Cabin John

We will have a nearly full set of courses at Cabin John Regional Park this weekend. We’ve made the Red course a bit longer than normal to make up for the lack of a Blue course. Due to the long and narrow nature of Cabin John, nothing in the park is very far from a trail. For that reason, we have removed the trails from the Brown, Green and Red maps. This has been done to add a bit more challenge for our advanced runners. The beginner course maps (White and Yellow) and the intermediate Orange course maps include the trails.

Due to the extreme amount of rain we have received over the past year, most of the low-lying terrain is somewhat thicker than normal. In general, respect the green areas of the map and beware of difficult running even in some areas mapped as white. I’ve done my best to keep us out of the worst areas, but you will probably encounter disagreeable vegetation. Protective gear is recommended.

The Green and Red courses will each cross Cabin John Creek twice, once in the northern area of the park and again in the south. The weather forecast for this coming week is thankfully calling for mostly dry weather, but it may be difficult to make it cross the stream without getting your feet wet. Bring dry clothes and shoes to change into after your run.

The large playground area just to the west of the main parking lot has been marked as out of bounds. The trail just to the north of the playground and the area between the playground and the park offices to the south are available to runners. On weekend afternoons there are usually a lot of little kids at the playground, and the last thing we would want is for a little one to get run down by an orienteer who has their head buried in their map as they barrel through the area. For your own safety, it would also be a good idea to look up from the map while crossing park roads and parking areas.

Finally, all advanced and Orange runners must cross busy Tuckerman Rd. to reach the northern section of the park and again to get back to the southern section. There will be mandatory crossing points on your maps with controls on each side of the road that you will punch. Your crossing times will then be deducted from your total time. The bottom line is that there is no competitive incentive for taking chances with traffic while crossing the road. There are frequent breaks in the traffic as dictated by traffic signals on either side of the park, so please wait to cross the road when it is safe to do so.