A shady dirt trail that travels South from Tenleytown and connects to the Capital Crescent Trail in Georgetown that finally concludes at the Lincoln Memorial.
Start: Sidwell Friends School, Main Entrance
End: Lincoln Memorial
Length: Approx. 0-10.5 miles
Map
Route Guide
The route begins on Wisconsin Avenue in front of Sidwell Friends School (3825 Wisconsin Avenue). Cross the street and enter Rodman Street.
Wisconsin and Rodman
Take the road until it ends, then make a left onto 39th street. A little park should come into view on your right.
The park. Don’t run over any babies.
Enter the park and run to behind the swing sets. You should see a descending staircase, which is the entrance to the trail.
The entrance to the trail.
When you get to the bottom of the downhill, turn left. If you stay on the dirt path, the trail will eventually toss you out onto a green field by Massachusetts Avenue. This part of the trail is mainly uphill but nothing bad.
Massachusetts Field
If you follow the dirt path through Massachusetts Field, you will get to Massachusetts Avenue (surprise!). At this point, you are about half a mile into your run. The entrance to the Glover Archbold Trail is directly across the street, but in order to get there safely, we must make a right onto Massachusetts Avenue and run to the crosswalk, then make a U-turn there to get the other side.
The intersection that is safe to cross.
Be warned that going up to the intersection will be a long (but not very steep) uphill. As you run back down Mass, you will see the entrance to the trail on the right:
This trail will take you all the way to the Capital Crescent Trail in Georgetown. It is divided up into 4 legs, meaning that this trail is composed of 4 mini-trails that make one large trail.
The first leg is about half a mile long and ends on Cathedral Avenue. Cross at the crosswalk and go down the steps to enter the second leg.
End of 1st leg on Cathedral Ave.
The second leg is only about .2 miles long. Nothing really interesting here. The second leg ends on the corner of New Mexico and Garfield.
New Mexico and Garfield
3rd leg of Glover
As depicted above, you will have to cross the road twice to get on the opposite side of the intersection. The red circle indicates the entrance to the 3rd leg. It can be hard to see when all the leaves are out.
The third leg is about 1.5 miles long, so you’ll be in the woods for a while. Note that there are extremely limited bathroom stops until you get to Georgetown. Furthermore, this trail is a bit rockier so watch your footing.There will be some side paths that branch off but ignore those and stay on the main path. You’ll finally arrive at a small creek. Once you’ve crossed it you’re about to exit the 3rd leg.
There will be some side paths that branch off but ignore those and stay on the main path. However, if, at this point, you wish to get onto the Battery Kemble trail instead, you may look for signs for the Glover/BK Connection trail.
Otherwise, you’ll finally arrive at a small creek. Once you’ve crossed it you’re about to exit the 3rd leg.
The creek in the 3rd leg
The third leg dumps you out onto the corner of Reservoir and 41st. You’re going to want to cross the road and run down to the field and find the dirt path that will take you onto the 4th leg.
Reservoir and 41st
Dirt path found!
If you follow the dirt path you’ll see a large side path that extends to the right of the trail. Ignore it.
Stay on the main path
Then, you’ll get to a fork in the path. Go right. There may be a sign that says that area is closed due to hazard, but there’s no hazard. Most likely they forget to remove that sign because DC politicians don’t care about DC trails.
Go right
The 4th leg will end on Canal Road, finally bringing you to Georgetown. At this point, you will be a bit over 3 miles into your run.
You want to get onto the Capital Crescent Trail, which is on the other side of the canal, so you will have to take a tunnel to get there. First, make a left onto Canal Rd. Within just a few meters, you’ll see this:
It’ll be a sharp left turn that turns into a steep curving descent. This path will take you to the tunnel that leads to the Capital Crescent. Be warned, this tunnel is pretty creepy (although never gets hotter than a crisp 60 degrees even during summer).
The tunnel
Once you survive the tunnel, you will find yourself in front of a road. This road is the Capital Crescent Trail. You made it! Make a left on this road to go further downtown.
Make a left on the road
As you go down the Capital Crescent, you will be arriving at your first bathroom stop. Look for the green house to your right. This house is home to the Washington Canoe Club, but more importantly, home to several porta-potty’s. Seeing that those porta-potty’s are technically private property, you should really only attempt to use them if the situation is dire.
The green house to look for
Porta-potty visible!
Anyways, with that taken care of, continue running, and you’ll eventually go through these gates:
Oh yeah, did I mention that right past the boathouse, there are almost always rows of porta-potty’s? You should probably use these instead if you can.
The Potomac River will be on your right. Rather than giving a bunch of specific instructions that are hard to remember, I’ll say this instead: All you have to do is follow the Potomac. If you follow the Potomac, it will take you through Georgetown, past the skating rink, past the Watergate and the Kennedy Center, directly to the Lincoln Memorial.
If you stay on the Potomac, you will literally see the Lincoln Memorial right in front of you.
Once the Lincoln is in view, I don’t think I need to give any more instructions. Once you see it, you have free range of how you want to get there. But once you do, make sure you laugh at all the plebian tourists who drove here.
If you stay on the Potomac, the Lincoln Memorial literally comes into view.
As a DC runner, these postcard-esque views are nothing out of the ordinary.
Notes
This is a great out-and-back run that is mainly in the shade, has very few stoplights, and very few hills. It is also a quick way to get to DC while staying away from all the busy roads for the majority of it. The few downsides are that it has very few bathroom stops and essentially no public transportation options.
As a Sidwell runner, this trail was my go-to run, and probably my favorite trail. The way Glover is split into 4 mini-trails makes it easy for me to know how far I’ve run or how much farther it is until I get to Georgetown. Also, most of it is on dirt, which is easy on the knees.