Hiker Blog

The Meshomasic Hiking club has scheduled a 'new members' hike for Sunday beginning at noon at Hurd and Seymour state parks. via Hartford Courant

Filed under: Biking, Hiking, History, Paddling, North America, United States

I've been to Washington DC more than a few times now, but I can still be surprised. And it happened again this weekend.

It turns out that DC is the ending point for a very special national park: the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, where it dumps into the Potomac River.

Unbelievably, the canal starts near the Pennsylvania border, in Cumberland, MD, more than 185 miles away, and ends here in DC, in the Georgetown neighborhood. And, yes, you can bike or run the entire length.

The C&O Company formed in 1825, started digging three years later, and finished the canal twenty-five years later, at a cost of $11 million. By the 1920s, the traffic had ceased, a victim of competition with the railroad. It uses 74 locks because of the 605 foot elevation change over its length, and it had up to 500 boats regularly operating on it, mostly moving coal in the 1870s. [Check out Quick Road Trip: Washington, D.C. Part Two for a first person account of a ride on the canal boats.]

Next time you're in Georgetown, head down to the canal and take a stroll. Just don't forget to turn around before you end up in Pennsylvania.

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It's a mighty lonesome feeling when you're backpacking into 20- to 30-knot winds with sheets of rain in your face, and your truck is parked 25 miles down a rugged ocean shore known as the Lost Coast. via MiamiHerald.com

The remains of the plane are supposed to still be there on Medicine Bow Peak. I started up before six that morning... On October 6, 1955, United Airlines Flight 409 crashed near the top of Medicine Bow Peak, ... via Buzzle.com

Hike name: Rusk bushwhack. Location: North-central Catskills. Length: 2-3 miles round trip. via Poughkeepsie Journal

But it's entirely different when Mrs. Griz gives me times of quiet and solitude. via The Herald-Leader

An empty pill bottle and letters to and from loved ones have been found by searchers looking for an Illinois teenager whose car was found parked in a highway rest area Sunday night near the hiking country of ... via Channel3000

"In general, we want to accumulate the power before using it; for example you could walk for 20 minutes then have enough power to talk for 2.5 minutes on your cell phone"

Researchers at Michigan Technological University have designed a strap that will capture the energy generated by the up-and-down movement of a hiker's pack and turn it into enough voltage to power small ... via Science Daily

Officials from the Wilson County Sheriff's Department have released more information on a body found Oct. via NBC 17

Filed under: Climbing, Hiking, History, Learning, Stories, North America, Ecotourism

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