Day Hike, Seneca Creek State Park, MD Revisited

This moderate 5.9 mile lollipop loop hike happened on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. Participants were Chris Isham, Tim Schmidt, Charlie Johnson and me.

I did this hike back in August, 2023. You can read about it

Here.

A number of people wanted to do this hike and asked me if I’d lead it. Since I hiked it before and enjoyed this one I said sure. So we agreed to meet where the Seneca Creek Greenway crossed Riffle Ford RD south of Germantown, MD at 9:30 AM. Tim and I carpooled up from VA. Charlie arrived first at the trailhead. Then Tim and myself. Then Chris.

We started around 9:15 AM. We took the Seneca Creek Greenway about a half mile to just past the Great Seneca Highway overpass. We then switched to the Mink Hollow Trail. We would be hiking this trail for about a mile. There were some hills but the terrain was not too bad. After about 45 minutes we made it to the intersection with the Lake Shore Trail. We took a group image, then started the counterclockwise loop around the lake.

It was initially cold when we started this one. Temps were in the low 40’s. However, when we started moving it got more comfortable. And the temps rose up to around 50 degrees by the end of the hike. Again, there were a number of coves in this lake. When we thought that we were at the eastern edge of Clopper Lake, we would turn a corner and there would be more lake. The trail looked well used. It would rise and fall while going around the lake but the up’s weren’t too bad.

When we got around to the far side of the lake the trail had a lot of roots on it. This made footing a bit more tricky. But we managed. We got to the western side of the lake at around 11:00 AM and passed next to busy Long Branch RD. We got to the boat launch at around 11:30 AM and took a well deserved break.

While sitting there I was thinking that the four of us were all in our 70’s now and had been hiking with each other for between 25 and 30 years. I was amazed and thankful that we could all still do this. After about a 20 minute break we started out on the last leg of the Lake Shore Trail. After about a quarter mile we walked up a small hill, across a parking lot, took a short trail and came out to the park road.

We then picked up the Long Drought Trail for the last mile of this hike. We had some great conversations during this trip. after about a half mile we switched to the Wetlands Trail. We again passed under the Great Seneca Highway overpass, passed an informational plaque and then an observation tower. After a short break at the observation tower we then were within a quarter mile of our vehicles.

Suddenly, we came upon 3 or 4 big blowdowns that blocked the trail completely. We We tried to follow defacto trails that others had created but could not find where this trail was supposed to go. After about 10 minutes Tim found the small streambed that we were supposed to cross. We crossed it, got back to the “lollipop stick” of this hike, got back to our vehicles, said our goodbyes and went home. I reported the blowdowns to the park office.

I felt good after doing this hike. And it seemed to go faster than it did last time. Maybe, it was because I knew where I was going this time.

Mike C