A Random January Road Trip
Sunday morning, I awoke early to a cold rain, which was forecast but I had hoped would not materialize. There were numerous wildlife refuges in the Greater Washington area that I had planned to visit, weather permitting. Instead, I stopped at the National Wildlife Visitor Center and spent an hour wandering through its various educational exhibits. I then made my way from the Center, located in the South Tract of Patuxent Research Refuge, to the Wildlife Loop in the refuge’s North Tract.
Before I could enter the North Tract, I had to register with the Fish & Wildlife Service and sign a consent and indemnification form that reads, in part:
WARNING: This property is a former Army base and contains unexploded munitions…. Access to Patuxent Research Refuge is granted upon the express condition that the United States, its agents and employees…shall be free from all liabilities and claims for damage and/or suits…arising from any activities conducted on this refuge.
Decorating the walls of the Visitor Contact Station are pictures of ordinance discovered on refuge property, which at one point was part of nearby Fort Meade and was used as a training facility during World War I. Throughout the refuge, there are visible remnants of the former training sites, including firing ranges still utilized by the Army. Had I visited on any day other than Sunday, I would have been turned away as the North Tract is typically closed for hunting or military activities.
After completing the requisite paperwork, I proceeded around the southern portion of the Wildlife Loop, stopping to take pictures at a wildlife observation area and at New Marsh. Reaching a closed portion of the loop, I turned around and headed to its northern half, stopping at Lake Allen before returning to the contact station and departing the refuge. On account of the weather, visibility was generally limited and the only wildlife I observed was a rafter of wild turkeys frantically running into the woods upon sighting my car.
My northward progress was severely hampered by rain and, upon entering New England, snow. Leaving Maryland around noon on Sunday, I arrived in New Hampshire in the early hours of Monday morning. Though I did stop in Connecticut for dinner with friends, that delay did not compare with the one caused by a 20-mile-per-hour, single-file line of vehicles navigating the heavy, wet snow through Massachusetts and into southern New Hampshire.
Complete galleries for each stop are available on Picasa:
- Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
- John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum
- Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
- Fort Mott State Park
- Patuxent Research Refuge
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