Monday, October 13, 2014

Potomac Trails and Towpaths



Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day, dear readers!  Well, it is if you live in Seattle, Minneapolis, or South Dakota.  Otherwise it's simply Columbus Day, one of the most historically confused and culturally insensitive federal holidays we have in the United States.

Jon and I decided to celebrate by heading out of DC for the day, so we drove out to Carderock, Maryland, only 25 minutes from our apartment near the center of the city.  Washington, as you might know, is bordered on the west by the Potomac River; its upper reaches are impassable by boat, and Captain John Smith - yes, that Captain John Smith - described the area we ventured to thus in 1608:
...here we found mighty Rocks, growing in some places above the grownd as high as the shrubby trees, and divers other solid quarries of divers tinctures: and divers places where the waters had falne from the high mountaines they had left a tinctured sprangled skurfe, that made many bare places seeme as guilded.
Because of the Potomac's rocks and falls, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was dug in the early 19th century to serve as a transportation route, running alongside the river for 184.5 miles from Georgetown at its southernmost point up to Cumberland, Maryland.  The C&O Canal is no longer used for commercial purposes, and the National Park Service has opened up the area for recreational activities like running, hiking, biking, fishing, and kayaking.

Jon, Charlie, and I covered just over three miles on our expedition from Carderock up to the Old Angler's Inn and back, half on the towpath parallel to the canal and half on section B of the Billy Goat Trail alongside the Potomac River.  You can hear the Beltway occasionally when you're on the towpath, but walking through the forest is utterly magical.  You really can understand how the explorers came to this region and thought they had found a new world!
















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16 comments:

  1. Lucky you, day off! We like to call today "Monday" out here in California:-).

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  2. So cool to go somewhere John Smith liked! On a side note - red looks awesome on your dog, I love red on black animals, it really stands out.

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  3. So jealous that you had today off! Now I realize why you asked me that in the text. I thought, 'why would I have today off?' haha! I haven't found anywhere as cool-looking as this in Texas... yet. We'll see what happens.

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  4. For obvious reasons, "Listen with your heart" was the soundtrack that played in my head whilst reading this post.

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  5. I love thinking back to people who came before me when I look at nature and try to see it as they would, it is also interesting to see where people settled and compare the landscape to their native land.

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  6. ha! I guess most places in DC have it off because the federal government does - I hadn't considered myself especially lucky before but now I will :)

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  7. it's AMAZING how much early American history is near here, from Jamestown and Williamsburg to the Eastern Shore where Harriet Tubman was a slave and worked on the Underground railroad!

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  8. why thank you! the iPhone does a good job :)

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  9. I guess I really am in my DC bubble :P I'm sure there are places to go adventuring in Texas - just maybe drier? haha

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  10. me too! Jon and I were talking about this on the hike - the forests in England had been decimated for wood to build ships by the early 17th century, so it must have been mindblowing for the settlers/colonists to come to the US and just see forests stretching to the horizon.

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  11. Beautiful area! I miss fall in the U.S.

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  12. So, all I can think is "those trails look awesome for running." I love it! I wish there was a good place like that close to go. Looks like Charlie enjoyed it too!

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  13. I like how you described Columbus Day, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Your way with words always impresses me :)

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  14. Gorgeous pictures! And just to be a contrary Viking, happy Leif Erikson day! Because he figured out how to cross the North Atlantic way before that namby-pamby Spaniard.

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