ROAD TRIP Western Maryland – part 3 (1)

July 15, 2019

This is the last of the Road Trip Western Md series (or the first, depending on how you look at it). Like I said in an earlier blog I will renumber them so the title is similar to what I have for this title…1, 2, 3.

This is 15 Mile Creek, emptying into the Potomac River. I’m standing on one of the Locks of the C & O Canal, looking towards the Potomac River. Notice the color change from the creek to the Potomac…It had rained the day before, so the Potomac was pretty muddy.

• Fifteen Mile Creek is a 19.9 mile (32 km) long tributary stream of the Potomac River
• the creek enters the Potomac River through Maryland’s Green Ridge State Forest

Tension on the Line

“labor unrest plagued the C&O Canal Company following the 1837 economic depression. Contractors fled, many leaving their workers unpaid, Company officials and the local militia collaborated to thwart strikes. Ethnic rivalries fueled distrust among workers.

Near this site, in the early morning hours of August 11, 1839, a group of Irish canal laborers stormed a German work camp. Sleepy and stunned men emerged from their shanties. The Irish threw some Germans into a nearby fire. The ensuing riot left one dead and many injured.

“It is of little use to blow the horn either in the morning or after meals, as the men take their own time to come out on the work and I rally do not think it would be safe to me to attempt to urge them to their duty…” – Engineer Henry M Dugan, June 1838″

This image was taken on the way to check out the canoe rental place… we had to cross a tiny one lane bridge to get to the other side. I should’ve taken a picture, but I didn’t.

The Woodmont waiting shed was a shelter along the Western Maryland Railway, for sportsmen waiting to catch a ride, now located along the Western Maryland Rail Trail. The Western Maryland Railway was abandoned many years ago, recently being turned into a rail trail for hikers and bikers.

Sidling Hill Creek

• originates from southwest mountains of Pennsylvania
• tumbles its way down the steep, forested, shale cliffs of Maryland before it finally spills into the Potomac River
• the Sidling Hill Watershed as about 80% forest cover and is incredibly intact
• sparsely populated
• isolation has allowed Sidling Hill Creek to have supremely high water quality and healthy aquatic communities
• (Nature Conservancy)

Sidling Hill

• long, steep, narrow mountain ridge in the Ridge and Valley physio-graphic province of Appalachian Mountains located in Washington County, MD
• adjacent to West Virginia and Pennsylvania
• 1770′ elevation
• (Wikipedia)
• for more info go to:
• https://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/08/the-folded-rocks-of-sidling-hill-road.html

This photo was taken on 70 before we jumped off onto 68.

Overall, the trip was a pretty good one.