C&O Canal Adventures Walking, riding, and cleaning up the C&O Canal

 

 

 

Like many people, we’re guilty of straying far away from home to get our C&O Canal kicks.  McCoys Ferry (mm 110),  Four Locks (mm108), and Dam 5 (mm 107) are all about forty minutes away from our hometown of Martinsburg, but we have only seen them as blurs when riding by on our bikes.  It seemed like a good idea to take a short excursion prior to the Super Bowl, so we took to the road to see what we could see.

 

 

 

I’ll start with the McCoys Ferry campground and its environs.  On the way there, we noticed the Green Spring Covered Bridge about a half-mile from the towpath.  The bridge is actually a modern, decorative structure that spans a small stream as part of a driveway.  Don’t get me wrong: I would love to have my own covered bridge, but I found the nearby railroad trestle and culverts far more interesting.  In the beginning, I was drawn to the C&O primarily for its recreational value, but this history stuff has kind of rubbed off on me over the years.

At one time the railroad and the canal were bitter rivals, but the trestle merely blends into the scenery at McCoys Ferry.  Other amenities include numerous picnic tables and a boat ramp.  The area draws a crowd during the summer, but on Super Bowl Sunday, we had it all to ourselves and found the hike and sightseeing to be very enjoyable.

Candee’s son Tyler tagged along on today’s hike, and he was primarily interested in finding a good place to fish this summer.  The Potomac runs slow and deep for a few miles above Dam 5, and I’m thinking that the catfishing is probably pretty good.

 

Like many areas along the canal and river, McCoys Ferry is part of Civil War history.  According to the sign, the Confederates tried to capture the ferry boat at McCoys landing but were rebuffed by the Clear Spring Guard.  Also, J.E.B. Stewart crossed the river here on his second ride around McClellan’s army.

 

 

 

We are generally drawn to the canal for its recreational value, but occasionally the C&O’s structures catch our eyes.  Some are easily spotted from the towpath, but the culverts are generally overlooked by hikers and bikers.

 

There are eleven aqueducts along the C&O Canal, and they mark the points where the canal crosses over larger streams.  Culverts, on the other hand, occur where smaller streams were routed underneath of the canal.  I’m hardly the expert, but there are over one hundred culverts, and many of them are very impressive.

Fellow C&O Canal Association member Steve Dean has photographed all of the culverts and plans on turning his efforts into a book.  People who have an interest in the canal’s structures and history have opened our eyes a bit over the years, and the locks, aqueducts, and culverts are as different from each other as the diverse groups who built them.  I would certainly advise hikers and bikers to get off of the trail and take a look around.  There’s a lot more to the park than what meets the eye!

From McCoys Ferry, it’s a short ride to Four Locks.  The site gets its name from the four locks that raised the canal thirty-three feet in order to cut across Prather’s Neck and bypass a four mile bend in the Potomac River.  Lock House 49 is open to the public for overnight lodging.  It’s a bit on the rustic side, but it would be a great spot to stop while doing a through-ride from Cumberland to Georgetown.

 

 

I guess you could say that Four Locks holds a special place in our hearts.  On our 2011 ride, we ran into heavy storm debris above Little Orleans and several more downed trees well below Hancock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were forced to lift our bikes over countless snags and even had to walk them through the canal bed in places.  By the time we reached Four Locks, we were worn out and frustrated, but I remember saying, “Enjoy the next mile.  It’s down hill and on the house.”  The easy pedaling and coasting seemed to lift our spirits, and we never lost momentum the rest of the way.

 

 

From Four Locks, we took another short ride into the Dam Five area.  The dam and river create an image that is worthy of a post card.  The dam was completed in 1857 and survived several of Stonewall Jackson’s attempts at destroying it during the Civil War.  During low water, many fishermen can be seen fishing from the rocks directly below the dam, sometimes as far out as the middle of the river.

 

In all, the scenery between McCoys Ferry and Dam Five is outstanding.  Likewise, heading upstream leads one to Fort Frederick State Park and Big Pool.  There are many places along the C&O that look relatively similar around every bend, but this section reveals something new and interesting along the way for both newcomers to the park and canal aficionados.  In spite of traveling through every mile of the park several times, Candee and I have missed a lot of interesting things.  With that in mind, today made for three wonderful short hikes, and, like most excursions, we learned a number of new facts and saw things we’ve never seen before.  Until next time…

 

 

This isn’t the first time that we’ve done a website or blog pertaining to the C&O Canal, and somewhere along the way we’ve left several pictures scattered around the internet in near oblivion.  Many of these go back to our earliest days on the canal, and some even help to fill our current void of photos and text pertaining to miles 0-50.  These shots bring back a lot of memories.  In fact, I can remember the day that Candee suggested that we should take up biking as a hobby.  It sounded like a good idea, but our first ride between Williamsport and Fort Frederick in 98 degree heat left me wondering about my sanity.  Imagine what I would have missed!

Over the years we have seen a number of interesting sights and creatures.  I can’t say that either of us have fancy camera equipment, so many of the critters we have seen have escaped posterity in a blur.  However, I do have to brag a little: we’re both experts in turtle photography, and on more than one occasion we have managed to capture an image of a Great Blue Heron posing on a wall.  However, one missed opportunity stands out more than the rest.  We were riding on the Western Maryland Rail Trail just above the Devil’s Eyebrow when a rider sped up to us and stammered, “B…b…b…bear over th…th…th…th…there!”  Candee armed herself with her camera, but the bear was long gone.  So…I’ll leave you with a picture that we did manage to get.

Sometimes it’s great being out on the trail.  You never know what you’re going to see.  Other times the river is the star attraction.  For example, in March of 2010 a heavy rain fell on the Potomac Valley, and it melted what was literally feet of snow in the mountains of western Maryland.  Needless to say, the river became very angry and threatened the towns along its banks and the C&O Canal NHP itself.  We headed out to assess the damage, which fortunately was minimal, but one picture stands out…

Generally, it’s about a 15′ drop from the top of the arch at the Sideling Hill Creek Aqueduct to the creek itself, but that day water filled the entirety of the structure.  It was an impressive sight, as was our first ride into Great Falls.  It’s hard to imagine such a large river near a metropolitan area containing a massive and dangerous set of rapids.  I understand that the view is even more impressive from the Virginia side of the river, but the Maryland side isn’t half-bad either!

I guess you could say that the river offers up something new around every bend, and sometimes the floods deposit a thing or two that catches the eye.  When we first started riding, we spent a lot of time parking the bikes and hiking down to the Potomac to check things out.  I particularly like a picture we took of some driftwood right below the mouth of Sideling Hill Creek.

In 2009 and 2011, we completed through-rides from Cumberland to Georgetown, but back in 2006 one of our more anticipated short trips was from Great Falls to the 0 mile marker.  As it turns out, we didn’t find the marker until several years later, but we were fortunate enough to see the canal boat Georgetown plowing through the water.

Of course, we had no idea how many rangers and volunteers it took to entertain the people or to keep the park in good shape.  We were both surprised and impressed to see volunteers in period attire leading tourists and locals on a boat excursion on the canal.  Oh…and let’s not forget the hard work of the mules.  Back in the day, the success of the canal depended upon them!

The last couple of times that we rolled into Georgetown, it marked the end of a really long three-day bike ride, but back in ’06 it was only the beginning.  We love the canal from Cumberland to DC, and one picture in particular reminds me of the way many of us feel about the canal, towpath, river, and mules that powered the old canal boats…

I can hardly wait for the warm weather to come back!  It will be great going on more rides, taking pictures, and seeing all of the things we’ve missed before.  When your favorite park is 184.5 miles long, it seems like there is something new around every corner!

On first glance, it appears that we were off filming Belle the Wonder Beagle vs. The Giant Blob, but the fact is that the grass that hid much of the garbage on the Potomac River floodplain for the past nine months is dormant for the winter.  As a result, lots of ugly trash has become visible between the towpath and the river.  I don’t recall seeing a kitchen sink on the bank, but we saw just about everything else, including tires, basketballs, and propane cylinders.

During the warm season, we have an antagonist nicknamed MRE Man who scatters meal packets throughout our volunteer area.  We have no idea who he is, but we can’t blame him or anybody else for the garbage located on the river side of the towpath.  The fact is that the mighty Potomac picks up large amounts of human and natural debris during floods and deposits it along the river bank.

Just below Little Orleans the river makes a long, sweeping right hand turn, and between mile markers 140 and 141 we have a natural trash depository.  The winter months are the best time to take care of the mess because snakes and other animals aren’t hidden in the long grass waiting for unsuspecting volunteers.  Okay, I’m being a bit dramatic, but cleaning up the park and safety should go hand-in-hand.  I’m guessing that we’re about halfway done with our winter cleanup, and we’re hoping that our new friend Belle stops by to keep us company again soon.

We may be volunteers on the C&O Canal NHP, but we’re also avid bike riders who love the Western Maryland Rail Trail.  Like most people, we are looking forward to seeing the work on the proposed extension from Pearre Station to Little Orleans get started.  The bat gate at the Indigo Tunnel is the opening act of this process, and it has been finished.  However, the completion of the trail itself will be a long, arduous process.

 

 

 

Recently, we took a walk on the old railroad right-of-way from Sideling Hill Creek to the Indigo Tunnel, and the trail offers a beautiful view of the Potomac River–even moreso than the C&O Canal towpath.

Fortunately (and unfortunately), this future stretch of the WMRT is also a geologist’s dream.  The high cliffs above the trail are striking!  I can’t say that I know much about rocks, but the story here is obvious, to say the least.

 

 

 

 

 

The green leaves of summer hide a lot from the hikers and bikers on the C&O; however, the barren trees of winter no longer block the numerous rock slides on and above the old railroad path.  I’m no engineer, but the rugged cliffs above the future WMRT have an ominous look to them.  With that said, it will be interesting to see how the rail trail progresses.  The WMRT has the potential to be one of the premier rails-to-trails paths on the east coast, but this won’t happen without a lot of work.