Hike 20: Patuxent Research Refuge

Hiked this with Biz a couple weeks ago.  She'd actually been before cuz some of her students did internships here, studying wetlands birds and whatnot.  It's near Laurel and farther north in PG County than I'd realized.  The refuge used to be where Fort Meade was and when you enter, you have to go to the ranger station and register your car and sign a form that says you won't take stuff even though the whole area's been cleared out of anything smacking of potentially confidential military paraphernalia. 

There are a bunch of intersecting loop trails, totally about 15 miles.  We did about 5 of them and saw an interesting collage of nature.  The trail started out with a nicely wooded trail and then opened up onto basically a dirt road that led to a little pond. 

It was very serene and Biz identified woodpeckers and cicadas.  My woodsense is about as good as my directional sense.  :)  She spotted all sorts of wildlife - goldfinches, some green beetle thing, dragonflies, butterflies, and even found deer tracks! 

After a little more hiking down the dirt trail, the path opens up and you see these gigantic power line towers.  There wasn't a whole lot of shade on this part of the trail so we booked it back around to the woodsy part. 

It's a nice little place, but there's long sections of unattractive road so not my favorite hike so far.