Outdoors Girl: First stop on Park Quest 2011 - Maryland parks and outdoors: Life in Maryland’s great outdoors by Candy Thomson

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June 1, 2011

First stop on Park Quest 2011

Beautiful start to my state park marathon: 24 state parks in seven days, going west to east. It's only 65 degrees right now at Herrington Manor State Park. But humidity is hanging like damp cheesecloth over the 53-acre lake.

Some folks are out fishing early and the park manager, Lieutenant Al Preston is sprucing up the grounds around the lake house.

This Quest requires compass skills. No worries, I have one owned by the late Bill Burton, Maryland's longest-serving outdoors writer, former Evening Sun colleague and good friend. For good luck, his granddaughter bought a little ceramic bear and left it at the park snack shop for me to pick up. Thanks, Kenzie.

Good Quest. Tougher than last year. Preston said it was designed that way to give Questers basic compass skills last season that they could build on this season.

One down and 23 to go. Time to find a cup of coffee before moving on to my next stop, Deep Creek Lake State Park.

Posted by Candus Thomson at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Park Quest 2011

Comments

GO CANDY!! (Also, Go Bruins!)

Love the damp cheesecloth line. Travel safe!!

Posted by: John Diamond | June 1, 2011 9:39 AM

Good luck, Candy! Love the video addition to your blog. Watch out for pop-up thunderstorms this week. Look forward to following your adventures and reading your impressions of Maryland State Parks!

Posted by: Nita | June 1, 2011 10:53 AM

I love the video addition. Good luck this week, and I'll pop up as a surprise on one of your stops. Lois

Posted by: Lois Burton | June 1, 2011 4:55 PM

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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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