10.0 Lock 18

This blog is an experiment. It's easy to forget in the hustle and bustle of urban life how beautiful the DC area really is. We're going to try to photograph and write about that beauty at least one a month over the next year.

The inspiration was the visit Mary and I made today to Great Falls National Historical Park on the C&O Canal. It was a stunning fall day, with the sky a cloudless azure, the temperature in the low 70s and the the leaves still ten days or so from their color peak.

We walked south on the C&O Canal towpath from Lock 20 to the overlook, then down to Lock 15 and back (http://www.nps.gov/choh/planyourvisit/upload/chohmap.pdf). The hike has magnificent views of the gorge carved through the bedrock by the Potomac River. You're only 12 or 13 miles from the White House, but you could as easily be on the fall line in a river in Down East Maine or upstate New York. Deer peered from the hillside and a half dozen hawks circled in the thermals created by the sun-heated cliffs and boulders.

I'm not sure why, but the kayakers who usually train on that section of the river weren't out today. We weren't alone, though. It was the weekend, so we shared the C&O Canal towpath with literally hundreds of other nature lovers.

The day's human highlight was a fortyish woman in a trendily ripped sweat shirt (Is it just me or is the '80's Flashdance look making a comeback?). She was trying to train a long-haired chestnut dog the size of a canister vacuum that looked like a cross between Old Yeller and a Pomeranian. The dog was naturally distracted by the dozens of people walking by. Nonetheless, the owner kept calling to her, "Beyonce', come here. Sit, Beyonce', sit."

Makes me want to visit on weekdays, when it's just the flora and fauna and us. Which reminds me - if there's not a Google Goggles for plants, I need to check the app store to see if there's an electronic version of A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs.