Village Hikers on Anacostia Trail

Last Saturday, I went for a hike with Village Walkers.  The photo above shows a few of the hikers on the Anacostia Trail, which goes along the Anacostia River.  It is a long trail, and we only hiked part of it.  This picture was taken at a point where the trail was near the road, but there were stretches where it was just trail.  It is paved and is used a lot by bikers as well as joggers and pedestrians.

We actually met at the local Lincoln Park and then walked East on East Capitol Avenue to RFK Stadium.   We went through a parking area to connect with the Anacostia Trail.  Here's the view of the stadium from the parking lot:

It was a beautiful day!  After we picked up the trail, we got some nice river views.

The view above looks like it was early in the day, but actually it was about 9:30 am.  It was peaceful and we saw quite a few rowers.  I thought about my friend Chantel Sheaks, who regularly rows on the Anacostia.....but she goes out much earlier in the morning than our hike.  In fact, along our walk we saw the boathouses I had visited earlier in the year with Chantel.

As we got close to the Navy Yards, I was excited to see a snowy egret--looking for a tasty treat.  It was good to see such wildlife in the city.   Bill Matuszeski, who is active in watershed restoration activities, briefed us on efforts to clean the Anacostia, including huge pipes to transport the runoff water to a treatment facility instead of letting it go into the River.

We continued along the now-urban trail, through Yards Park and by Nationals Stadium.  There are numerous huge apartment and condominium buildings that have gone up or are going up.  The area used to be virtually abandoned, and now it has restaurants, housing, grocery and drug stores, and (of course) the baseball stadium.  I was particularly impressed with a building designed to reflect the skyline.  The picture does not do it justice.  

We finished up with a visit to one of the new restaurants, Nando's Peri Peri, where we had delicious Portuguese flame broiled chicken and other treats.

It was a beautiful hike filled with a lot of variety.  Thanks to Ed Missiaen for  great work with this group.  We will miss him and his wife Margaret when they move to San Francisco.