C&O end-to-end, miles 0-5

This year, I intend to hike the entire C&O Canal Towpath, starting at mile 0 and working my way northwest to mile 184.5. The idea is to do it in order, to get a sense of how it changes along the route.

I started yesterday at the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro stop and walked to mile 0 in Georgetown. After snapping a photo at the mile marker, I then had to walk to the start of the towpath - promptly to be greeted with detour signs. Not auspicious, perhaps, but any official detour counts, and I've walked that section before. 

Just before Key Bridge, the detour ended, and I looked out on a lumpy blanket of ice. Two weeks of snow had compacted rather than melted. I had brought an old pair of traction devices with me, which kept me from sliding about. The ice kept most folks away; it was odd to have the trail nearly to myself on a nice weekend day. It was even odder where the towpath runs parallel to the Capital Crescent Trail, and not ten feet away there were crowds.

Not far past the DC border is mile marker 5. If it had been any other day of the week, I could have gone another five miles and caught a bus back to the Metro, but it doesn't run on Sundays. Instead, I crossed the Clara Barton on a pedestrian bridge and took a woods trail uphill to the Capital Crescent Trail, following it back to Foggy Bottom. My total mileage was 12 miles, although only five were on the C&O.

First long hike of the year

I am trying to do more long hikes this year, but January so far has not been conducive to long hikes. This is the second weekend in a row with a big snowstorm! So my 10-mile hike was simply in my local Black Hill Regional Park.

First hike of 2025

Usually I start the year with a new year's day hike, but this year my day was spent on an airplane. My first real hike was a modest one, a restart after a few weeks of minimal hiking and walking. For this, I chose to travel well-worn trails at Black Hill Regional Park.

The weather was cold, high 20s, but it felt colder due to strong winds, and a light dusting of snow made it look more wintry. Few people were out.

The most interesting sight was this road, being built across the park entrance on Old Baltimore Road. The Field Crest Spur trail comes right out to the edge of OBR, but it is not a safe place to cross. There is only one pedestrian crossing of Old Baltimore, farther west, and the road in between does not consistently have walkable shoulders. West of that crossing there are sidewalks - but you can't get from the sidewalks to the trail. It would be nice if they found some way to link the park to the increasing number of homes built just to the north. 

(Okay - sure, there is one other crossing of OBR 2.5 miles west of Field Crest Spur - but you can't get there from those houses, either.)

Aside from this, the hike was a pleasant jaunt in the cold. It came in just shy of 6 miles, with the usual sub-100 feet per mile elevation gain of the area.