Billy Goat Lite

Having slept in on Saturday for an oddly long time (10 hours, wow!) and then spending the entire day traveling to and from a wedding (Congrats to the Bride and Groom), I wasn't able to get in any sort of exercise and was resolved to making up for it on Sunday.

The day was forecast as a cold, mostly cloudy and windy day but there were promises of occassional breakthroughs of sunshine. Since my foot cannot handle the Billy Goat Trail we normally hike, I decided to check out the other two trails that make up the Billy Goat Trail system off the C&O Canal Towpath in Virginia. We loaded up the camel-baks and headed off around 10 in the morning.

The Billy Goat Trail A, the trail we normally hike, is 1.7 miles of rock scrambling with a few flat packed-dirt sections thrown in to give you a break. For this area, it is a very strenuous trail and is a great deal of fun. However, it is only one of three, there are also Billy Goat Trail B and Billy Goat Trail C, trails that make up the Billy Goat Trail "system." The B and C trails are described as the opposite of A - mostly dirt-packed trails with occasional rocks and one or two spots to scramble - and I wanted to see what they were all about.

As we headed off down the towpath towards B, the wind was whipping and I pulled my jacket out of my backpack; it was going to be colder than I thought. We turned onto B and were immediately surrounded by the woods between the Potomac River and the Towpath. The path was completely covered in the bright leaves that had recently fallen from the trees and the crunchy dead ones that had fallen a while ago. There is something nastalgic about stomping and kicking my way down a forest path littered with leaves and with the smell of nature (like dirt, only good).

A strong wind would frequently kick up reminding me that winter was no longer just approaching; it was about to kick down fall's door but it felt good to be out there as fall, and those final bright yellow leaves, hung on for just a little longer. I was between the seasons, when nature just keeps us guessing.

Both trails take you down to the Potomac River and then follow along the river for over a mile before turning back toward the towpath. Along the scrambling was held to a minimum, the occasional spots were fun. However, the reasons for experiencing these two trails are for the views of the Potomac.

The rock islands dotting the river and the spots of rough water along this stretch of the river always surprise me because I normally see the Potomac as it seems to meander past DC; it almost lingers. Billy Goat Trails B and C provide the views of the river's other personality and don't distract me with strenuous hiking. These two trails provide an opportunity to enjoy being out there for the sake of being out there - enjoying the sights, sounds, smells and feel of being out in nature hiking.

The sun poked out from behind the clouds a few times, just enough to provide some warmth, and once we were moving the cold didn't seem as biting or intimidating. The few scrambles provided some heartrate-raising opportunities and ensured we wouldn't be bored. We met a handful of people along the trails we weren't discouraged by the weather or the temperature.

As we finished Billy Goat C, we took the towpath back to the car almost 2 miles. All in all we walked/hiked 5.9 miles in 2 hours 10 minutes. By the time we got back to the car, I was starving and I couldn't help but feel like I had earned lunch. It may not have been the most strenuous or the longest hike I've undertaken but it was incredibly satisfying.