[at-l] I'm off again....

[krk@speakeasy.org (kenneth knight)]

Tomorrow I will head out onto a trail again.

Note I did not say wilderness trail or Appalachian Trail. In fact, it
isn't even historically a trail. The trail I will embark upon is a
towpath. The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal's towpath to be exact.  My little
bout of whatever illness I had has mostly subsided and I believe I am
ready to go.

This will be something completely different from any backpacking or even
day hiking travel (OK, I've done some of the Canal on day hikes before).
There will be many stops to soak up history, and with luck some really
fine river views. The walking should be esay enough though I do expect
my feet to get pooped (I don't have real chushy shoes, just my getting
rather used up Soloman Raid Winds. The Raid SPorts I just purchased are
not going to work out the right shoe feels uncomfortable and squeezes
the region of my foot in the tooe box), but no whopper hills to climb,
no dealing with rocky descents, in fact I'll barely have to watch me
feet (though there will probably be times I will - see below).

I'll start sometime tomorrow, probably late morning, at Great Falls
National Park (mile 14.4 or so). I've no real idea how far I'll go each
day though 15 miles per day seems like a good minimum even if I do stop
a lot to take photos or read signs and the like (The C&O Canal Companion
book is very detailed too).  If people want to join me I would love to
have the company whether it is for a few hours or several days.

This afternoon my Mom and I walked about 7.5 miles from mile post 7 to
14.4 where my Dad picked us up. There is quite a bit to see even in that
small section and I do recommend the C&O Canal Compnion since it is full
of interesting facts about the canal. We even saw our share of wildlife.
Mom saw (I didn't really see them even when they were pointed out) a
couple white tail deer, we saw two great blue heron, one very slow
moving (got a good picture) bgird which we could not ID (a tern?). But,
perhaps one of the best parts of the canal was the stretch about a mile
downstream from Great Falls (sorry I don't have the Companion here to
give you an exact location) where the canal uses a natural channel. The
channel is quite wide, strikingly pretty, and very relaxing. The little
rocky region you have to walk through is really no big deal at all.

Of course, there were the various locks we passed by with their
attendant lock houses (nearly a third of the locks appear up through
Great Falls). There is just a lot to see and I already have many
pictures to share.

So, I'm off tomorrow and perhaps I'll get to see some of you along the
way. That would be nice.

  ** Ken **