MD C&O Canal: Biking Out and Back - McKee Beshers WMA to Great Falls, 25 mi.

Early morning on the Potomac

In my quest to complete the C&O Canal Towpath Trail this year I set out to do a section by bike. My plan was to go very early and beat the 97-degree heat forecast for the afternoon so I left home at 5:30am and turned in to the McKee-Bershers Wildlife Management Area off River Road in Montgomery County, MD, by 7:30 am. As I lifted my bike off the rack I was greeted by a very long-winded Yellow-Billed Cuckoo somewhere in the dense forest between me and the dry canal ditch.  The air was cool and a slight breeze lifted off the Potomac River creating the tiniest of riffles on its surface. I began a twenty-five mile out-and-back to reach Great Falls Tavern where my sister and I left off during our camp-out week. In my bike's rear pack two frozen solid liter bottles of water began to melt. 

Towpath through McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area (MD DNR) 

Unlike the groomed towpath from Georgetown to Great Falls, the towpath is more like an old dirt road full of lumps and bumps, dried up mud pits, and dips that hold pools of rainwater. With little rain these past weeks, the path was very dusty and I discovered another use for my pink flamingo face mask (thank you Slate Brewery!) to keep the dust and pollen out of my mouth and nose. I passed a crowded free camping area - open only to those hiking or biking the path - and sped south to find a nice pull-off in the woods near the boundary of the WMA. Immediately I was serenaded by another Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. He was joined by a Scarlet Tanager. Then a very close by - like in front of me in the woods but completely invisible - a Whip-poor-will repeated, repeated, repeated his call. I was thrilled! 

Phlox

Not so thrilled were three bikers who peddled slowly up to where I straddled my bike hoping to see the bird. "What the HELL is that?!" a very annoyed lady asked. She looked haggard, exhausted. Her partner, who never said a word, just looked at me sleepily. The third cyclist said that the bird sang right outside their tents All. Night. Long.  "It was brutal," he said. "Torture." I did my best to say something nice about the Whip-poor-will but my voice was drowned out by the bird. We peered into the trees. We looked so carefully. Nothing. Just a very loud bird. The bikers went on to finish the towpath at Georgetown. Not a bad start to my day, but a long hot finish for the cyclists peddling in the heat with very little rest. * A good birder friend of mine tells me that this WPW behavior could have been the bird being protective of chicks nearby. "They are LOUD and persistent in hopes that intruders will leave." 

Seneca Creek Aqueduct 

I was soon at Riley's Lock at the Seneca Creek Aqueduct and took another break there. Canada Geese and their nearly grown goslings occupied the muddy shores. The busted out arch held a number of swallow nests on the exposed I-beam but I didn't see any occupied. I suppose they've all fledged now. 

It was not yet 8am and a few kayakers were just putting in. I stayed long enough to watch them enter the river. A Bald Eagle cackled from the edge of the river near where they turned upstream.  I love the family history of Riley's Lock and roamed around imagining the Riley family at work and play here. One of the Riley's young children drowned here and this caused Mrs. Riley to move the family, minus Mr. Riley who worked the lock, to move up the hill away from the river to a tenant house they owned.

Potomac River

"My father came home in November and stayed until March. That was a real joy, to have him home all winter. My father just stayed at home and worked around the house. He had to go down to the lock every day to see that everything was all right and that the lock house was kept locked up. He walked down in the morning and came back. I don't know what other (chores) he had down there; you get up early and went to school, and you didn't know what your father did all day." 

- Helen Riley Bodmer, Riley Family History, 2009 NPS

Dry aqueduct over Seneca Creek

The aqueduct is a ruin, washed away in 1971. The National Park Service stabilized the surviving structure but it will never again hold water. This is a great stop to observe the Seneca Red Sandstone quarried locally. The canal served as a freight service to carry this Triassic sandstone to Washington where it was used to build the Smithsonian Castle on the Mall as well as hundreds of other buildings in the city. It quarries grey and over time will turn red with exposure to water and air. It is some of the most beautiful stone when highly polished. I have a little polished slab in my office. It simply radiates red. Somewhere deep in the woods on the other side of Seneca Creek is the ruin of the cutting mill but it's summer and I can't see in. Enough of my water was unfrozen to make for a long swig. 

Riley's Lockhouse 

A few miles on and I came to Violettes Lock also built of Seneca Red Sandstone. Here the canal is reliably watered again. Paddlers who enter the Potomac at this access point can catch a fair number of fast miles running the rapids and ledges downstream to Pennyfield Lock. They can take out at Pennyfield and paddle the canal back to Violettes Lock. I stopped at the flooded woods just before Pennyfield and added Green Heron to my list, again by call, not a sighting. Summer is when I bird almost entirely by ear when in or near the woods. The Green Heron's "skeewaulk!" is part of my summer's auditory landscape anytime I am near a wetlands or river. 

Violette's Lock

Bluffs of Blockhouse Point

It was almost 9am and the towpath was beginning to get a tad busy. I wore my mask dutifully all the way to Great Falls since I was passing more and more walkers. It wasn't bad at all and I really appreciated the dust and pollen protection. Seems I was not the only one trying to beat the heat and the pandemic. Everyone wore masks. The big bend on the wide canal gave great views of the massive bluffs at Blockhouse Point, the top of which served as a Union lookout station manned by the 19th Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War. No real action happened here, but when Union troops were called to Washington to reinforce the ring forts surrounding the city, Confederate soldiers were able to cross the river here undetected and set destroying the earth and timber fort. 

Starting to get busy

I rode into Great Falls and joined a Sunday morning crowd of beat-the-heat folks gawking at the river as it begins its drop through Mather Gorge. I gawked, too, and added a Cormorant to my list. It was getting hot so I didn't stay long. I took the last swig from waterbottle #1 and chomped down a sausage stick (thank you Grand View Farm!) and started the "uphill" ride back to McKee Beshers WMA. By the time I got to Violette's Lock I was pouring sweat but - LO! I added Kingfisher to my list while I draped my sweat soaked body over a boulder. 

Floodplain forest.

River view near Blockhouse Bluffs. 

My ride finished by 10:30am and I was soon on the road in my un-air conditioned car  to Pennsylvania. All the windows were down for the two hour drive home but LO! AGAIN! I added Turkey Vulture, Red Shouldered Hawk, Red Tailed Hawk, and Turkey to my day list while gasping for air out the window. Next section will be from McKee Beshers to Monocacy Aqueduct, a 15 mile walk or ride - hopefully beginning to catch some early fall migrants. 



Notes:

Riley Family History http://www.candocanal.org/histdocs/Riley-Family-History.pdf

Seneca Cultural History https://www.nps.gov/articles/975434.htm#4/35.46/-98.57

I never saw any of these birds. Summertime birding for me is usually by ear. Here's what I heard:

Scarlet Tanager https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Scarlet_Tanager/sounds

Yellow-Billed Cuckoo https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-billed_Cuckoo

Eastern Whip-poor-will https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Whip-poor-will

Green Heron https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Green_Heron/sounds