An archery range in the urban wilderness
I live close to the campus of University of Maryland. One of the stranger things about this area is that there is an archery range right off University Boulevard, which is a rather large thoroughfare. This is in the middle of commercial and residential sprawl — fast food joints, car repair places, strip malls, many housing divisions, etc. It’s also in the outskirts of a rather large Latino immigrant community. Plainly put, it makes no sense whatsoever for an archery range to be here. Yet there it is, visible from the road, completely empty every time I pass by except for the occasional cop lurking in its parking lot.
The archery range is called “Adelphi Manor Archery Range”, and it is run as a state or county park (not sure which), so it’s utterly basic. It has the parking lot and then the eight or so archery targets downfield. I suppose someone comes around every week or so for maintenance, but other than that, it’s not staffed. Of course, it’s BYOBAA (bring your own bows and arrows).
I tried searching for this archery range online and I only found one hit, on the site of Shambhala Meditation Center of Washington D.C., a Buddhist organization. They come out to this archery range to practice Kyudo, which is the ancient Japanese ritualistic art of archery. I suppose this is the archery range closest to D.C. that is freely available. Talk about a weird confluence of cultures, though.
This archery range sort of makes me want to get a bow and arrow. I remember shooting bows a long time ago at summer camp and later in middle school. It was fun. If I had the money to throw around, I think I might get into it.
February 25th, 2007 at 22:18
By all means, get a bow… I was looking for an archery range and found the same entry. I’m trying to find it and may make the trip.
Here is the Maryland Archery site:
WestArrowsWest@aol.com (Ron West, State Director)
http://www.md-archery.org
February 25th, 2007 at 22:24
Huh, maybe I should get a bow. From what I remember waaaaay back from camp when I was young, archery is fun. And also, I’ve been playing the PC game Medieval II somewhat recently, and the archers in that game absolutely rock. So I’m definitely intrigued. I’ll add this to my list of things to do once I finish college and have copious free time and spending money.
November 5th, 2007 at 19:59
i love archery, it’s been at least 10 years but I remember always hurting my arm bad when I participated, damn bow string would catch my arm before the arm guard, have some nasty scars from that nowadays!
April 4th, 2010 at 11:23
This lonely little range has been one of my favorite places to visit in the five years I’ve lived near Adelphi. I have yet to find company while shooting there, though.
May 5th, 2010 at 10:21
I cannot believe I just found this range! I will go there today! I live in DC and have been searching for a place to shoot! FINALLY! I will be there everyday now.
May 5th, 2010 at 21:29
I’d like to add myself to the list of two other people who came across your entry this week! And I’d like to add that that’s a little weird! So yeah! you should totally get a bow. when I first got into it a while ago, I gathered there’s community around all the different kinds of competitive and practical shooting (hunting, bowfishing), and different equipment involved (traditional styles, long bows, etc), the technology is fun and cool..,we should coordinate and meet you there sometime. I’ve had to pretty much stop since I moved local and had no place but my apartment to shoot, glad something awful to finally know it’s there and so underused..
May 26th, 2010 at 12:38
Wow this is great ive been looking for a range to shoot at rather than my backyard and this souds great