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September 8, 2010

Five things to do this weekend in the outdoors

Good news: It's a short work week. Bad news: That's one fewer day to plan this weekend. Here's five suggestions to jump start the brain cells.

1.) Take a whitewater rafting trip on West Virginia’s Upper Gauley River. This weekend marks the first of six consecutive weekends when releases from the Summersville Dam create rapids ranging from moderate Class III to the extreme conditions of Class V. Full-day and multi-day trips can be arranged through the river canyon. Check with Adventures on the Gorge for details. If you can't make it this weekend, fear not, the other Upper Gauley River release dates are: Sept. 17 – Sept. 20; Sept. 24 – Sept. 27; Oct.1 – Oct. 4; Oct. 8 – Oct. 11; and Oct. 16 – Oct. 17

2.) On Saturday, stock up on gear at the Hunting, Fishing and Gun Show at the Baltimore County Game and Fish Protective Association, 3400 Northwind Road, Baltimore. The show, in its 12th year, runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

3.) Go stargazing Saturday with the Westminster Astronomy Club at Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Find out who's shooting arrows at the Swan and take a trip through the Summer Triangle on a Flying Horse. The free program is rain or shine. Call 877-794-0606 to register.

4.) Learn to play Disc Golf Sunday at the Patapsco Valley State Park's McKeldin Area, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The course has two tee boxes and multiple pin positions for every hole. Acquire basic technique and learn rules, strategy and scoring. The cost is $2 per person. Suitable for players 12 years old and up. Follow signs to disc golf parking lot. Bring water. Call 410-461-5005 to sign up.

5.) End the weekend watching thousands of chimney swifts swoop into their roosts in Hampden's chimneys. The Baltimore Bird Club's Swift Watch Team will be gathering at 6:45 p.m. Sunday at either the Mill Center parking lot in Hampden or at the Druid Hill Park Conservatory to count the birds. The results of "Swift Night Out" will be combined with national tallies and listed at chimneyswifts.org. The swifts occasionally switch nightly roosting sites between the Hampden and the conservatory chimneys, so check the BBC website Friday to confirm the location. Come a half hour early if the weather is cloudy or gray; the watch will be cancelled if it's raining. Swift Leader Joan Cwi has details at 410-467-5352 or jafjsc@verizon.net.

Posted by Candus Thomson at 6:00 AM | | Comments (2)
        

Comments

You can also play disc golf at Druid Hill Park!

Yes, and Goucher and my "home" course, Pine Grove. Been playing for 25 years - pdga.com has them all!

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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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