Last time we hiked with Erin and Alden at Baltimore Woods, I had suggested that next time, whenever that might be, we should meet at the lower entrance and hike some different trails. Under the influence of our small creatures of habit, we tend to get stuck in ruts of hiking the same favorites over and over, neglecting other very nice trails. Today we remembered our vague plans and got to experience the pleasure of the Field to Forest and Boundary Trails. Hurray!
From the lower parking lot, there are two trailheads. We took the right fork onto the Field to Forest Trail, which climbs over a low forested ridge then crosses a field. The trail consists of a mowed grass strip through goldenrod and milkweed. We passed an unmarked split and wondered about it, but kept going as planned.
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| the eponymous field of the Field to Forest Trail |
Based on the trail map posted at the lot, we had intended to turn right off the Field to Forest Trail onto the Boundary Trail at an intersection in the woods, but we came to another junction with an unmarked trail, and passed that, too. This part of the park appears to see less use than the main entrance, and with the leaves down, it just looked like a deer path or a use trail. We soon realized we "should" have taken it when we came back out at the labyrinth near where we started.
No problem... after our counter-clockwise circuit of Field to Forest, we decided to take the Boundary Trail clockwise, and headed west through the valley, passing the familiar turn-offs for the Valley and Overlook Trails.
Then we were back in "new" territory again. Well... new for Alden anyway. Frankie goes to summer camp here, so he knows all the trails, and Erin and I are former campers. We also hiked a wider variety of trails here before having kids. But it still felt exciting to be somewhere different!
The summer camp uses special names for locations with the campers that aren't on any maps. When we got to this stream, we could see there was a fire circle with log benches around it (partly visible behind and to the left of the kids below). Frankie said this is where they cook hot dogs and make s'mores. I was thrilled when he said they call the stream the Laughing Brook! Love the nod to Thornton Burgess. The boys spent quite a long time here playing.
As we were re-approaching the Field to Forest Trail, fully expecting to pop back out at the unmarked intersection we'd passed in the woods (the one we meant to take), we passed a junction that led down to a small pond. The trail map illustrates this as a dead end, but Frankie piped up to inform us that it was not a dead end after all, but would connect back up. He was very eager to go that way, so we deferred to his knowledge... and he was right. After wrapping north around the small pond and passing a cattail marsh, the trail popped through a hedgerow and re-joined the Field to Forest Trail -- at the first unmarked junction we passed, in the field right near the start of our hike.
It worked out perfectly, even better than the hike we had planned, since it ended up being longer and avoided repeating half of the Field to Forest Trail. However, Baltimore Woods really needs to step up their trail marking at intersections, and update their trail maps. Ahem. We only pulled this off with the help of our camper guide. What about those poor folks with no Frankie? MapMyRide tracked the hike at 2.7 awesome miles.
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