampling of sights and sounds from last Monday's pedestrian ramble:
- lavender blossoms dangling from a tree above the trail — I jump up to graze the flowers with a hand as I pass below
- armadas of baby carriages laden with cute cargo — fine targets for smiles and waves
- cyclists with ching-ching bells — warning "On your left!" as they whiz around me
- brief chat with a fellow traveler as we wait together to cross a busy parkway — "Well, that car didn't want to stop!" ... "Yeah, but he didn't quite kill us that time!"
- friendly young(er) and old(er) runners – returning my greetings as they progress in the opposite direction
- taste of chill water as I refill my bottle at a fountain — and tickle of nervousness as the bottle runs dry a few miles later and I begin to worry about when the next source will be found
- activist at the end of the trail — handing out flyers in opposition to Georgetown University's plan to build new structures along the River
- GPS batteries dying — conveniently between markers, giving me ample time to change them and re-acquire a lock on the satellite signals before the next waypoint
- "Heads Up!" shout from a couple of young women carrying an inverted canoe out of a boathouse — followed by a soft thud as they bump the bow into an oblivious walker ahead of them
And the context: 28 April offers a surprise opportunity to go out for one of my now-favorite activities — jogging along creeks and through woods — combined with another peculiar passion, coordinate-collecting. I come home early to take Daughter Gray to a late-afternoon music lesson and discover that Wife Paulette [1] needs to go downtown as well. She doesn't mind driving.
So off set I at 3pm, with Global Positioning System receiver clutched tight in one hand, water bottle in the other, and mini-pack strapped around my waist. It holds a pair of spare batteries for the GPS plus a pair of Clif bars for me to nibble — and, to ward off emergencies, a calling card that gives ID information, a cellphone, and a few paper towels (don't ask!). A zippered wrist pack contains another ID along with some spare change. Be Prepared, you know ...
Simple Plan: follow an arc, proceeding from home through the woods of Walter Reed Annex to Rock Creek, downstream half a mile to the Georgetown Spur, and then along the Capital Crescent Trail [2] through Bethesda to the Kennedy Center area of Washington DC on the Potomac. From there, assuming my body doesn't betray me, I can jog north along lower Rock Creek past the National Zoo to the Levine School of Music. Roughly 17 miles total, a not-unreasonable distance if I go slowly enough from the start. All asphalt or crushed stone ... smooth, with few major hills ... sporadic water fountains ... some pathways new to me, some segments traversed before ... and plenty of pleasant scenery, both natural and human, along the way.
Simple Works: three hours later I arrive at my destination. The sunny spring day is slightly too warm for comfort at the start, but an intermittent breeze and trees along the course make conditions tolerable grading into comfy as shadows lengthen. I religiously record times and coordinates at every half-mile post along the trail, and force myself to take at least a 45 second walking break as I do so. Apparently this isn't quite enough of a rest, given my current pitiful physical condition. My pace averages ~10:40/mile. A least-squares fit indicates that I slowed by ~2.5 seconds/mile/mile during the journey. That's not the acceleration that I was aiming for.
But I survive — somewhat exhausted, walking most of the final mile, with a couple of small blisters — and feel relaxed and quite happy overall. It's been a good day's jaunt. And for those of a quantitative cartographic persuasion, coordinates (WGS84 datum) for the markers along the Capital Crescent Trail:
| Latitude | Longitude | Remarks |
| 38:59:49 | 077:04:13 | Milepost 1.5 - west of Jones Bridge & Jones Mill roads |
| 38:59:39 | 077:04:41 | 2.0 - just west of Connecticut Avenue |
| 38:59:19 | 077:05:03 | 2.5 - after the trail cuts through Columbia Country Club |
| 38:59:01 | 077:05:24 | 3.0 - before the tunnel under the Air Rights Building |
| 38:58:45 | 077:05:49 | 3.5 - near water fountain and historic display |
| 38:58:23 | 077:06:05 | 4.0 - Bethesda Pool and Little Falls Branch Park |
| 38:57:57 | 077:06:12 | 4.5 - near the bridge over River Road |
| 38:57:34 | 077:06:26 | 5.0 - before the Massachusetts Avenue bridge |
| 38:57:13 | 077:06:44 | 5.5 - middle of Little Falls Branch Park |
| 38:56:49 | 077:06:56 | 6.0 - by the connection with Little Falls Trail |
| 38:56:24 | 077:06:54 | 6.5 - after the Dalecarlia Tunnel |
| 38:56:04 | 077:06:50 | 7.0 - near the Potomac River above Chain Bridge |
| 38:55:37 | 077:06:35 | 7.5 - approaching the Arizona Avenue trestle |
| 38:55:18 | 077:06:14 | 8.0 - before Fletcher's Boathouse |
| 38:54:55 | 077:05:57 | 8.5 - continuing parallel to the C&O Canal towpath |
| 38:54:34 | 077:05:37 | 9.0 - further down the Potomac |
| 38:54:22 | 077:05:08 | 9.5 - more good river views |
| 38:54:19 | 077:04:36 | 10.0 - after intersection with Glover Archbold Park trail |
| 38:54:17 | 077:04:17 | official endpoint on the Georgetown waterfront |
Miles 0 through 1 are on the eastern side of Rock Creek. Last year I recorded them as 39:00:07N 77:02:42W and 38:59:52N 77:03:43W respectively. Construction is now underway to rebuild the damaged railroad trestle bridge near mile 1 — thanks to fine work by the government and citizens of Montgomery County, the Washington Area Bicyclists Association [3], the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail, and others of good spirit ...
(see also CoordinateCollection (19 May 2002), RockCreekTrail (31 May 2002), MarathonCoordinates (3 Oct 2002), MarineCorpsOrdnance (1 Nov 2002), Rocky Run (17 Nov 2002), AnacostiaTributaries (28 Jan 2003), EdwardsFolly (13 Apr 2003), ...)
TopicRunning - TopicPersonalHistory - TopicScience - 2003-05-05
(correlates: CelebrityTakeover, 2004-08-04 - Eight Eight-Eighties, CoarseCorrection, ...)