No, this has nothing to do with Baltimore's professional football team. Loch Raven is one of the city's three drinking-water reservoirs, and it's going to be abuzz with activity this Saturday (May 8).

To cap off National Drinking Water Week, the city is inviting the public to come out and see where their water comes from. You can even walk out on the 82-foot high dam holding back some 23 billion gallons of water from the Gunpowder Falls and a batch of smaller creeks and streams.   

Engineers from Gannett-Fleming, the firm that managed a reconstruction of the dam completed five years ago, will be on hand to explain the mammoth $28.8 million overhaul. And there'll be opportunities to learn about the history of the Gunpowder valley and how the water system serving the city and surrounding counties operates. 

For you history buffs, this is the 100th anniversary of what we know as the region's modern water system - when the city began to disinfect the water and laid plans to build the dam at Loch Raven and a water treatment plant at Montebello.

Not far from the dam, in the Pines area on Loch Raven Drive, there'll be other activities, including exhibits of live local wildlife from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There'll also be demonstrations on fly fishing, and guided hikes through the forest surrounding the lake. 

And, if you're feeling really energetic, the Gunpowder Valley Conservancy could use some more volunteers to help plant trees around the reservoir on Saturday.  The group aims to get nearly 800 in the ground this season, adding to the more than 18,500 it's planted in the valley since the 1990s to help protect the water supply from pollution.  To take part, contact Peggy Perry at pperry@gunpowderfalls.org

Water rates may be going up again - that's another story - but at least some things about the water system are free.  This is one of them.  Plan on bringing a lunch, and wear hiking shoes.  Call 410-396-3500 for more information.

And if you can't get out to Loch Raven just north of the Beltway, take a stroll around scenic Lake Montebello at 3901 Hillen Road in northeast Baltimore.  To commemorate the system's centennial, the city has mounted a series of historical photographs depicting the construction of all these facilities.

To get to the dam, take Cromwell Bridge Road from the Beltway, then left on Loch Raven Drive just past Sanders Corner restaurant.  For the wildlife, fly-fishing and hikes keep driving up Loch Raven Drive past the dam about two miles.  For a map to Loch Raven, go here.  For Montebello, here.

(2005 Baltimore Sun photos by Christopher Assaf and David Hobby)