River Hill Walk: A quiet 3-mile stroll along a wooded pathway

"Hey, driver! Follow that squirrel!" Riley and Cody board a taxi
at a neighborhood tot lot in River Hill.

We took a little walk Saturday along the pathways in the River Hill village. This was a nice, quiet walk, mostly wooded, and sometimes crossing small streams and passing by tot lots.

After forecasts of rain and thunderstorms for Saturday, we were surprised to see the skies clear up and the sun come out. So we decided to try out this walk that I've been wanting to do for quite some time. We started at the River Hill neighborhood pool, which can be reached by taking the Great Star exit off Rt 32, turning right at the light, and taking the first right onto Trotter Road. We parked in the pool parking lot, went down a set of stairs, and then crossed Summer Sunrise (a quiet street) to begin the walk on the pathway. We relied on the Columbia pathways map, a Google map, and Richard's GPS when necessary to map out the walk.

River Hill section, from the Columbia pathways map

The day turned out to be much hotter than anticipated, and the walk was a little longer than anticipated--thanks to a few wrong turns. So the pooches were a bit pooped after it, and so were we. I think we did just over 3 miles on this one, but I would probably shorten it a bit for a group walk.

Next time we do this I will follow the walk with a trip to the River Hill Village Center. There is a Maggie Moo's there, which I think would make a perfect post-walk place to head.