Billy Goat Trail A – Hike

Billy Goat Trail A, along the C&O Towpath , is one of the best hikes in the Metro DC area and definitely my favorite. At only 1.75 miles long (not including the walk from the parking lot and along the towpath, all in all a 3.5 mile round trip), the Billy Goat is a great hike for early on weekend mornings before lunch. It doesn’t take the whole day to complete but it is huge on fun.

The trail is a rock scramble for well over 75% of its length and includes some great opportunities to jump from rock to rock, climb up and down the rock face, and experience great views of the Potomac.

Early Saturday morning (we got to the towpath parking lot by 9), we (Mike and I) headed out to conquer the trail. We’ve done this trail a dozen times and it has yet to get boring and this time Mike threw in an extra twist. He decided to try to hike in his new Vibram FiveFinger KSOs.


He definitely got quite a few questions from other hikers for his odd choice in hiking footwear. The choice was a success in that nothing was broken – no turned ankles, no toes caught in between rocks, no bottom of foot pain. However, the rocks were still covered in a dirt and sand from the trail washout a few months ago and that made for some slippery going without the traction.

We completed the hike and decided to take the trail above the towpath back to the car in order to stay in the shade. We managed to beat the heat of the day and had a wonderful little hike to start our day off on the right foot. I highly recommend this trail to anyone with a moderate level of fitness. It is not to be missed!

**Sorry for the tiny pictures...I forgot my camera and all I had was my phone!***

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!

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.