From here it was another 7.8 miles to the town of Brunswick (milepost 55). Originally named Berlin it was the site where the Union Army of the Potomac returned to Virginia following both the Battle of Antietam and Gettysburg. I stopped for the night, after 19.5 miles made that day and anticipating my hike to Harpers Ferry the next day.
The next day, my fourth on the canal, I started out at 9:30 and headed for Harpers Ferry. At milepost 57.8 I passed through a notch in a small ridge just before Blue Ridge, known as South Mountain in Maryland and Short Hill Mountain in Virginia. South Mountain is geographically and historically significant because of the battles fought in the mountain gaps just about 10 miles north of here as Confederate forces tried to delay General McClellan’s advance on Lee’s army at Antietam in September 1862. At milepost 58 is the marker for the Appalachian Trail. The trail follows South Mountain through Maryland to the Potomac, and merges with the towpath for the next several miles. At milepost 60.6 I passed by the confluence of the Shenandoah River and the Potomac River a short distance from Harpers Ferry (milepost 60.7). I climbed the spiral stairs and walked over the Potomac on the railroad bridge into town and had lunch before continuing on toward Antietam Creek.
The walk above Harpers Ferry was one of the prettiest along the canal and by 2:00 I had reached the aqueduct (milepost 69.4) which carries the canal over Antietam Creek. Completed in 1834 this three arch span of limestone is still in good condition, after more nearly 175 years. A short distance away is the town of Antietam and the Antietam battlefield, site of one of the bloodiest engagements of the Civil War. From Antietam Creek the trail continues on for 2 miles to Packhourse Ford/Botelers Ford. This was one of the most raveled fords on the Potomac and its use dates back to the mid 1700s. The Confederate army made frequent use of the ford to maneuver up and down the Shenandoah Valley. The better part of the Confederate army used the ford during the Gettysburg campaign and Jubal Early crossed here to begin his raid on Washington in 1864. The most famous crossing took place on September 17th 1862, after the battle of Antietam. While a small force kept campfires going along the Confederate lines at Sharpsburg, the main body of Lee’s army began massing here on the night of the eighteenth to cross back into West Virginia. As the last division crossed in the morning’s light, they were surprised to see Lee himself sitting on horseback in midstream ushering them on.
Sheperdstown Lock #38 (milepost 72.5). The this point the river begins several sharp bends in the river as it way through the hills toward Williamsport. On December 3, 1787, twenty years before Robert Fulton unveiled the Clermont, James Rumsey demonstrated a working model of a steamboat along this stretch of the Potomac River. The early winter demonstration drew a crowd of skeptical townspeople. No one was convinced that the eccentric inventor’s “canoe powered by a teakettle” would ever leave the dock. But when it was finally launched from the Shepherdstown side of the river the steamed upriver for about half a mile and then passed downstream of the town before returning to the landing. On December 11th, a second test of the futuristic craft (which used the steam as jet propulsion rather than paddles) achieved a speed of four miles an hour.
Just before the Horseshoe Bend Campsite I passed Lock #40 (milepost 79.4). The lock was severely damaged during a raid by Jubal Early in July 1864.
At a little 5:00 that evening I stopped and set up camp at Horseshoe Bend Campground (milepost 79.2) and enjoyed a quiet night camping out along side the river after a 24.2 mile day.
The next morning I got started at 7:30 and set off for Williamsport. The early morning walk beside the canal was especially tranquil because of the lack of local hikers out on the trail at that early hour. Because of severe erosion of the trail caused by flooding beyond milepost 84.4 the path takes a detour for 4.7 up out of the river valley, along farm roads and back down to the towpath at McMahon’s Mill (milepost 88.1).
The towpath then continues along the canal, past Lock #s 41, 42 and 43 and on under the Interstate 81 Bridge which crosses into West Virginia (milepost 98.5) just south of Williamsport. The day ended at Lock #44 on the south side of Williamsport (milepost 99.1). Here I met my brother Byron who had driven up from Washington DC to pick me up. After five days on the Canal I planned on going home for a few weeks before returning and continuing on to the end of trail at Cumberland.
Lock 44 near Williamsport
Several weeks later Byron and I returned to Williamsport. We had driven up from Washington and he was going to join me on the next leg of the journey along the canal to Hancock Maryland. We took my rental car to Hancock and then returned to Williamsport and started out day’s hike.
Just a short distance above Williamsport we crossed the Conococheague Aqueduct (milepost 99.6), a three arch, 210 foot span over Conococheague Creek. A portion of the aqueduct was knocked out by a canal boat heading up to Cumberland in the early morning of April 30, 1920. The water in the aqueduct poured through the hole, carrying the boat with it. Fortunately the captain’s son, walking with the mules, was able to cut the towline just in time to keep the mules from being dragged along with the boat in Cocococheague Creek. The boat lay in the creek long after the canal had closed, until it was finally carried away in the great flood of 1936.
At milepost 106.2 we passed the site of canal’s worst labor riot in January 1834. A party of men from County Cork Ireland were working on Dam #5 just upstream engaged in a heated rivalry, and had with the “Fardowners” from Longford who working near Dam #4 just below Williamsport. On January 16, some the men from Cork assaulted the Langford men, beating one of them to death. Eight days later, some 600 or 700 of the Longford men armed themselves with guns and clubs and marched up the canal to engage the Cork men. They found about 300 of the men from Cork waiting nearby. The Longford men quickly routed the Corkonians and pursued them through the woods. Witnesses counted “five men in the agonies of death,” and noted other dead and wounded in the vicinity. State militia and federal troops were sent to quell the riot, and the leaders of the two factions eventually met in a “peace conference” and signed a treaty pledging an end to attacks on other canal workers.
Feeder Dam Number 5, miles 106.8
At milepost 108.8 we came to the Four Locks (#s 47, 48, 49 and 50). These locks raise the elevation of the canal enough to enabling a cannel to be cut across Prathers Neck and avoid the long route which follows the river course.
At milepost 110.2 we reached McCoys Ferry a ferry crossing that was the site of two notable events during the Civil War. On May 23, 1861, Confederates attempting to capture the ferry boat at McCoy’s Landing were driven off by the Clear Springs Guard. Then on October 10.1862, a month after the battle at Antietam, General J.E.B. Stuart crossed the Potomac to begin a raid that would end up circling the entire Union army. Stuart’s cavalry rode to Chambersburg, ransacked the town, and escaped to the south, crossing the Potomac at Whites Ford (milepost 38.7).
A little further on at milepost 112.1 we came to the start of “Big Pool”. This natural pool made a convenient turning basin for canal boats and now is home to a multitude of turtles and birdlife. At milepost 116.1 we took a few minutes to enjoy the architecture of Licking Creek Aqueduct. Constructed between 1836 and 1838, this is a single arch aqueduct of limestone. This is longest of the canal’s six single arch aqueducts which are scattered through the mountain valleys between here and Cumberland.
Between Licking Creek and the Tonoloway Creek Aqueduct (milepost 123) the towpath followed a relatively straight route alongside the river past “Little Pool” and Lock #51 and 52. The aqueduct was completed in 1839 and is built of limestone quarried upstream on Tonoloway Creek.
Finally after 25 miles we arrived in Hancock (milepost 124.1). After a long day on the canal we feasted at the local Hardee’s drive in before taking my rental car back to Williamsport so Byron could return to Washington while I continued on toward Cumberland the next morning.
Byron after our arrival in Hancock
Only 60 more miles to go! After a restful night in Hancock I started out once again. A couple of miles outside Hancock I passed by the White Rock Campground and began hiking a long section of the canal that would wide its way through the hills and low mountains before emerging at Cumberland.
At milepost 133.7 I came to Cacapon Junction Campsite. Named for the junction of the Cacapon River with the Potomac on the West Virginia side. This is one the most scenic campsites on the canal, with a great view of the two rivers and the stone arches of the B and O Railroad bridge across the mouth of the Cacapon. Stonewall Jackson’s men burned the original bridge while shelling the town of Hancock on January 5, 1862. The mouth of the Cacapon River was also the site of Fort Dawson, one of the string of frontier forts that Washington’s soldiers built in the year after Braddock’s defeat.
Shortly after Cacapon Campsite the towpath cuts through Tonoloway Ridge at Lock #54 and 55 (milepost 134). Lock 55 was the terminus of the canal between 1839 and 1850, when the last section to Cumberland was completed.
At milepost 136.2 is Lock #56. Here the canal cut through Sideling Hill, one of the major Appalachian ridges (1500 feet). Sideling Hill and Town Hill are only about 5 miles apart as the crow flies, but the canal winds 26 miles through the Paw Paw Bends before finally passing Town Hill at canal mile 160. At milepost 136.6 I passed by Sideling Hill Creek Aqueduct, a 70 foot single span built between 1837 and 1840 of limestone from a West Virginia quarry. After the aqueduct the towpath follows two long sweeping bends before coming to Little Orleans, Maryland (milepost 140.9).
Since there was no other accommodation for the night further along the towpath for many miles I decided to stop here for the night after 16.8 miles. I walked through the small village and found the Little Orleans Lodge, a quiet little bed and breakfast place owned by Steve and Mary Huebner. Like so many of the other people I would meet on my trek they welcomed me and were both a wealth of local information and questions about my trip. Steve immediately volunteered to ferry me to and from the towpath for the next few days until I reached Cumberland. This really solved a lot of potential problems in trying to get rides back to my car at the end of each day and repositioning the car for the next section. So it was that I settled into my comfortable room at the lodge and prepared for the next days hike to Oldtown about 26 miles up the towpath.
After a big country style breakfast I bid Steve and Mary good day and started down the short trail back to the towpath near the Fifteen Mile Creek Aqueduct. This small single arch aqueduct was completed in the final stage of canal construction in 1850. It was in near perfect condition and was a testament to the quality of the original construction more than 150 year prior. At milepost 143.4 the trail crossed under the Western Maryland Railroad trestle. This trestle is one of several that cross back and forth over the river and provide a more or less straight line through the Paw Paw Bends.