C&O end-to-end, miles 143-154

After 11 months off from my C&O quest, I finally returned to the trail. I had the pretty reasonable goal of finishing the remaining 40 miles on a four-day backpacking trip.

However, the weather had other ideas. It was clear that day three would be 24 hours of steady rain, as a tropical depression made its way north. Rides are difficult to find along that part of the trail (and quite expensive), so instead of progressing for two days, I did a one day out-and-back.

I started at Little Orleans, where I left off last November, and followed the WMRT west. There are new signs along the WMRT stating there is "no safe connection" to the C&O at "the terminus." Okay, but 50 feet before the terminus, there is a public, low-traffic road (it literally only goes to a PATC cabin), and an unmaintained but only 20-foot long trail connecting the road to the C&O. It doesn't take a wanton disregard of safety to do it.

This popped me out between mile markers 143 and 144. From there I headed onward - I hesitate to say "west," as that section of trail snakes north and south and only vaguely gestures at heading west.

There are few major sites along the way. The trail crosses Kasecamp Road, which went from notoriously rough before last year's floods to nearly impassible. The section I could see looked remarkably good, though, and there was a roadwork sign.

I stopped just before Paw Paw, at the Sorrel Ridge campsite. Surprisingly, I had the campground entirely to myself, and it is a large one.

The next morning, I chatted with some canoers who had camped nearly and came over to use the table and water pump.

Those water pumps by the way - dreadful. It took me 40 strokes to prime it. Leave it for even a minute, and you have to start all over again. If I ever start a functional fitness gym, I'll install one for building strong arms and backs.

My trip back the second day was uneventful, and I got home with daylight to spare.

No falls at Great Falls

The top draws at Great Falls, on the Maryland side, are the Billy Goat trails, the easy Olmsted Island boardwalk, and the C&O Canal. But to get away from the crowds, I branched out to do some of the woods trails.

My hike took me past an old (and not very successful) gold mine, and up to one overlook view of the falls. Mostly, it is pleasant woods, and less crowded than the rest of the park. I do think this was one of the best hikes I've ever done for dog-watching - which is a mixed blessing. For the dog-phobic, be warned that there are a lot of off-leash dogs.

I don't think I would pay the $20 entrance fee just to do these trails, but if you have a pass, or live close enough to walk in, it is worth it.

Putting the "farm" in Schaeffer Farm

The Schaeffer Farms section of Seneca Creek State Park is possibly the closest state park to my home, but I have not done all the trails. It just isn't that interesting. It's also primarily for bikers, with trails designed with bikes in mind. However, I figure I ought to do them all, just for completeness, so I have been out there a few times this summer.

My assessment of this area until my last trip is that the area is just woods. Fine woods (not necessary healthy woods - there are a lot of invasive species), but no views, lakes, waterfalls, scenic landmarks, etc. Well, that assessment proved wrong yesterday when I discovered that not all of it is woods - some of it is corn fields.

Corn.

CORN.

COOOORRRRRRRNNNNN.

There is also an old car.

I'll be back at some point, when I am ready for more corn.

Great Falls

Another trip to Olmsted Island and Great Falls.

Standing Stone Trail, section 2

I was sore from section 1, but set off to do section 2 the next day anyway. Once again, we started our morning by setting up the car shuttle. The morning was already hottier and muggier than the previous day, thanks in part to the rain overnight.

After a brief roadwalk, we crossed a stream into private property that consisted of unmown fields. The tall, wet grass was not a pleasure, and we had occasional difficulty finding the next blaze. A stile over a fence was overgrown, rendering the ladder on one side hard to use.

But we passed from there into the game lands forest. Once again we were headed uphill, albeit more gently than the previous day. There were impressive talus slopes next to parts of the trail, but no views on the way.

Of course, we had to take the .2-mile side trip to Monument Rock, aka the Standing Stone, aka The Thing The Trail Is Named For. There we posed for pictures at the rock, looked out at the best view yet, and enjoyed a cool breeze hitting the top of Blacklog Mountain.

We still a bit more elevation gain to go. Once we had finished that, I was grateful to stop for lunch along the ridgetop to let my legs recover.

The next few miles did have a few small ups and downs, lots of ferns, and more downed trees than we had seen in section 1. (Perhaps not surprising - we saw no other trail users all day.) Finally we began our descent. It was steep in places, and the trail crossed power lines three times. Once again we found many grassy sections and blessed our permethrin.

Then we reached our car at the end of section 2, right where the trail turns into a roadwalk. My friends headed north to New York, and I set off south to Maryland. The section, including Monument Rock, was 10.25 miles and 1,580 feet of elevation gain.