Longer Route
March 22, 2026 10:14 am #active#walking#hiking
Longer Route
Visual description
A brown wooden trail sign mounted on a post reads "Longer Route" with an arrow pointing right, and "Shorter Route" with an arrow pointing left. The sign stands among bare and lightly leafed trees, with dry brown leaves covering the ground and a large tree trunk to the left.
I went out to Greenbelt Park in Maryland to walk the Dogwood Trail. It's a simple loop, about a mile, with an extra outer stretch of roughly 0.3 miles. Easy and steady, nothing challenging about it.
Partway through, I hit a sign pointing to a longer route on the right and a shorter route on the left. That decision took no time at all. I went right.
One of the reasons I like getting out early is that I don't feel rushed. When I see something like a longer route, I know I have the time to take it without thinking twice. The longer path brought the total to about 1.31 miles, which still felt short, so I went around again and doubled it to 2.6 miles.
It was a nice walk on a cool March morning, everything still mostly brown with only a few hints of green holding on. The leaves haven't come in yet, but they're close.
The Dogwood Trail is also a good starting point for anyone nearby who's just beginning to walk farther than usual. A place to build up before taking on longer walks or hikes elsewhere.