Fri, Jan 1 — Northwest Branch & Copperhead Ridge Trails · 2.6 mi

Burnt Mills East Special Park, 10701 Columbia Pike, Silver Spring.  The trail drops in right alongside the creek and opens with its most technical stretch: a short rock scramble with real boulder-hopping, car-sized rock draped along the bank and small waterfalls running through a narrow gorge. Get past that and it settles into an easy packed-dirt path with a few stream crossings and near-constant views of the water under forest canopy. This stretch is the largest developed bouldering area between Baltimore and Washington, and the main concentration of boulders is less than five minutes from the lot — there's usually someone climbing on New Year's Day. We turn around at the creek and head back the way we came, staying low and skipping the ridge climb. Just downstream is Burnt Mills Dam, once the site of Camp Woodrow Wilson. No restrooms at the trailhead.