MD. B EA C H 29 D.C. Chevy D MD. R. Chase D.C. N.H. AVE. CONNECTICUT AVE. MILITARY RD. MILITARY RD. 13TH ST. Pounding the Pavement The Park 16TH ST. 1.7 miles ROCK (With Your Boots On) NEBRASKA AVE. CREEK . D R S.D. AVE. FINISH: Fort Reno T Rock Creek N P ARK A Park G R Suburbs Park Tennis E G 400 O RIGGS RD. 409 feet Center R feet in the City G I Iowa and 1 3 miles A A B N V Arkansas r O E o R . avenues a T START: d H Rock Broad Fort Carter The area around Third and Webster 13th and 171 feet Creek Branch C DAVENPORT ST. Br Barron A Washington’s Reno streets shows a diversity of homes. P FORT U streets I T Park Amphi- O L TOTTEN 95 feet 300 highest point is in theatre S . T Fort Reno Park. E . Finish V Fort Otis and A S Endless Totten A Park Place S N N.H. AVE. Park A Northwest 200 feet K FORT RENO PHOTO BY JAMES M. THRESHER — THE WASHINGTON POST; OTHER PHOTOS BY STEVEN GINSBERG — THE WASHINGTON POST R 2 miles IOWA AVE. A Rock . Sherman This old clunker probably hadn’t been on the open road in decades. 200 TENLEYTOWN- DR Creek H Circle AU C Cemetery A E B 5TH ST. Suburbs BUCHANAN ST. Endless Northwest | 2 miles Heart of Rock Creek Endless The in the 29 Petwort h WEBSTER ST the City Cemetery Northwest Park City 13TH ST. Rock Creek We left the cemetery and headed been there since about 1983. 2.5 miles 1.5 miles 2 miles 1.7 miles 1.3 miles 100 Cemetery west along Webster Street. The By now the midmorning heat 1.5 miles roads were quiet and mellow on a was getting to us, and we were TOTAL D ISTANCE: 9 miles Grant . Circle D U.S. Saturday morning. People on their thirsty. A quick stop for a drink at WISCONSIN AVE. R H Armed stoops said hi. A couple of guys Flip It Bakery and Deli at Buchan- C R NEBRASKA AVE. U H Forces C with boxing gloves sparred in an al- an Street and Georgia Avenue re- The Heart of the City | 2.5 miles K EE R Retirement ley. The randomness and diversity vived us. But about 20 minutes lat- N.H. AVE. C K Home Laris and I met at 13th and U Some streets looked more invit- The trails in Rock Creek Park offer a OC of the city were on show here: In er, I was regretting not getting a The architecture turns modern along GEORGIA AVE.- R streets NW— strategically located ing than others, but if we weren’t American leafy Davenport Street NW. quiet respite from the busy city. PETWORTH one moment we saw the stately St. couple of cookies and an extra bot- next to Metro and a Starbucks. Our intrigued by one, we just went up Univ. Gabriel Parish off the wide and tle of water for the trek across CLEVELAND plan was to walk straight up 13th, another. Before we knew it, we PO pretty Grant Circle, and in the next Rock Creek Park. PARK PL. PARK R 16TH ST. PARK TER but we took one look at that hill and were walking uphill on Rock Creek ST OTIS PL. we saw a beat-up car parked behind ST. GABRIEL PARISH 26 Grant Cir. NW. decided it’d be better to grab a little Church Road, next to the U.S. a locked chain-link fence outside FLIP IT BAKERY AND DELI breakfast first. Nothing a quick de- Armed Forces Retirement Home’s someone’s house. Pretty sure it had 4532 Georgia Ave. NW. tour over to the Florida Avenue golf course, an odd site in the cen- PARK RD. CONNECTICUT AVE. MASS. AVE. Mount Grill on 11th Street couldn’t solve. ter of the city that I later discov- Pleasant GEORGIA AVE. Loving this urban hike thing. ered is a nine-hole course for resi- Wash. Nat’l IRVING ST. Zoo A half-hour and a plate of bis- dents of the home, though the pub- Nat’l R Colum b i a o Cathedral c Hei ghts cuits and gravy later, we ascended lic can join for a $450 annual fee. k C The Park | 1.7 miles 13th (Laris was panting the whole At the gate of the complex of r. COLUMBIA way) and stopped at Clifton Street, beautiful historic buildings, some HEIGHTS Laris is a great guy to take a ous part of the hike. Up and down where we turned back toward the of which date to the 1850s (Abra- COLUMBIA RD. hike with because he knows all we went through the park, from M M HARVARD ST. ICH city for a sweeping view of down- ham Lincoln used one as a summer c IGA kinds of facts about the city, in- about 100 feet above sea level to M N AVE. i town. We then zigzagged through home), a veteran crossed in front l cluding where Chandra Levy’s 300 feet, crossing the creek and l a Columbia Heights and Petworth, of us, an American flag attached to Heart of n body was found. We apparently winding our way out to the other R the City e cutting east on Harvard Street, the back of his wheelchair flapping Howard s walked right past there as we side of the city. We didn’t pass too 2.5 miles Univ. er walking north for a stretch on 11th, in the wind. vo crossed through Rock Creek Park. many people, except along Beach ir crossing Georgia Avenue on Park U.S. We entered the park near the ten- Drive, and the trees provided a FLORIDA AVENUE GRILL G l over Naval CLIFTON ST. Road and then hitting Otis Place. 1100 Florida Ave. NW. P a r k Observatory nis center at Carter Barron Amphi- shady and quiet respite from the We saw signs trumpeting black theatre (there are bathrooms rest of the city. The final stretch was F U.S. ARMED FORCES RETIREMENT LO R pride, a front yard that looked like HOME Rock Creek Church Road and ID there!). We walked into the woods a steep decline along Grant Road. Florida A Upshur Street NW. Y. an eclectic yard sale (except that KW A Rock Creek Cemetery has an and quickly picked up a trail for P Ave. V ROCK CREEK PARK TENNIS CENTER . E nothing appeared to be for sale), a PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S COTTAGE AT CR Grill . 7TH ST. international feel and a nice view. what was definitely the most strenu- 16th and Kennedy streets NW. OCK wrought-iron gate straight out of THE SOLDIERS’ HOME Rock Creek R Start Church Road and Upshur Street NW. Kalorama U ST. New Orleans and a morning soccer Open daily for tours. $12, ages 6 to 12 MASS. AVE. U ST./ game just getting underway. $5. www.lincolncottage.org. 1 CARDOZO R.I. AVE. Suburbs in the City | 1.3 miles Shaw 13TH ST. 14TH ST. We exited the park onto Daven- in the city required a little hunting, port Street, and there was a mo- but we kept heading up until we Rock Creek Cemetery | 1.5-mile loop RESERVOIR RD. WISCONSIN AVE. ment when I felt a bit like Dorothy found the nondescript round Arlington Cemetery gets all the wide circle through a maze of FOXHALL RD. in “The Wizard of Oz.” It seemed plaque in the ground heralding publicity in the region, but this one streets to get all the way back to the FLORIDA AVE like we weren’t in Washington any- that we were a whopping 409 feet is definitely worth a look. We en- front gate: a total of 1.5 miles. But After a hike up steep 13th Street, more. Instead of blocks of row- above sea level. M tered through an ornate iron gate we didn’t mind. The cemetery had AC you will be rewarded with views of houses, we looked up into the trees I gotta say, the view from there ART HU R.I. AVE. Logan and immediately saw sculptures a distinctly international feel with R B the city and some neat houses. Circle at modern homes with walls of could most charitably be described LVD 50 (including the statue commonly re- American graves followed by Rus- Georgetown Georgetown 23RD ST. windows built on giant steel poles. as very, very lame. A couple of Univ. ferred to as “Grief”) and grave sian ones, followed by stones with CANAL RD Our goal was to find the city’s trees, a radio tower and a road off sites that looked like tiny versions Chinese writing. This is where we M ST. The Florida Avenue Grill is a good high point in Fort Reno Park, somewhere. Mount Everest (a of homes spread over 86 acres. saw a deer. The cemetery sits on M ST. CONN. AVE. place to start — because you can’t which turned out to be a long, mere 28,626 feet higher) this was PA AVE From one vantage point, we could some of the highest ground in the P WH hike on an empty stomach, right? steady climb up Davenport. The not. But I bet Mount Everest o t o ITEH N.H. AVE. m a URS see row upon row of the small, city, giving us a good look to the c R T F houses soon got a bit more conven- doesn’t have a Whole Foods filled i v e RWY white tombstones of veterans, laid northwest at Walter Reed Army r K ST.