Exploring the WB&A Trail, Not Finding a Geocache

On Saturday, while the kids were pretending to try to nap, I went for a bike ride. I started out by heading down Race Track Road. I was glad to try this stretch of road, because although it's labeled as a bike route, I can confirm it's grossly inadequate as such. I didn't feel unsafe, but I would never send a beginning bicyclist out with such a narrow shoulder and with that quantity and speed of traffic.

suddethb's photo of the geocache site

I set out in search of Horselover Bridge, the closest geocache to our house. After ten or fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, I gave up and headed on. The cache is located near a guardrail that was the recent site of an automobile accident. People have found the cache since the accident, but I couldn't.

The search reminded me of a lot of things that I don't like about geocaching -- standing by the side of the road, searching for a pill bottle while cars whiz by isn't my idea of fun. On the other hand, trudging through the woods and attracting ticks isn't so great either, so I don't know where that leaves me. Perhaps being picky about which caches I look for?

I biked on a little further to the start of the Prince George's County section of the WB&A Trail. If they'd just build the dang bridge, I could have headed into Anne Arundel County here, but I only had one option.

I had previously only biked (or walked) as far as the turnoff for Old Town Bowie, just over 197, so I was eager to see what lay beyond. First, some farms, and then a nice, flat ride past some suburban back yards. Every time I would envy them their easy access to the WB&A, I would look up at the power lines looming above their houses, and the feeling would pass.

I turned around once I reached Hillmeade Road (just because I needed to pick a place).  For future rides, I would like to take the trail a couple of miles further to its end, as well as seeing if I can find anywhere worth riding to via the trail -- perhaps via Highbridge Road.