Just in Case You Forgot DC was Built on a Swamp - Huntley Meadows

It was a rough weekend, so I decided it would be a good time to knock off one of the shorter hikes in my book, AMC's Best Day Hikes Near Washington, D.C. Even a short , three-mile hike turns around my mood. It is nice that Best Day Hikes has hikes a variety of lengths and difficulty levels. You can choose what you are up to handling given your ability and mood.

Frozen swamps

Huntley Meadows is a wetlands preserve in the heart of Hybla Valley in Alexandria. It's really smack in the middle of the suburbs, but the real beauty of it is that it doesn't feel like it. Once you walk back into the wetlands, you feel isolated, even if there are always a lot of other hikers and joggers. The dog and I walked about 3 miles of the trails.

It is hard to see in this photo, but there is much more vegetation
in the fenced area where deer can't consume it all.

It is a very nice forest, but Huntley Meadows, like so many other forests in this area, is suffering due to an explosion in the deer herds. Huntley Meadows is doing an interesting experiment . Deer have caused a significant amount of deforestation in Fairfax County parks. With no natural predators and no hunting in populous areas, there is nothing to keep their population in check and the deer are eating every thing in sight. The Parks Authority is fencing off selected areas of the park to see how long it would take to re-forest devastated areas. The difference between the fenced and unfenced areas is startling.

It is a not-so-subtle reminder that this area used to be a lot of swamp land. (Foreign diplomats used to get hazard pay for being stationed in DC.) I didn't stray far off the maintained trails because while I don't mind a little mud, I prefer not to be calf deep in it.

Wild onions. Yum!

This time, I did a lot of snooping for interesting plants. I am sure there will be a lot more come spring, but I found a few green ones I recognized and a few I am identifying. (No, I'm not posting the pics until I ID the plants. I'll do my own homework. Until I get stumped.)

One negative: A portion of the trail is boardwalk around the wetlands and the park doesn't allow dogs on that part of the trail. I was very annoyed about that. Sasha the Dog and I ended up doing a lot of doubling back. It upped the mileage, but not the exploration. I'm not much of a fan of trails I can't take my dog on with me. She's my hiking buddy. (Okay, she's not real useful and pees on every tree, but she is cute and she keeps me company.)

I am not sure if I will go back to walk the trails I didn't get to walk because I couldn't take Sasha, but I might when more plants green up this spring. I suppose it depends on my mood.

Just a neat stump