A complete, 45 mile out-and-back tour of the mostly shady Western Maryland Rail Trail.
Date(s): July 31, 2011. Album by Deborah Kosnett. Photos by Deborah Kosnett. 1 - 53 of 53 Total. 163 Visits.
1 Starting out at the eastern trailhead at Big Pool.
2 I would say that 98% of the path was shaded. Really lovely. This is typical of the part east of Hancock. West of Hancock, the terrain gets hillier, though the trail remains flat. A lot of the trail there is through blasted hillside.
3 The entire trail has many narrative signboards; this one is for the Ernstville Road Bridge.
4 Here's another one.
5 Nice little tunnel under Ernstville Road.
6 Little Pool. The WMRT parallels the C&O Canal and (most of the time) the Potomac River. Little Pool is one of the crossover points to the canal.
7 I decide to walk down to the canal. This trail was treacherous; it was largely exposed shale at about a 45 degree angle.
8 The trail down.
9 A nice wooden bridge over the canal to the towpath.
10 Looking east on the canal - well, it's a canal.
11 But looking west . . . this is Little Pool.
12 The towpath. This summer it's dry and hardpacked, not muddy and nearly impassible as in years past. We actually met several touring cyclists; I spoke briefly to a group of three young women who had pedaled from Pittsburgh.
13 Another lovely view of the Pool.
14 We reach the town of Hancock. Everything in the town's easily accessible from the trail.
15 There is another canal crossover point here.
16 The bridge to the towpath.
17 Nice view from the bridge.
18 The canal.
19 Close-up.
20 This was the longest trip I've taken on my new Felt road bike. It was pretty comfortable; I think the slightly more upright position is OK.
21 Trailside wildflowers, about the color of my bicycle.
22 We stop at Sheetz, where Jeff eats a chicken sandwich, then we set off westward again. We encounter a cluster of abandoned houses.
23 This one is so tiny it's hard to imagine anyone living in it, to start with.
24 Now we're in the more mountainous area. WV is just across the river to our left. Starting to see where the railroad blasted a path through the mountains.
25 Jeff, headed down the path. I think the western half of the trail was much more interesting than the first half. Funny that on my Garmin Edge, the railtrail shows up as the CSX tracks, even though the tracks are long gone.
26 Looking back east on the trail.
27 There were remains of an old cement mill at this point, down the hill from the trail.
28 A road, the Potomac, and West Virginia.
29 All that remains, apparently, of the cement mill.
30 More blasted rock ahead.
31 More trees and shadiness.
32 Dam 6 on the canal, and another crossover point.
33 Description. There are several dams on the old canal. This one was pretty much dry, and filled with foliage.
34 Like this.
35 It's actually not much to look at, but the area is pretty.
36 The towpath, again.
37 And another view of the dam.
38 Apples were, and still are, part of the industry of Western MD. We saw a couple of very old orchards, overgrown and most of the trees gone . . . but the regimented rows of the original plantings were still evident.
39 This is the end of the trail - for now, 22 miles. There are plans to extend the trail to Little Orleans, and a Friends of the WMRT group wants to extend the trail clear to Paw Paw, WV, through existing (but neglected) bridges and tunnels.
40 Pearre Station - named after an accountant! I'm sure there are FEW places in the world so named! :)
41 On the way back . . . some interesting shale.
42 I like the play of light and shadow in this shot.
43 What a curious little house - what could it be?
44 Rear view . . .
45 Ah. A Boy Scout project, shelter on the trail.
46 Numerous tour groups have left their calling cards. These cyclists passed through just a few days ago.
47 More inside.
48 Pittsburgh to DC. I'd love to do the reverse - but no camping for me! Credit card lodging's more my style.
49 Lots more.
50 Round Top Sand Company.
51 Here's what's left of it.
52 Ice cream! Back in Hancock for more water and a snack. We passed on the live bait.
53 A view of the town. After this, we pretty much beat it back to the start as fast as we could; it was in the 90s and we were growing weary (and hungry). We want to do this again in the fall, when the air is cooler and the leaves are turning.
