Montgomery Explorers - Montgomery Parks

All participants must be registered Montgomery Explorers Club Members to walk.
Register in this FREE program by visiting ActiveMONTGOMERY.
Organized in-person walks will be held on Mondays at locations throughout the county.
Our cheery and qualified volunteers lead walks.
Logistics about these walks will be sent after registration is complete.
Walk details will also be online by the Friday prior to the upcoming walk.

The most up-to-date schedule is below. Advanced registration is not required for the weekly walks, but you must be a registered Montgomery Explorers member. Members will receive complete details about meeting locations, distance and trail features the week prior to the scheduled walk.

Beginning on Monday, September 8, all Montgomery Explorer walks will begin at 10am.

Address: 2000 Shorefield Road, Silver Spring, MD 20902 (Pavilion G)

Maximum Miles: 4.1

Surface: Mostly Natural Surface

Amenities: Restrooms

Description:

In the past, we usually stuck to the paved trails at Wheaton Regional Park. For this walk/hike, we will focus mostly on the network of natural surface trails, many of which were renovated and several new ones constructed as part of the new Wheaton Regional Park Master Plan approved in 2022. Note that we will gather in Pavilion G rather than our usual Pavilion A for this hike – when you come in the Shorefield Road entrance, bear right into the lot on your right (rather than our usual one on the left) and park near Pavilion G, which faces the parking lot (follow the Explorers signs). There are restrooms (older but functional) near Pavilion G.

We will access the natural surface trails by walking on paved/gravel surfaces from Pavilion G for about 0.5 miles, passing the Carousel and turning left onto a paved/gravel path that leads down to Pine Lake, crossing the train tracks. At the 0.5-mile point, we cross a small bridge onto the natural surface Raven’s Run trail and walk that trail for about 0.21 miles, where we will cross over a paved road to continue straight on Raven’s Run until we come to the intersection with the Pine Lake Trail. After about 0.25 miles on the Pine Lake Trail, we will turn right onto the Spicebush Trail and follow it for 0.2 miles where it intersects with the wide Wheaton Way trail. Wheaton Way is a new outer loop trail in the eastern section of the Park. We will turn left onto Wheaton Way and follow it around clockwise for about 1.65 miles where we come to the intersection with the Timberdoodle Trail. We will go straight on Timberdoodle briefly and turn right onto Raven’s Run, which we will follow for about 0.40 miles until we return to the intersection with the Pine Lake Trail. The last 0.75 miles will retrace our steps back to Pavilion G from that intersection for a total of about 4.1 miles.