CWL 2020: #5 Still Creek

Still Creek is a 3.5 mile long tributary of the Northeast Branch in Prince George's County. It flows from the Shrom Hills area of Greenbelt, underneath the Beltway and the BW Parkway and then mostly through Greenbelt National Park (GNP) where it and Brier Creek meet up just a few feet before flowing into the Northeast Branch. A trail along the creek would mostly serve GNP, but would also be a nice east-west trail, especially if it crosses either one or both of the highway barriers. A second creek which NPS calls Deep Creek, flows from the park's Good Luck Parking Lot down to Kenilworth Avenue and a trail there would also be useful.

The bad news is that such trails are extremely unlikely. Neither PG County nor NPS has any plans to build them, though the county does have plans to build along Brier Creek (more on that later). Trails along the park side of Good Luck and Kenilworth might even be too much to ask and the creeks are even tougher since NPS sees the creeks as important to preserve. 

East of the park, the streams are buried, channelized and squeezed by residences. 

If NPS would allow a trail from the Park Road to Kepner Court (along the north tributary) and one along Good Luck Road; and then bridges or underpasses could be constructed to get the trail over and under the two highways it would create a useful, mostly off-road trail between the ATTS and the southeast side of Greenbelt. But that's all pretty unrealistic at this point.

Comments

[Mbike]

On my wish list is building multiuse natural surface trails through that unused eastern portion of the park. There isn't much elevation but could probably get some fun flow trails through there.

[Purple Eagle]

There is a dead-end service road that runs north from Good Luck through the eastern portion of Greenbelt Park. It disappears when it reaches Still Creek. I once managed to follow the service road and then Still Creek under both north and southbound BW Parkway (on foot of course).

I agree that these proposed trails (along the tributaries) would be useful but I think you are correct that they are unlikely to happen. A trail across the Beltway would be a big improvement for connectivity between East Greenbelt and the Park as well as Berwyn/College Park.