Days 9 & 10 – Washington DC to Harper’s Ferry, WV – 54 miles
It would be understandable, of course, to see the walk on the C&O Canal as monotonous. For miles and miles, the scenery is consistent–the canal (with widely varying water depth) to the right, the Potomac somewhere to the left (sometimes immediately adjacent, sometimes separated by a patch of woods, and the flat trail marching steadily […]
Day 8 – Washington DC – 0 miles
My visit to DC could have started anywhere. By coincidence, the bus that I caught towards the center dropped me near the western end of the Mall, so I began with Lincoln. In the cloudy, early morning it was lightly attended, with just a dozen people sprinkled around the steps, though a minor ceremony would […]
Day 7 – New Carrollton to Glen Echo / Washington DC – 26 miles
Back in the first leg of the trip, I wrote a bit about listening to Dignity, by Chris Arnade, in which the author resigned from a soul-sucking job and sought to better understand America by visiting communities that have been hit particularly hard in recent decades. As he settled into his work, he developed a […]
Day 6 – Annapolis to Lanham, MD – 27 miles
When I was preparing for the Maryland episode of Sea to Shining Sea, I was struck by how the American Discovery Trail’s route through the state tells the history of transportation through the region. I’m in the thick of that now, as I move closer towards DC. In fact, I missed one! Leaving Annapolis and […]