Outdoors Girl: Day Three: Make or Break Time - Maryland parks and outdoors: Life in Maryland’s great outdoors by Candy Thomson

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July 9, 2010

Day Three: Make or Break Time

The whole Park Quest 24/7 hinges on today.

With four state parks spread out in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, Day Three becomes a time challenge because of the potential for traffic snarls.

In order to succeed, nearly everything else has to work flawlessly. I have to find my way to each park--Seneca Creek in Montgomery County, Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary in Prince George's County and Soldiers Delight and Patapsco Valley in Baltimore County--and then complete each puzzle quickly.

After two long days in the heat, I'm not sure my brain is up to the task.

The first Quest, solving "The Case of the 20-foot Invader," looks as ominous as it sounds. Maybe I should have done the TV game show thing and set up a bunch of lifelines to call.

Too late. I'm loading up the car and heading out soon. It won't take me long to figure out if I've bitten off more than I can chew.

Think good thoughts for me, Questers.

Posted by Candus Thomson at 5:42 AM | Permalink
Categories: Park Quest 2010

About Candus Thomson

In a world of paper vs. plastic and candy mint vs. breath mint, my early memories involved a debate about the merits of freshwater vs. saltwater.

On the one hand, a great uncle’s fishing cabin on the Susquehanna River beckoned, but so did family gatherings on the Jersey Shore.

The correct answer, thankfully, was, “both.”

As The Sun’s outdoors writer for more than a decade, I’ve fished across Maryland in one day, hiked the width of the state in one hour, camped overnight in the median of I-95 to experience the wildlife between the fast lanes and chased mountain bikers in a 24-hour marathon race.

Those are some of the highlights. I’ve also fallen in a raging Gunpowder River during a trout survey (photo available upon request), had a shark spill its guts on my clothes and been stuck in a sub-freezing Vermont wilderness with men armed with flintlocks and hatchets, shuffling along on ancient wooden snowshoes.

And, in my travels I’ve met lots of you, who share a love of the outdoors and the good times and mishaps that go along with it.

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