Mid-Atlantic News

Gettysburg Battlefield Bike Ride 

Join us as we tour the hallowed grounds of Gettysburg Battlefield by bicycle. We'll bike about 18-20 miles and stop along the way at some of the key sites from the 3-day battle such as Culps Hill, Little Round Top, Devil's Den, the Peach Orchard, and the High Water Mark.

We'll be biking mostly along the historic roads in the battlefield with a few short stretches on secondary roads. We'll also have to cross some busier roads along the way. We'll be sharing the road with other bikes, cars, and tour buses but the traffic will be going slowly.

The route will have some short steady hills and a much longer one at Culps Hill, which you can opt to wait out. We may also swing by the Eisenhower Farm during our ride.

Don't want to bike but still want to see Gettysburg? We've got you covered!

The Gettysburg Foundation, which operates Gettysburg National Military Park with the National Park Service, offers a 3-part experience at the Visitor Center: an introductory film, the Gettysburg Cyclorama, and the Gettysburg Museum of the American Civil War.

A New Birth of Freedom, a 22-minute film narrated by Morgan Freeman, offers an overview from the war's first shots to the Battle of Gettysburg to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. First displayed in 1884, the Cyclorama is a 360 degree painting of Pickett's Charge on the third day of the battle. The museum takes you back in time to the Civil War through artifacts and interactive stories.

The Gettysburg battlefield and visitor center are free to visit. Tickets are required for the film, the Cyclorama painting, and the Gettysburg Museum of the Civil War. The cost of the 3-part experience is $20.75/adults, $19.75/seniors 65+. Tickets for the museum only are $14.75.

Other options for those choosing to tour rather than bike include reserving a 2-hour car tour with a Licensed Battlefield Guide ($82 for 1-6 people in one vehicle) or a 2-hour bus tour ($40). 

For more information and to purchase tickets in advance for any of the touring options, go to the Gettysburg Foundation website.

After the ride and tour, we'll all meet for lunch at Appalachian Brewing Company and share our experiences of the day. After lunch it's just a short ride back to the parking lot, but if any bikers want to get in a few more miles, our bike leader has offered to lead an optional ride of approximately 10 miles on the other side of town near Gettysburg College.

This activity is open to members and non-members of Women Outdoors. Non-members are welcome to attend two WO events as guests. On your third event, we'll ask you to join the Mid-Atlantic Region of Women Outdoors. You can also join right now by clicking on this Join Us link.

Click on this link to register. Registration will close on Monday, September 21. When registering, please select either Bike or Tour. 

Yay, the Gathering!

The Women Outdoors 46th Annual Gathering is just around the corner and we hope you're getting excited.

Your friendly regional contacts for the Mid-Atlantic Region are thrilled to announce that we have  the largest group of Mid-Atlantic members to attend the Gathering ever. Last year we broke double digits with 10 Mid-Atlantic members; this year we'll hit 17! 

Everyone will be receiving an email soon from National Women Outdoors with tons of information about the Gathering. Please read through it all and print out whatever will be helpful for you as you prepare for the Gathering.

We have several first-time Gathering goers among us as well as some new and newish Mid-Atlantic members. To help us all find each other at Camp Scatico, look for the Mid-Atlantic table at dinner on Friday night.

We also want to continue our tradition of taking a group photo of our Mid-Atlantic Gathering goers. We'll aim to take the photo after dinner on Saturday night. We'll make an announcement at lunch and dinner on Saturday to remind you.

See you at the Gathering!

Winter walks have their own unique beauty and we're going to experience that beauty at a new locale for us - Terrapin Nature Park just across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on Kent Island on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

We'll explore woodlands, wetlands, meadows, tidal ponds and a sandy beach on our ~4-mile walk on oyster chaff trails. We'll also enjoy  the added bonus of spectacular views of the Chesapeake Bay for part of the walk. Hopefully we'll see some geese, ducks and other waterfowl along the way. Terrapin Nature Park adjoins the popular Cross Island Trail, which we may also explore.

The weather may or may not be frightful, but it could definitely be chilly and windy, so be sure and bundle up. Doggies are welcome to come on this walk but must be on leash at all times.

After the hike, we'll have a brown bag lunch at the park and then head for sweets at either Peace of Cake Bakery or Tasty Toucan, an ice cream shop. (They're only a few steps from each other, so it's always possible we'll have to check out both.)

This free activity is open to members and non-members of Women Outdoors. Non-members are welcome to attend two WO events as guests. On your third event, we'll ask you to join the Mid-Atlantic Region of Women Outdoors. You can also join right now by clicking on this Join Us link. 

Click on this link to register for a Winter Walk on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Registration closes on Thursday, December 4.

Bring:

• Water
• Trail snacks
• Brown bag lunch
• Cash/credit card if joining us for dessert afterwards
• Dress for the weather
• Binoculars

Exploring Two Nature Preserves in Calvert County

We'll meet at Battle Creek Cypress Swamp and step back 100,000 years in time to when cypress swamps were common in this region. We'll start with a quick tour of the nature center to learn a bit of the natural and cultural heritage of the area. From there we'll do a short walk along an elevated boardwalk that will allow us to appreciate the primeval beauty of this rare habitat. 

Next we’ll drive about 15 minutes to Flag Ponds Nature Park and check out its nature center before setting out on a 3-mile round trip walk through the woods to a beach along the Chesapeake Bay. Miocene fossils such as shark teeth, stingray plates, and whale and porpoise vertebrae are sometimes found along the shoreline at Flag Ponds.

After our hike we'll have a brown bag lunch at Flag Ponds. Bring a camp chair or picnic blanket in case there aren't any picnic tables nearby.

Sorry, no doggies on this hike; they're not allowed at Battle Creek Cypress Swamp.

This activity is open to members and non-members of Women Outdoors. Non-members are welcome to attend two WO events as guests. On your third event, we'll ask you to join the Mid-Atlantic Region of Women Outdoors. You can also join right now by clicking on this Join Us link.

Click on this link for more information and to register.

Registration will close on Thursday, November 13.  

We're going leaf peeping in the eastern mountains of Virginia on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, we're just not exactly sure where yet. We'll either go to Shenandoah National Park or Sky Meadows State Park.

Click here for more information and to register.

Our first choice was Shenandoah, but as we feared, the US Government has shut down, throwing a curveball into our plans. Therefore, the exact location of this hike will be updated on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, (We will update the online registration page and will send an email to those have registered). 

If Shenandoah is re-opened, then we will hike a six-mile loop with 800 feet of elevation change that begins and ends at Elkwallow Wayside Picnic area. 

If Shenandoah is still closed as of noon, Oct 18th, then we will change our plans to hike a 4-mile loop with 570 feet of elevation change at Sky Meadows State Park, which is just a few miles north of the Shenandoah Front Royal entrance.  

We have deliberately chosen two options geographically near each other for the convenience of our members who live nearby or are willing to travel to the eastern Virginia mountains. 

Both parks have bathrooms, plenty of parking, and picnic areas, so bring a picnic lunch to enjoy after our hike. Both loops were chosen for their views of the autumn leaves.

We understand if one hike appeals more than the other, that you may cancel once the final location has been announced. We'll send an email to all those registered on Oct. 18th with updated information.

Registration closes on Monday, October 20.

Note: We are aware that park trails may indicate they are open during the shutdown, but the bathrooms will either be closed or not cleaned, and there will not be garbage pickup. In the past, this has made the parks very unpleasant to visit during shutdowns, so we will avoid Shenandoah if the government is still closed.  In fact, Skyline Drive is gated shut as of Oct. 1.

This activity is open to members and non-members of Women Outdoors. Non-members are welcome to attend two WO events as guests. On your third event, we'll ask you to join the Mid-Atlantic Region of Women Outdoors. You can also join right now by clicking on this Join Us link.

Women Outdoors members chose Becky Foreman, one of the co-regional contacts for the Mid-Atlantic Region, to receive the 2025 Jan Brown Memorial Scholarship Award in recognition of Becky’s outstanding service to Women Outdoors in several capacities.

In the past three years, Becky has led two international trips for Women Outdoors. In 2022, Becky organized a 10-day service trip to Peru followed by a trek to Machu Picchu.

Becky tripled the adventure quotient in July 2025 by coordinating an amazing trip to Machu Picchu, the Galapagos, and the Ecuador jungle aboard a riverboat on the Amazon. Her skills, knowledge and encouragement enabled several WO members to enjoy the trip of a lifetime.

[Becky (on right) receives the Jan Brown Award from Kathleen.]

Becky always volunteers to help out at the Gathering wherever she’s needed. At Camp Scully in 2023 and 2024, Becky took on full kitchen responsibilities of menu planning, meal prep and service, and overall kitchen supervision.

Becky also serves as Co-RC of the Mid-Atlantic Region where without exception she makes everyone feel welcomed and supported. She is a great asset not only to the Mid-Atlantic Region but also to the entire Women Outdoors community.

Presented at the 2025 National Gathering, the scholarship award memorializes one of the Founding Mothers of Women Outdoors, our beloved Jan Brown. 

Jan was an historian and office manager whose contributions to Women Outdoors were vast: Jan tracked our organization's history and publications as well as kept a comprehensive annotated bibliography of books written by and about women's voyages and adventures.

As a world traveler who visited far-flung lands, Jan regaled us all with her marvelous photos and stories. In 2019, our 40th year, Women Outdoors established the Jan Brown Memorial Scholarship Award to pay tribute to Jan's countless contributions and her inspiring life. 

NOTE: The complete bibliography (169 pp) and the condensed version (40 pp) as well as an index (4 pp) to both bibliographies are available as PDFs to members of Women Outdoors. Login to your account and navigate to Resources and then click on Members Only from the drop-down menu.

Our fall planning meeting and potluck brunch will be on Sunday, September 14, 2025. Read on for more details.

Ever wonder how we come up with all of our activities for fun and adventure here in the Mid-Atlantic Region of Women Outdoors? 

Well, it all starts with the time-honored tradition of the potluck brunch. Then we knock around ideas for outdoor escapades and such. Next we need a couple of members to volunteer to lead that venture and voila! We have an event to put on the calendar.

(There's also the prosaic part that involves actually setting up the online registration on the website and sending out an email to all WO Mid-Atlantic members and other interested women about the upcoming event, but that's what your friendly regional contacts are for.)

We are a completely volunteer organization and depend on our members for their energy and ideas. Is there an activity you'd like to see on the calendar that we haven't done in the past? A unique place you'd like us to explore? A hidden treasure in your neck of the woods? Something off the beaten path or outside the box? Come to the brunch and share your ideas with us!

We'll provide coffee and tea and ask you to bring a potluck dish to share.

IMPORTANT: The automatic confirmation email will contain the exact meeting location for the brunch (scroll all the way to the bottom of the email). 

Click on this link to register for the potluck brunch and planning meeting.

Registration closes on Saturday, September 13. 

We originally had this bike ride scheduled for July 30, but a heat index of 100-105 dissuaded us from doing it then. We've rescheduled it for Wednesday, September 24, 2025, when the weather should be much more accommodating.

We liked the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail so much when we did it in March that we're taking a second bite of the apple, only this time we'll head north on the rail trail instead of south and we'll stop for lunch at the halfway point before heading back.  

The Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail, sometimes referred to as the North Central Railroad (NCR) Trail, is quite popular so we're going to do the ride on a weekday - Wednesday, September 24.

For this pleasant 21-mile ride, we'll meet in White Hall, MD, and bike 10.5 miles north to New Freedom, PA, and then stop for lunch at Paesano's. Paesano’s, which means friends from the same town and country, specializes in pizza, stromboli, subs, salads and delicious desserts. After lunch we'll bike the 10.5 miles back to White Hall, albeit more slowly, possibly much more slowly.

As this is a rail trail, there is only a very slight grade and the trail surface is crushed stone. Gravel, hybrid, e-bikes or mountain bikes are recommended, although road bikes should suffice. Bring a helmet (required), bike gloves (optional), a bike lock, plenty of water and some snacks.

This activity is open to members and non-members of Women Outdoors. Non-members are welcome to attend two WO events as guests. On your third event, we'll ask you to join the Mid-Atlantic Region of Women Outdoors. You can also join right now by clicking on this Join Us link.

Click on this link to register for the bike ride.

Registration will close on Monday, September 22. 

We liked the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail so much when we did it in March that we're taking a second bite of the apple, only this time we'll head north on the rail trail instead of south and we'll stop for lunch at the halfway point before heading back.

On Wednesday, July 30, 2025, we're biking to lunch on this pleasant 21-mile ride on the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail, sometimes referred to as the North Central Railroad (NCR) Trail.

We'll meet in White Hall, MD, and bike 10.5 miles north to New Freedom, PA, and enjoy lunch at Paesano's. Paesano’s, which means friends from the same town and country, specializes in pizza, stromboli, subs, salads and delicious desserts. After lunch we'll bike the 10.5 miles back to White Hall, albeit more slowly.

As this is a rail trail, there is only a very slight grade and the trail surface is crushed stone. Gravel, hybrid, or mountain bikes are recommended, although road bikes should suffice. Bring a helmet (required), bike gloves (optional), plenty of water and some snacks.

The Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail is quite popular so this time we're going to do the ride on a weekday - Wednesday, July 30.

This activity is open to members and non-members of Women Outdoors. Non-members are welcome to attend two WO events as guests. On your third event, we'll ask you to join the Mid-Atlantic Region of Women Outdoors. You can also join right now by clicking on this Join Us link.

Click on this link to register for Bike to Lunch on the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail.

Registration will close on Monday, July 28. Please note, we need a minimum of four women for the bike ride to be a go. 

Join your Women Outdoors Mid-Atlantic friends as we celebrate our 16th anniversary of outdoor fun and friendship with a hike and potluck picnic at Gambrill State Park in Frederick County, MD on Saturday, June 14, 2025.

Get out your hiking boots and join us at 10:00 a.m. for a moderate ~4 mile hike along the ridge of Catoctin Mountain and under the canopy of a mature hardwood forest. Enjoy views of South Mountain and the Monocacy River watershed as well as structures built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

After the hike, we'll gather at one of the shelters for a potluck picnic. We'll fire up the grill for burgers and hot dogs. BYOburger, hot dog, not dog, veggie burger or grillable item of your choice as well as a side dish or dessert to share. 

Also bring your own mess kit, utensils and trash bag to carry out your trash and recyclables. Gambrill State Park is a trash-free park.

FYI - There are electrical outlets at the picnic shelter if you need to plug something in.

Not up for a hike? Join us around 12:00 p.m. for just the potluck picnic. When you register, just select the button saying you'll be there only for the picnic.

Sorry, no doggies at this event.

This activity is open to members and non-members of Women Outdoors. Non-members are welcome to attend two WO events as guests. On your third event, we'll ask you to join the Mid-Atlantic Region of Women Outdoors. You can also join right now by clicking on this Join Us link.

Click on this link for more information and to register. 

Registration will close on Thursday, June 12th.

Bring:

• Cash for entry fee: $3/vehicle for MD residents; $5/vehicle all other states
  
• Snacks and water for the hike
• Hat, sun block, insect repellent
• Something to grill for yourself
• Side dish or dessert to share with everyone
  
• Water or other non-alcoholic beverage (we don't have an alcohol permit)
  
• Mess kit or your own plate(s), bowl, napkin and utensils
  
• Trash bag - Gambrill State Park is trash free. Everyone must take their trash and recycling home with them.
  
• Optional: camp chair, hiking poles