C&O Canal worth the investment - and interest

Tim Rowland tried to generate interest in the C&O Canal in his column this week.

It is good to see people trying to promote interest in the canal and the mostly forgotten life style that it created. I'm not sure if the expanded bicycle trail will help make people aware of the history of the canal but they will get more people on the towpath. One thing that would definitely help is better marked access points to the trail. There are many parts of the trail that are hard to reach on a day ride.

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Fishing the upper Potomac River

Ken Penrod gives away his favorite fishing spots on the upper Potomac


Think of this book as The C&O Canal Companion from the river's perspective. Ken Penrod knows about more than just fishing. If you plan on spending time on the Upper Potomac River, you need this book. If you plan on fishing the river, commit it to memory.

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The C&O Canal Companion

A mile-by-mile tour of the C& O Canal, the 184-mile Potomac River waterway that stretches from Washington, D.C., to the Appalachian Mountains -- including hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, bicycle shops, river outfitters, parks, and campsites.



The big selling point here is a mile by mile list of what you will find along the canal. Points of interest are noted in the text and in small maps of the area. While the maps show good detail and the text doesn't miss many landmarks, access to the path and facilities available are conspicuous by their absence.

This is still my book of choice for a quick overview of a portion of the canal. It is well researched and extremely comprehensive. This is the one book to have for a general idea of what you will see while on the towpath.

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The Paw Paw Tunnel

Flashlight, hiking boots, or both.

Start Mile: 154.8
End Mile: 156.4
Time: 3 hours
When: Afternoon

Directions: From Berkeley Springs, take WV 9 west to Paw Paw. Make sure to stop and enoy the view at the overlook along the way. Before you get to Paw Paw, 9 will oin 29. Rt 9 turns into rt 51 at Paw Paw. There is a boat lanch on the WV side of the river. There is a parking area for the C&O Canal Park on the right once you cross into Maryland.



We decided to go for a hike on Memorial Day afternoon. It had been over ten years since we had been to Paw Paw so we decided to go to the Paw Paw Tunnel.


There is a path down to the river at the parking area for canoes.


The superintendent's house still stands across the field from the parking area.


The Western Maryland Railroad crosses the Potomac once again where the path from the parking area meets the Towpath.


There is a camping area before the tunnel where Buck played in the water by this pump.


At this point, the canal is much higher than the river.


The south side of the tunnel is impressive.


The tunnel does not seem that long when you enter it but it is three fifths of a mile long. You will not be able to see without a flashlight.


The north side of the tunnel has a boardwalk alongside the canal.


Just what are you looking at?


Those are iron bars drilled into the shale to stabilize the excavated wall leading to the tunnel.



There are springs along the path before the Tunnel Hill Trail.


The Tunnel Hill Trail is two miles of hiking over the mountain. I was hurting pretty bad at this point so we headed back to the truck.

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East of Hancock

Starting to explore the Hancock area

Start Mile: 121
End Mile: 122.9
Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
When: Afternoon

Directions: Take Interstate 70 to Hancock, MD. Make a right toward Hancock onto 144. Make an immeadiate right into the maintenance drive for the C&O Canal.



I finally had a day that I felt like getting out. I wanted to go someplace that we have not been before. While I've stopped at the Park and Dine in Hancock before, I've never explored the town. I thought it would be fun to start at the eastern part of town and work our way west.



To get to the parking area, you need to cross the Western Maryland Rail-Trail. There is always a lot of bike traffic there so I don't know if we will be able to explore it some time.


Between the parking lot and the towpath sits this once impressive house. Does the Park Service own this?


Lock 52 sits just to the west of the entry to towpath. We will try that direction next trip.



The Potomac was high and fast. It is hard to tell just how fast the river was from this picture.


Buck likes to sample the various plants on our walks. He was particularly interested in the Blue Bells. Unlike the various grasses, all he did was sniff the flowers.


At Lock 51 there is what's left of a lock house. It is interesting to see how these were built. It is also interesting to see how something so substantial could deteriorate in such a relatively short time. Notice how the towpath actually has a hill at the lock.





Not far from the lock is a culvert. Canals are not like streets, when the canal crossed a small stream it had to be eleveted allowing water to flow under it. This is important for water management.




Not much further is another culvert. This one has a provision for adjusting the water in the canal called a waste weir.




Blue Bells do well in shady areas and tend to thrive in forests. This part of the canal has tons of them.



People leave pennies on certain mile markers for luck. I bet this drives the forest service nuts.



Buck found this turtle. I waited a while for him to recover from being licked by the dog and come out of his shell.



There is another culvert not far from the mile marker. Notice that all of the surface water in Maryland farm country enters the Potomac at these culverts to be picked up down stream by water systems for suburban MD and WV.




Buck found another turtle that was watching people pass on the tow path.



Buck hams it up by marker 121.



This is the west side of Little Pool. You can see that Interstate 70 is not far.

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Conococheague Aqueduct

Starting over in Williamsport

Start Mile: 99.5
End Mile: 101
Time: 50 minutes
When: Morning


Directions: Where route 11 crosses the Potomac is Williamsport. Right off of 11 is a visitor's center with plenty of parking.




This was my first trip to the river after my foot surgery. My wife and I wanted to get out of the house as the weather finally improved. We decided to go to Williamsport and see how high the water had risen after the week's storms.



The water at the basin didn’t seem that high, but the Potomac had come up enough to cover some of the ground around the soccer fields. We walked across the top of the aqueduct so we could see across the river.





Conococheague Creek had risen a bit too. There was quite a bit of debris flowing into the Potomac. This is a good spot to fish from shore. The side of the aqueduct was broken out in 1920 by a canal boat. The repairs were temporary as the side is missing now.



This is also the place where the Confederates retreated across the Potomac after the battle of Gettysburg.

As we headed west on the tow path, we could see that the water in the canal was still frozen. This section of the canal is over grown.



Mile marker 101 is not far from the parking lot. Buck had to be convinced to sit for a picture. He wanted to mark the mile post as well as every tree.



The power lines are near Jordan Junction. We turned around here. With the trees so think around the canal, the power line right of way provides a good view of the West Virginia side of the river.




Williamsport is a step back in time. Route 11 runs though the center of town on its way to West Virginia from Hagerstown. Once you are south of the interchange with I81, there are interesting older houses on both sides. Night life is nonexistent so come early and enjoy a small town day.

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Fort Frederick

Getting to Big Pool

Start Mile: 112
End Mile: 112.5
Time: 50 minutes
When: Evening

Directions: From Williamsport, take MD 68 to MD 56. Make a left on MD 56 and follow it to Four Locks Road. There are several one-lane bridges on MD 56. The entrance to Fort Frederick is a left off of 56. There is plenty of parking. Make the first left for the road to the canal or go straight to park near the attractions.



It has been a while since we were able to get to the river so when I had a break this afternoon, we jumped in the truck and headed for Fort Frederick. This is a big place so it will take a while to explore.



There was some type of traffic tie up that had Route 11 and Interstate 81 tied up. Without another way over the river, we cooled out heels for a half hour. Eventually, we made it to Williamsport and slipped through the back roads to escape.

There is a gift shop near the entrance to the fort. It was closed by the time we got there.



The C&O Canal crosses the road through the State Park. This is a popular bicycle spot. A couple horses were ahead of us today.



Big Pool is a natural basin. It was used to turn canal boats when that was needed but now it is popular for fishing.



There is a small launch ramp in the State Park. This is as close to a lake as you get in this part of Maryland.



The water on the river side is a bit less inviting.



We spotted a couple of Canadian Geese. Buck is not sure what to do with them. On one hand, he hates water. On the other, he likes fowl. What's a dog to do?



At this point we caught up to the horses. They were doing what horses do so we turned around and headed home.

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