Wouldn't it be nice if this towpath went all the way to California...

Day 10
3/16/2006
Started: McKee Wildlife Area
Finished: Calico Rocks - C&O Canal
Today's ADT Miles: 21.7
Total ADT Miles: 204.5

Our young and competitive minds debated with our no longer teenage - ok - ok - no longer twenty something, thirty something bodies and the outcome was a new mind set. We decided to give our bodies the rest that they were craving and slept in until we naturally woke up, no alarm clock. We hit the trail around 8:00 and the floodplain forest that makes up the C&O Canal National Historic Park was already bustling with activity. The song birds were singing, we had a great piliated woodpecker sighting, ground hogs were scurrying to and from their dens, butterflies fluttering, turtles and even a beaver splashing in the canal. We passed a family of turkey buzzards, we counted at least fifteen on the shore another five or six flying around above. We saw our first long distance travelers as well. A couple that had hiked five days on the Appalachian Trail and were now on their second day riding bikes on the canal. We also met Kevin, an employee at the outfitter at Harper's Ferry, who had been out for four days. He had a Yakima trailer in tow exactly like the one Randy's brother Rob used to ride the TransAmerica Trail across the United States (This traveling stuff must be in the blood). We had a nice lunch sitting and watching the Jubal A. Early take cars back and forth across the Patomic at White's Ferry. Both the boat and the ferry landing were named after Civil War soldiers who had fought in the area. The terrain around us is looking more like valley and ridge geography with large patches of uplifted rock, and Catoctin Mountain is visible off to our west. Tomorrow we will be in the heart of the blue ridge and on the Appalachian Trail, we love the mountains. Tonight we've got a nice campsite on the bank of the calm Patomic River. The only downfall to our camp is the rumble of the earth when the nearby trains roll past. When we came strolling into this camp area we met the really nice Melissa and Andrew, a mom and son team of outdoor enthusiast. They talked with us about their love of the outdoors and wished us luck on our journey before they rode off on their bikes down the towpath. We plan on an early start in the morning, hopefully not in the snow. We've been watching the barometric pressure fall all day and the sun went behind the clouds around 4:00pm, so something is coming our way.

Your Friends on the ADT,
Sheri and Randy