Monday, March 8
1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Mile 30.9 to mile 33
2.1 miles toward goal (164.5 miles to go)
Temperature - 65-degrees
The drive to Lock 25 at the end of Edwards Ferry Road was a long one. River Road is quite remote at that point. Two other cars were in the parking lot, which has a boat launch and a nice view of the Potomac. Lock 25 is crumbly with a lockhouse in very good condition.
Jarboe's Store is being rebuilt. It is a reminder of the days when locks were a place where the canal boats supplied merchandise for the customers along the canal.
The towpath was littered with fallen trees and branches. Our walk turned into a service project as we stopped every few feet to move branches from the path; in some cases the logs were two heavy for two people to handle. Many trees were down in the woods and across the canal, which is quite overgrown with trees and bushes.
Once we left the parking lot, the river was only visible where the trees had been clear cut in two places. There were several streams running under the towpath from the canal and we saw one great blue heron between the river and the towpath. We saw several downy woodpeckers, a single pileated woodpecker, a large flock of tufted titmice, chickadees, cardinals and even a few eastern bluebirds. We decided that the great noise from our feet constantly crunching on the fallen sticks and branches littering the path may have deterred some of the birds from coming closer.
In defiance of the early March date and the bit of snow still on the ground, two very optimistic turtles were sunning in a shallow, sunny, protected area of the canal. We saw no others.
We spent 2 hours walking round trip and covered only a little more than 4 miles. Because of the path-clearing, we had less walking time. But we were glad to help make it a little easier for the next walkers to get through. It was a beautiful day to be outdoors.
We left Edwards Ferry and traveled north on Old River Road, which is more of a gravel path than a road. It wound several miles through woods and farmland and finally met White's Ferry Road. We crossed the canal, boarded the ferry and in only a few minutes had crossed the Potomac into Loudon County, Virginia, en route home.
