Hike with Mike - C&O Towpath

One of things I love about my relationship with my husband is that we've been able to cultivate a shared interest in the outdoors - camping, kayaking and best of all, hiking. These may have been things we'd done before we were in a relationship but our collective interest and abilities have grown because of one anthor's individual interests.

We've seen so many wonderful things - animals, mountains, beaches, waterfalls, ruins, museums - as a result of our outdoor exploration. Perhaps more importantly, we've discovered so much more about each other. Many of my favorite conversations with Mike, some of great importance, some not of importance and others that were just plain silly, have taken place while hiking.

Even hikes that don't turn out as planned, as this weekend's did not, are special to me.
We headed out late Sunday morning for the C&O Towpath and the Billy Goat Trail (A). This approximate 1.75 trail is full of fun rock scrambling and beautiful views of the Potomac River. It is one of Mike's favorites but had been months since we'd been to the trail.

However, Sunday's hike was not meant to be. As we walked along the towpath to the one end of the trail we noticed that there were quite a few more people enjoying the towpath than we were used to seeing; however, we chalked it up the rainy weather all week and the gorgeous clear weather of the weekend. Besides the towpath and trail are always more crowded than we prefer.

Then we found why the towpath was a little more crowded than usual - the Billy Goat Trail (A) was closed due to flooding. Major bummer!!

However, we decided to continue north on the towpath past the trail since neither of us had ever bothered to see what was further along the path.

The C&O Towpath follows the C&O Canal (both "C&O"'s stand for Chesapeake and Ohio) is now part of the National Park System and has been converted to a popular path for bikers, joggers and tourists.

Just past the other end of the Billy Goat Trail (A) we found the Great Falls scenic overlook on Olmstead Island. This is the best spot to enjoy the rapids at Great Falls (better than the Virginia side, I'll be honest) because you walk above several rapids as you take the quarter-mile boardwalk to the overlook. With all of the rain last week, the river was very high and the rapids we saw were loud and fast. It was a very awesome experience to be standing just above the rushing water.

I regretted forgetting my camera on this trip.

Once back on the towpath we continued north for another half mile or so until we got the Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center. This Visitor Center was once a thriving busines along the canal and now offers information, a small exhibit about the canal at its pinnacle and boat rides on the canal.

We poked around for a bit and then headed back. We took a detour on trail on the other side of canal back to our starting point in order to avoid some of the sun and crowds.

It was a fun hike and even though we didn't get to hike the trail we intended on hiking that morning, we discovered some new spots. It was a good day!