The Potomac Chapter has offered many backpacking trips in Dolly Sods Wilderness in West Virginia over the past few years, so when the time came to volunteer in this area, AMC leaders David Mong and Jill Watkins stepped up. 

The ideas, hopes, and plans to have an exclusive young members’ event had finally come to fruition on August 13th, 2022 when we organized a camping weekend in Gifford Pinchot State Park, Pennsylvania. This was perhaps the first event of its kind, and hopefully transitions to semi-annual or annual gathering, to attract young members from DMV area, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. 

There is a hidden gem which shines in the spring, summer and fall seasons in the world of paddling and that is Jug Bay.  Located on the Patuxent River, straddling Prince Georges and Anne Arundel counties in Maryland, this tidal embayment and surrounding tidal creeks provides three seasons of paddling entertainment.

My name is Sydney, I am 8 years old, my favorite color is green, I live in Washington DC, and I love animals.  I started camping before I could walk and I still love camping, hiking, and backpacking and I am an AMC member. 

Open roads will carry you, zoom-zoom. Summer and Fall make some of the best times to venture into the great country side, especially the Appalachian Mountains. On the way, rolling along the highway and scenic byways- powered by diesel, ultra fuel or coasting on clean sun power, a euphoria overcomes one seeing the sunlit valleys and winding trails from distance.

In the mid-Atlantic region, we are blessed with lots of places to paddle—thousands of miles of streams and rivers, many ponds, lakes and reservoirs, and over 10,000 miles of tidal Chesapeake Bay shoreline, not to mention all the coastal bays and the Atlantic Ocean.  To help us navigate all these waters, we also have a growing number of water trails.

I grew up in Connecticut and was fortunate to live for much of that time in an old colonial house that sat on half an acre of land but backed up onto many acres of woods and fields, as well as a lake that served as a reservoir for the town.  The fields were full of butterflies and bees and I often saw deer, foxes and groundhogs when I went exploring with my dog Sara or delivered newspapers on my bike in the early morning.  

The Appalachian Mountain Club has launched a community-science project, Flowers and Fauna Along the Appalachian Trail Corridor, through a free app called iNaturalist. This project is a smartphone-oriented extension of AMC’s long-term monitoring program, Mountain Watch, which has been tracking how plants are responding to climate change since 2004. 

On Saturday June 11, the Potomac Chapter joined other hiking and trail conservancy clubs at the annual Round Hill AT Festival in Virginia, where we gathered to celebrate the natural beauty of the Appalachian Trail and ways to protect it.

Parkers Creek in Maryland and Dragon Run in Virginia are definitely two very unique paddles which need to find a place of your growing list of places you really want to experience via a kayak or canoe or SUP.  Given the very special watersheds protecting both waterways, access to each requires some advance planning.  Read on for details.

Many people took up or resumed bicycling during the pandemic. Now, hopefully, some of those new bicyclists will extend their range and do some exploring by bicycle. The Potomac region is a great place to do that.  You can pick out attractions within the city and usually (usually!) get there via bike paths, on-road bike lanes, or low-traffic streets. There is also an extensive network of trails.

Members of the Potomac and New York/North Jersey Chapters joined together in April 2021 for three days paddling and camping on the majestic upper James River in western Virginia as the currents carried them through the Blue Ridge Mountains.  This was an expedition paddle: participants carried their gear and food down river from campsite to campsite as they paddled though the traditional lands of the indigenous Monacan peoples. 

If you live in the Washington DC metropolitan area (i.e., the District, Alexandria, and the counties of Prince Georges, Montgomery, Arlington, and Fairfax), are you aware that there are over 450 miles of multiuse trails available to you? Or that there is an organization, the Capital Trails Coalition (CTC), working to create and support those trails? Do you know that the AMC Potomac Chapter is a member of the CTC?

It has been a long time since the Potomac Chapter connected in person. Of course, we’ve had hiking and backpacking trips and other activities, but we haven’t been together in person, as members and friends since our annual meeting in November 2019. However, the weekend of September 30-October 3, a group of nearly 30 Potomac Chapter members gathered at Pocahontas State Park, outside Richmond, Virginia, for our first (maybe) annual, Chapter Weekend Gathering. 

Various responsibilities had kept us from any of our backpacking gear for almost four years, so before doing a tough trip this summer, we loaded our packs and laced up our rugged, high-topped boots. We decided to do the Pulpit and Pinnacle loop and carried the same weight as would on our vacation trek. We were mostly concerned how we, not our gear, would do.

There's a fundamental truth that all outdoorspeople know: The world is big and the world is small.  I believe this is why we take to the woods, seek the next summit, and worship the stars.  It’s the fundamental truths that we take for granted, because of their sweet simplicity.

Mattawoman Creek is a tidal fresh Potomac River tributary just 30 miles south of Washington, but a world away. You can launch in Mattingly Park, Indian Head, MD, and paddle up the creek into a wide streamlined with green tidal marshes.

The annual Novice Backpacking Workshop, which will take place at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia, has a little something for anyone seeking to build their comfort level, skills repertoire, and essentials list for a night or nights out on a trail. The clinic starts with two nights camping not far from our vehicles, so attendees can set up camp with as much help as needed, and with some comforts typically left behind when backpacking.

In 2018, AMC updated its Code of Conduct (“the Code”) to better reflect the organization’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).  The Code is meant to help guide and inspire behavior that creates a welcoming community.