Lake Waccamaw, NC - a hike from the MST to South Carolina

Taking a winter break in coastal North Carolina does not mean taking a break from hiking.  I've hiked most of the trails in the area that I can find, but there was one, about eighty miles from my home, that I wanted to do - The Lakeside Trail in Lake Waccamaw State Park.

At about five miles long, three miles wide, and fourteen miles around, Lake Waccamaw is the largest of North Carolina's mysterious and seductive "bays", a geologically unique elliptical to ovate formation found in the sandy coastal plain.  There are thousands of them.  Here is the blog post on the subject from my hike along the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, which passes four other large Bay lakes.

Consistent with my hiking style, I needed to connect this hike with all my previous footprints; so I started on North Carolina's state-wide trail, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, near its southern-most point in rural Bladen County.

I crossed the Cape Fear River into Columbus County on a highway bridge that was closed, having just been replaced but not yet torn down,

and then on down via wonderfully quiet country to the little town of Bolton.

I did that hike in September, 2015, which explains the flowers and greenery.  Here's that GPS track.

From Bolton I plunged into the network of timber harvest tram roads, including one called Paper County Road which has been closed to traffic for decades - a very pretty walk.

Then I hit the trail along the lake, with more great views like this.

South of the lake I had twelve miles of seldom-used forestry road to hike through Green Swamp.

The land is owned by huge timber companies but the roads I hiked, though remote, are open to the public.  The swamp is bounded by and drained by the Waccamaw River and Juniper Creek, and once I emerged into civilization again, the road took me right by the Waccamaw River.

Here's the GPS Track of that segment.

Finally, via a road walk I did last March, I added another purpose to this hike, by connecting my footprints to the state of South Carolina.

That's the nineteenth state, twentieth federal jurisdiction counting DC, that I've connected entirely on foot.  Here's the track of that final segment.

In all it was a sixty mile excursion from the Mountains-to-Sea Trail's Coastal Crescent Route to the South Carolina State line.  Some day I could extend this route, hiking down into Myrtle Beach, SC and then along the beach down to the start of South Carolina's state-traversing Palmetto Trail.  So many trails to hike, so little time :-)

The C&O Canal, Muddy Branch to Harper's Ferry, and a sampler of Montgomery County trails

What could be better than spending a cold winter day hiking.
Here I explore the Rock Creek Trail in Montgomery County, MD

Winter.  Hiking is better than hibernating.  Before I headed down to the North Carolina beach for a winter break I undertook one last hiking adventure in the Washington DC vicinity.  I laid down footprints making a continuous connection between all the places I've lived in Maryland and the Appalachian Trail at Harper's Ferry, WV.

The centerpiece of this hike was forty miles along the Potomac River via the C&O Canal.

The 180-mile C&O Canal Tow Path is a part of one of just eleven National Scenic Trails.  Known as the Potomac Heritage Trail, the network of continuous trails stretches from the Chesapeake Bay to Pittsburgh, PA.

The C&O Tow Path is also part of the much less official American Discovery Trail.  The ADT takes a route right through the heart of Washington DC following much of Rock Creek Trail and the C&O Canal in the District.

But I'm no lover of urban hiking.  I had to connect to a place I lived in Takoma Park, MD, right on the DC border, so I took advantage of the opportunity to connect my footsteps to the District of Columbia, the 19th 'State' connected as part of my Personal Continuous Footpath project.  But that's as close as I wanted to get to what I fondly refer to as 'Urban Blight'.  So from Takoma Park, I selected a route away from DC and into the sprawling suburbs of Montgomery County, MD. 

Montgomery County has lots of biking and hiking trails, and they're working to connect them.  It wasn't hard to find a route that kept me off roads 99 percent of the way.

The apartment building where I lived in Takoma Park is just blocks from the Sligo Creek Trail, which sports signs advertising it as an officially recognized National Recreational Trail.

I used that trail seven years ago when I made the connecting hike from my other Maryland addresses, so that was my natural first step as I headed west toward the Appalachian Trail.  The outer reaches of the Sligo Creek Trail are surprisingly 'wild'.

From the end of Sligo Creek a very short road walk brought me into the trail system within Wheaton Regional Park.  Some of its trails are quiet footpaths in the deep woods.  Others are bike trails, and still others are primarily horse trails.  From Wheaton Regional Park I walked a half mile of sidewalks up to a brand new bike path in an area of new construction along Tivoli Lake Drive.

Another few blocks of sidewalk brought me to the eastern terminus of a marvel of modern bike path construction, known as the Matthew Henson Trail.  It's barely five miles long but a significant chunk of it is elevated boardwalk through 'sensitive' areas.  No cheap project, this.

The other end of the Matthew Henson Trail connects with Rock Creek Trail, shown in the headline photo, and then I picked up the city of Rockville's extensive urban bike trail system.

Swinging around the north side of Rockville on the wide bike paths beside Gude Drive and Key West Avenue, I picked up the Muddy Branch Trail at its northern terminus.  This is a winding and undulating nine-mile dirt trail that follows a stream by the same name and appears to be very popular with mountain bikers.

Montgomery County describes the Muddy Branch Trail as 'still under construction' and there were several stream crossings without bridges.

But it was well blazed and signed, and as far as I'm concerned as a hiker, the trail was open for business and a pleasure to hike.  This is a trail with a decidedly rural flavor.

Some of nature's special winter touches were on display.

The other end of Muddy Branch Trail ends at Pennyfield Lock, Lock 22, which is an access point for the C&O Canal Tow Path twenty miles from downtown DC.  And here, along the Potomac, I found more dazzling examples of nature's ice sculpture.

For old times sake, I ended this series of hikes by climbing up to Weverton Cliffs on the Appalachian Trail.  After all the icy weather this was an unseasonably warm day and my daughter joined me.  It's less than a mile walk from the parking lot beside the Canal and the views down to the Potomac are killer.

Below I've attached the GPS track maps of the six day hikes included in this report, presented as I hiked them, from Takoma Park westward.

Connecting my old homes in Maryland via trails - Patapsco Valley State Park

Maryland has a good network of (almost) connected long trails.  Other than the 44 miles of Appalachian Trail in the state and a couple of rail trails north and south of Baltimore, the rest of the long trails follow rivers.

Granddaddy of the river trails is the C&O Canal Tow Path, which follows the Potomac for more than 180 miles from Washington DC to Cumberland.  But there's another good connecting corridor of hiking and multi-use trails through the center of the state.  This is a collection of trails -- they don't have a single name -- and there are some short road walks to make connections, but this network connects Annapolis, MD on the Chesapeake Bay with Reisterstown and Eldersburg MD in the center of the state, a trail distance of 50 or 60 miles depending on how you go.

Old Union Dam site and the US 40 bridge over the Patapsco River

At the core of this route is the Patapsco River, much of which is protected as a State Park.  And at the core of Patapsco Valley State Park's 170-mile network of trails of is its white blazed 'Thru Trail'.

I just re-hiked the Thru Trail with my GPS.  After Christmas I decided to head back to my old home turf in Maryland.  I spent a wonderful day with my two kids before one of them flew back to Houston, and then I hiked.

At the north end of Patapsco Park is Liberty Dam.  Its reservoir provides water for the city of Baltimore and there are more than 100 miles of trails encircling that lake.  The report of my 81-mile circuit hike around the reservoir is here.

Liberty Reservoir from the dam site, as it looked a few days ago.

I used to live within easy walking distance of Liberty Dam, so I've visited it many times and have experienced its many moods.  It's been dry here lately so I found no water overflowing the dam.

After a good rain, it's a different story.

In between, the water cascading over the concrete can make some interesting patterns.

Telephoto view from a picnic pavilion high on a ridge in the McKeldin area of Patapsco Valley State Park

Detail of the flow with image inverted (down is at the top)

When there's no flow over the dam, fording the North Branch of the Patapsco River is a piece of cake.  Right below the dam is a gravel bar where the little bit of leakage is a mere trickle.

That's the ford required to make the circuit hike around the lake.  Farther down, just above where the North Branch and the South Branch converge, the Thru Trail fords the river.  The formal site of the ford looks intimidating, because it's mainly used by horses.

But there's an easy rock-hop just a couple hundred yards upstream.

The Thru Trail passes another dam at the historic town of Daniels.  There's always plenty of flow here because the South Branch has no impoundment and water intake.

Although there's a road down to Daniels, most of the rest of the Thru Trail is a quiet remote walk in the woods.  The only sign of civilization is the CSX rail line that uses the river corridor to haul coal from West Virginia to the port of Baltimore where it is shipped abroad to countries with fewer environmental restrictions.

This engineer gave me a 'toot' and is waving.  Can you see his hand?

It was a cold day when I came up this piece of trail and found a well-developed bank covered with ice ribbons.

That's winter in Maryland.  As I write this report we're getting a little snow and I'm headed for another Maryland hiking venue.  I was going to head south to North Carolina but the forecast for there calls for a foot of snow.  From past experience that means days of impassable roads and gridlock.  The bulk of the accumulation from this storm will miss Maryland to the south.  It'll be downright chilly here as it will be down in NC.  We won't see the temperatures above freezing until the middle of next week, but at least here I'll be able to get out and about.

Below are the GPS tracks for the Thru Trail and beyond, along the Oella Mill Race down to Ellicott City in the south and on up to Liberty Dam in the north, divided into five segments, north to south.