Hike 3 of 52

September 3, 2017.

Hike: Beaver Marsh Loop
Location: Elk Neck State Park, Northeast MD
Distance: 2.43 miles
Elevation: Unknown

We decided to take a road trip down to the Chesapeake Bay to visit the Turkey Point Lighthouse and hike. Surprisingly, it’s a short drive for us (50miles from our drive way to the trailhead–about an hour and 15min).

We got to the trailhead for the lighthouse and met the ranger at the entrance. He gave us some shitty news: parking lot is full, waiting lot is full. Ugh! Rue gave him her piece of mind by barking at him through the window. He directed us to two other spots where “he can go in the water” (talking about our girl, Rue). Too many people call her a boy because she’s BBD…big black dog. Anyway, we turned around and headed to the boat launch parking lot where another trail I scoped out was located.

Parked, booted up, and hit the trail. Beaver Marsh Loop starts at a connector trail of gravel. You can continue straight and end up in the sand along the Chesapeak Bay or turn left where the trail veers. We stayed straight, Rue had her first steps on sand and immediately started eating it. *facepalm*

We walked along the beach and found the trail again, overgrown and narrow. It continued like this the entire time with some openings near campsites. The loop took us around the marsh, amongst downed trees, overgrowth, and sandy path. There was a suprising uphill small elevation gain within the first 0.25miles. Then it was mostly flat with some small up and downs. I was sweating like Crazy, even though it wasn’t THAT hot. All-in-all it was a decent short hike.

The small overlook near the end/start (depending on which way you start the loop) was the only time you actually had a good view of the pond. We saw a few down trees with beaver teeth markings which was cool. There was a lot of spiders and spider webs across the path-it says it is a lightly trafficked loop and we saw maybe 4 people in the 2 hours we were there. We unfortunately we too hungry to try our luck at the lighthouse trailhead again so we headed back north and stopped at WaWa for some eats with the intentions of returning tomorrow.

Until next time,