C and O Towpath


This beautiful mansion has seen better days... see the boarded windows.
C and O Towpath
Day Thirteen: Big Pond Campsite, milepost 121: halfway to Hancock	For the last eight miles of its journey through Maryland, the Tuscarora Trail joins the towpath of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, on its own journey from Washington, DC, to Cumberland, MD. Despite competition from the railroad, the canal remained a viable business concern until the flood of 1924 finally shut it down. Now part of the national park system, the towpath boasts a remarkable number of deer for such a narrow strip of land, caught between the Potomac River and Interstate 70. There are also a good number of jersey-clad cyclists, joggers, and the odd vehicle or two. Gone are the ridgewalks, the path that is little more than a succession of blue blazes over a seemingly endless maze of large rocks and small boulders, the near vertical ascents and near vertical descents. This path is pure cakewalk. There's no more blue blazes, but that doesn't matter, because there's nowhere to take a wrong turn. The question of where to stay for the night is solved by a campsite next to Little Pond, where the towpath was diverted onto an island in the middle of the river and the one side of the river became the canal. There's a picnic table, a wide clear space in which to pitch my tent, a porta-john, a gorgeous view of the river: how better to spend the last night out? Back - Up - Next

The view out the front door of the tent.		All my gear, all spread out ready to pack the next morning.


The towpath passes by one of the locks.		The remains of a house next to the lock.