Skookum Traveler: Minor’s Hill (VA)

This one was a peak of baby steps, 10.5 miles worth, from our front step in Glover Park to the highest hill in Arlington, Virginia—rising 459 magnificent feet above sea level. Actually, because of the snow and the cold and the fact that I still needed five summits to complete my Sixty with only a week left to accomplish the feat, I was getting desperate. So by my reasoning, if I walked ten miles to get up a hill, then that darn hill counts. And I wouldn’t have to drive anywhere to do it.

56. Minor’s Hill: On January 25^th, I walked down through Georgetown, out along three pleasant miles of the Potomac Heritage Trail past frozen waterfalls, then west up Donaldson Run and into the burbs for my final assault on the Minor massif.

It turns out that Minor’s is an interesting hill in history. The Minor family settled it and one of them was friends with President James Madison who briefly took refuge there in 1814 when British forces set fire to the White House and Capitol during the War of 1812. Madison was our fourth president, the father (i.e., wordsmith) of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and hubby of Dolley. The Hill was later occupied variously by both Union and Confederate troops jostling for territory during the Civil War. Today, the old stories are buried beneath asphalt streets and a suburban neighborhood. I walked up to the highest bit of dirt I could find and snapped a photo. The East Falls Church Metro station, just a mile or so down the hill, made for an easy return home.

Miles (RT): 12.0 miles; elevation gain: 400 feet
Cumulative mileage and gain: 268.2 miles / 66,750 feet