The run so far

• 14 February 2026Rock Creek, northwest 4.25 miles, about 2 hours 20

  The creek two days after rain

  What a winter storm does to the water, the bank and the paths that run beside them, walked while the creek was still loud.

• 7 March 2026Shaw and Logan, northwest 2.75 miles, about 1 hour 50

  An afternoon in the alleys

  Washington's blocks are hollow, and the hollow parts have their own architecture, their own light and, for about a century, their own population.

• 4 April 2026Anacostia riverside, east 6 miles, about 3 hours

  Six miles of the other river

  The city has two rivers and everybody photographs one of them. The other has twenty miles of continuous path, two islands and far better birds.

• 25 April 2026The canal towpath, west 5.5 miles, about 2 hours 40

  The towpath in fog

  A dead straight nineteenth century path, a river running beside it at a different level, and a morning when neither of them could be seen more than sixty yards ahead.

• 16 May 2026Mount Pleasant and the ridge, northwest 3 miles, about 1 hour 40

  The blocks the streetcar built

  Whole neighbourhoods here were laid out around a tram line that stopped running in 1962, and the shape of them still says so on every corner.

• 13 June 2026The avenues, northwest and north 3.5 miles, about 2 hours

  Three and a half miles under the trees

  This is one of the most heavily treed cities in the country, and the canopy is not an accident. It was planted, argued over, lost, and planted again.

• 11 July 2026The northwest hill 4 miles, about 2 hours 15

  Up to the high ground

  The highest natural ground in the District is a school field with two water towers on it, and the walk up to it explains more about the city than the view from it does.

How to read the lines above each piece

The first line of every walk carries three things: the date it was done, the part of the city it sits in, and the legwork, which is distance and rough time on foot at an ordinary pace with stops.

None of it is a recommendation to go now. A towpath that is pleasant in October is a mudslide in March, and every piece says which one it was written in.

What is not here

No opening hours, no admission, no bookings and no prices, because everything described is public ground you can stand on without asking anybody. Where a route passes something with a gate on it, the piece says so and keeps walking.

Suggest one

If you know a block, a stair, a bridge or a line of trees that deserves a walk, write to the desk. Most of what appears here started as somebody else's tip.