MD C&O Canal Section 1: Georgetown to Carderock, 10 mi.

Due to COVID and our plans to hike in England scrapped, my sister Laura and I began our summer long-distance trail adventure on this side of the Atlantic. We've decided to hike the 184-mile-long C&O Canal Towpath from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, MD, and this weekend we made our first ten-mile section from Georgetown in Washington to Carderock. 

Georgetown, Lock 1, closed Visitor's Center red brick building on right.

We found our way to the historic bronze plaque that marks the start of the National Park Service trail and took our obligatory Mile Marker 0 picture. The canal empties into Rock Creek which then empties into the Potomac River and eventually into the Chesapeake Bay and on to the Atlantic Ocean.  It seems a far cry from the touristy, trendy Georgetown neighborhood of today, but this was an incredibly busy port with hundreds of boats a day onloading, off-loading, stuck in traffic. Canal boats jammed the canal. Sailing vessels and paddle wheelers clogged the river. We could hardly believe our eyes at the old pictures of crowded scenes of commerce and transportation on the interpretive panels outside the closed Visitor Center.  

 

1942 plaque

Old Georgetown along the towpath.

19th century industrial corridor on the canal.

Wood ducks and their chicks hung out in a shady cove beneath a massive Sycamore yet the roar of highway traffic, helicopters, sirens, and other urban noise reminded us that we were in the heart of a busy city, even with the slow-down caused by COVID. The protests that have occupied the heart of the Capital were not far away. People out walking or riding bikes in Old Georgetown were very mindful of social distancing. I was happy, however, to break free from the industrial environs of the city. 

Mile Marker to Washington City.

The C&O exists today due in part to the years of advocacy for its protection by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas who served the court 1939-1975. An enthusiastic outdoorsman, Douglas was far removed from the wilderness of Washington State, his home, yet he found plenty of wilderness not far from his D.C. home rambling up the abandoned C&O. He hiked dozens of miles every weekend to stay in shape, often camping rough on the banks of the Potomac and enjoying precious time in solitude and nature. When news of a possible highway project threatened to obliterate the canal in the 1950s, Douglas was outraged.

Lockhouse restored by C.C.C.

Towpath and watered canal. 

Lock House at Fletcher's Boat House, Mile 3-ish.

"The stretch of 185 miles of country from Washington, DC to Cumberland, MD is one of the most fascinating and picturesque in the Nation…It is a refuge, a place of retreat, a long stretch of quiet and peace…a wilderness area where we can commune with God and nature, a place not yet marred by the roar of wheels and the sound of horns.…use the power of [the Post’s] editorial page to help keep this sanctuary untouched..."

- A Letter to the Editor, Washington Post, Wm. O. Douglas (1954)

Wood Duck hen and chicks.

The canal was filled with life and we enjoyed seeing several species of turtles, plenty of birds (Wood Ducks were everywhere!), muskrat, lizards, and a gorgeous Northern Watersnake.  We imagined Douglas tromping along counting birds and beasts, free of the city and all its concerns. Douglas, like F.D.R., had suffered from polio but unlike F.D.R., he'd beaten it. Temporarily paralyzed for weeks and cared for by his mother with salt water baths, hourly massages, and home-based physical therapy, Douglas vowed to make himself strong again by taking to the mountains on long-distance hikes. He reflected that those hundreds of miles did his body and mind some good. On the towpath, he advocated for access to wilderness and green space for all people for the physical and mental benefits time in the outdoors provided. 

Broadheaded Skink

Great Blue Heron

Muskrat

Northern Watersnake

Small Snappers

Eastern American Toad

We were able to view a newly cleared rock cut of Sykesville Formation, a  medasedimentary rock type that Dickinson & Norton (2008) describe as the metamorphosed debris of an ancient submarine slide that slipped into the trench of the widening Iapetus Ocean, the Atlantic's predecessor. Though the canal path runs very close to the Potomac and as we progressed further northwest we could hear the water rushing loudly around the river boulders of this type.  Further ahead, we'll encounter the Mather Gorge where the Potomac has cut through this undersea slide at the surface to make some impressive drops and ledges.

Submarine slide deposit - the Sykesville Formation

Boulder-strewn Potomac.

Notes:

Dickinson and Norton (2008) Geological Attractions Along the C&O Canal. Gateway Press.

Two-volume wilderness autobiography of William O. Douglas:

Of Men and Mountains ( 1950) 

My Wilderness, East to Katahdin (1961)  - this volume contains his chapter on saving the C&O