Patuxent River Park

Patuxent River Park sits on the west side of Jug Bay near Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and is the more recent home of QOC's season-ending Chase event and picnic, the longest continuously running non-championship orienteering race in the country.

This is one of QOC's least steep venues, with a gentler mix of wooded areas, open fields, and waterways that offers an easier navigational challenge than the club's hillier parks; a relatively recently updated map has kept the terrain feeling fresh even after many years of use.

The flatter terrain and open sightlines make Patuxent a comfortable venue for beginners and families, while still offering enough route-choice variety, and at the Chase some genuinely novel course formats, to interest experienced orienteers too.

Events are based out of the barn and pavilion area off Croom Airport Road, with ample parking on both sides of the entrance road; watch for runners along that road as you arrive.