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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Avoiding injury

The root of my physical problems is my flat feet. They have caused me problems my entire life. The pain starts in my feet. You start to compensate by changing your walk. That causes your ankles to hurt. Then you knees, then your hips, and then your back. After years, a few minutes of standing becomes excruciating.

I haven't been able to get much exercise since my last foot operation. I just about recovered from it when I pulled something shovelling snow. It took two years to get over it and I still have pain on days when I over exert myself. Looking back at it objectively, I shouldn't have
been shovelling snow just yet.

Once the doctors eliminated any serious problems as a source of my pain, the diagnosis was an inflamed nerve. I managed to get over my injury by remaining sedentary. Now that the pain is mostly gone, I've been easing back into activity. In my younger days, I wouldn't call this exercise. It wouldn't even call it a warm up.

Every week I plan to add another exercise. I'm starting with stretches and calisthenics. The plan is to be back to lifting weights by Thanksgiving. I hope this will prevent a new injury. I guess we'll find out.

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The Plan

So how do I plan to get back in shape? Well an aggressive diet and exercise program is out of the question. I haven't stuck to a diet in forty years and I am too afraid of an injury for vigorous exercise. No, the plan is to take it slow.

Primarily, I want to eliminate as many calories as I can without impacting meals. For me, this means sugary drinks. I start my day with an average of five cups of coffee with cream and sugar. Going cold turkey on coffee is not happening, but cutting down to two cups is reasonable and saves 600 calories a day.

Next is my juice habit. When writing code in the afternoon, I like to have some juice. I was going through a bottle of V8 Fusion every two days. Cutting back to one reasonably sized glass a day, reduced consumption to two bottles a week. It also saved 240 calories a day.

Lastly, I would usually have two glasses of iced tea with dinner. I cut this back to one and saved another 140 calories.

That is a huge 980 calorie savings that equals .28 pounds a day (figure 3500 calories is a pound). That should result in a loss of close to two pounds a week. All of this liquid was replaced with cold filtered water from the refrigerator. I know there is a line of reasoning that drinking cold water burns calories as you drink it because you body has to warm it up. The problem is the actual calories burned are too few to make a difference.


Now there are nine weeks in June and July. At two pounds a week, I should be able to drop 18 pounds by the end of July. Then again, there was a holiday and a big car club get together and a couple other events that might slow me down so I set a goal of 15 pounds by the end of July. That means I should drop from 225 to 210 before August.

I will tell you that I did start at the beginning of June and I have stuck to the plan. Next post, I'll explain how I'm going to start exercising again while avoiding injury.

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Starting Over

It has been over two years since I suspended Adventures with Buck. My reasons were based on my health and state of mind. In the intervening time, I have dealt with my own pain and my father's final battle with cancer. I can't say that it has been easy. In fact, my life has been a struggle since the spring of 2006 when my Dad called and told me he had lung cancer. I was dealing with my chronic bad feet at the time. Suddenly my issues with mobility and pain were not so compelling.

Getting back on track was made possible through the support of my family and friends. My wife has been great. As most of you reading this are animal lovers, you know that Buck was there for me as only mans best friend can be. Complicating things was a new addition to our home. Last August, Buck was joined by a young Beagle named Beatrice. She will be joining us on our adventures.

Now I'm finally ready to make a comeback. This time around, I'll be focusing on what I'm doing to get back in shape before we start tackling any more hikes. In the last two years I've gained 25 pounds and have been fairly sedentary. Now that I know my pain is not caused by any serious health issues and I have managed to get it under control, it is time to get back to my fighting weight before we go exploring. I hope you will check back often to check my progress and keep me motivated.

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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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