Day 21 – Clarksburg to West Union, WV – 32 miles
After so many strenuous walks, today was a mellow, relaxed stroll by comparison. After passing through central Clarksburg, a sizable town that was the home of Stonewall Jackson, I spent the bulk of the day in quiet countryside, low rippling hills still often flanking me on either side but rarely having much impact on the […]
Days 18-20 – Canaan Valley to Clarksburg, WV – 85 miles
On Thursday night, I lounged in bed, satisfied with a couple of days of strenuous but lovely hiking through Dolly Sods, when America took a sudden turn. In a jarring chain reaction, one social institution after another shut down; somehow, the shuttering of sports leagues, professional and collegiate alike, made the reality of the emerging […]
Days 16 & 17 – Keyser to Canaan Valley, WV
For as long as I’ve been thinking about the American Discovery Trail, it seems like I’ve also been thinking about Dolly Sods, West Virginia. It’s the first genuine sliver of wilderness on the walk, but more significantly, it’s the highest point east of the Rockies, peaking around 4500 feet in elevation. It marks the Eastern […]
Days 14 & 15 – Paw Paw to Keyser, WV – 43.5 miles
While I awoke in West Virginia on Monday, I did so knowing that the day would actually be my last in Maryland and on the C&O Canal. After four full days, plus a bit of a fifth, this would bring my time on the towpath to an end. Despite some initial reticence, given the tedium […]
Day 13 – Hancock, MD to Paw Paw, WV – 31 miles
Once again, I popped across the Potomac to spend the night in West Virginia. This section of the C&O is much like the first, with almost nothing interrupting the tranquility of the towpath. Fortunately, there was one stopping point right near the middle of the walk, Bill’s Place in Little Orleans, so I was grateful […]
Day 12 – Williamsport to Hancock, MD – 27 miles
I wondered if each day’s walk along the C&O would feel similar. For the most part, they haven’t. That said, today’s had resounding echoes of yesterday’s. Once again, I followed the C&O all morning, including a stunning stretch in which the land along the left side of the towpath slipped away completely, leaving me walking […]
Day 11 – Harpers Ferry, WV to Williamsport, MD – 25 miles
Today’s walk had a distinct Civil War theme to it. Harpers Ferry is steeped in that history; the house where Stonewall Jackson was headquartered there was just a few houses away from where I slept. It was a very appealing target, positioned at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers in the hotly-contested mid-Atlantic. […]
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 […]