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A chance to escape
Bicyclists explore historic sites
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park offers bicyclists a chance to escape for several days into the scenic Potomac River Valley and to explore canal structures and nearby historic sites.
As they ride along the 184.5-mile earth and gravel towpath, where mules walked as they pulled boats through the canal, cyclists will pass locks, locktender’s houses and many other canal features.
They’ll pass over 11 stone aquaducts that carried the canal over the Potomac’s tributaries and through a 3,118-foot-long canal tunnel.
The canal, which operated from 1831 to 1924, follows the Maryland side of the Potomac River from the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Md. Seventy-four locks lifted boats a total of 605 feet between Washington and Cumberland.
After U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas led a campaign to preserve the canal, rather than having it transformed into a highway, the canal became a national monument in 1961 and a national historical park 10 years later.
Free campsites for hikers and bicyclists, which feature well-water pumps, picnic tables, and portable toilets, are located every few miles along the towpath, whose mile markers begin with Mile 0 at the tidewater lock in Georgetown.
Because of the canal’s low-lying riverfront location, insect repellent is a must for those using these campsites.
Some sections of the canal are still filled with water; and one-hour mule-drawn canal boat rides are offered at the National Park Service’s Georgetown and Great Falls Tavern visitor centers for a $5 fee.
The first major landmark along the towpath is Great Falls, where the fast-flowing Potomac River drops 60 feet in elevation within a half mile as it is funneled through a series of narrow, rocky passageways from the Piedmont to the Atlantic coastal plain.
A boardwalk gives pedestrians a close-up, river-level view of the Great Falls rapids located at about Mile 14 of the towpath.
At Mile 35, cyclists will pass White’s Ferry, a car-carrying cable ferry, which is the last functioning ferry across the Potomac River. A ferry has operated at this location near Leesburg, Va., for more than 200 years.
Near Mile 60, cyclists can cross the footbridge over the Potomac that carries the Appalachian Trail into historic Harper’s Ferry, W. Va. — the site of abolitionist John Brown’s 1859 raid on the federal arsenal.
A short uphill walk along the Appalachian Trail at Harper’s Ferry offers hikers a spectacular view of the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers.
A few miles beyond the bridge to Harper’s Ferry, cyclists willing to ride uphill from the towpath can visit the Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Md. — the site of a major Civil War battle in 1862.
Because a 1996 flood washed out a large section of the towpath, cyclists must take a marked six-mile, over-the-road detour beginning at Mile 84.5 of the towpath.
At Mile 112, cyclists can visit Fort Frederick, a French and Indian War fort, which is conveniently located only three-tenths of a mile from the towpath.
Two miles west of Hancock, Md., towpath users will see the “Devil’s Eyebrow” anticline, a large upward fold in rock layers above the trail.
If wet weather has made the towpath muddy, the Western Maryland Rail Trail offers an asphalt-paved alternate route paralleling the towpath for 23 miles in the Hancock, Md., area between Big Pool and the Sideling Hill Creek Aquaduct.
Perhaps the most spectacular canal feature is the six-tenths-of-a-mile-long Paw Paw Tunnel near Mile 155, which carries the canal and its towpath through a mountain. The tunnel, which took 14 years to build, opened in 1850.
Cyclists wishing to extend their ride westward from Cumberland may follow the Great Allegheny Passage, a 135-mile-long bicycle trail that extends to Duquesne, Pa., and will eventually be completed to downtown Pittsburgh.
Those seeking an extended ride in the Washington, D.C., area will encounter a complete network of local bicycle trails. Most notable among them is the Mount Vernon Trail, which extends along the Virginia side of the Potomac River from the Francis Scott Key Bridge at Washington, D.C., to George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, Va.
The 18-mile-long Mount Vernon Trail offers excellent views of the Washington, D.C., monuments and a close-up view of planes taking off from Reagan National Airport before it passes through Alexandria, Va., en route to Mount Vernon.