Sometimes, my kvetching to the Rock Creek Park superintendent actually results in something getting done. Yesterday, I asked to have the vegetation along the paved trail trimmed back.
There are numerous spots along the hiker/biker path where the vegetation is overgrowing the pavement and needs to be pruned back. While the grass between the trail and the road regularly gets cut, the bigger bushes, shrubs, and trees never get trimmed. There are three main locations where the encroaching vegetation is making the available width of the trail even narrower than it already is.
The first spot is under the Duke Ellington Bridge (Calvert Street). The attached photo (taken from a camera mounted on my bike) shows a runner stopping to let me by. At this point, I’m as far right on the available pavement as I can get without going into the mud. You can see where the runner is standing well on the pavement but in the leaves and branches of the shrubbery.
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The next section is along the zoo fence between the Beach Drive entrance and the Klingle Road bridge where the bamboo growing along the fence is squeezing the trail. I often encounter people heading south who are forced to the left side of the trail to avoid getting hit by the bamboo branches.
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Another section is between the Porter Street ramp from Beach Drive and the Bluff Bridge where the trail crosses the creek. This section rarely gets cut and is overgrown for most of the summer.
I regularly see the grass getting cut in the park and have even seen the maintenance men trimming the grass along the road’s curb. It’s frustrating to see this beautification being done to the roadway every two or three weeks without the same effort going into the more important work of maintaining a safe and usable trail.
And today, I received a response.
Thank you for reporting this. A work order has been created by Maintenance at Rock Creek Park and they plan to go out and address this problem soon.
I just wish they would respond to my requests to clear all the mud and sand off the trail.
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