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It has rained a lot. A couple of days after the visit to GF it rained hard enough to affect Elaine’s walking schedule, and she skipped a day, and made some of it back up in part by walking on the next day scheduled to be off. It looked to me like the Potomac rose several feet. On a whim, a few days after the rain, we decided to go back down to GF, on the VA side, to check it out. Per the subject of this post, the river was certainly experiencing a form of revitalization to the point of being positively raucous.

…GF pictures taken on the VA side after some significant rain. Top: flood pole. Notice GF in the background. Bottom: taken at the barrier turned slightly to the left. Compare with post dated 2008-04-20 to pics taken from approximately the same perspectives.

One of the things we’ve seen repeatedly is people with fishing equipment. Sometimes they are actually fishing. At any of the landings we’ve visited, there are always a fishermen putting their boats in the water. One day (it might have been at Edward’s Ferry) I watched someone backing his boat trailer almost off the side of the ramp. When it was in straight I got a lesson in how slickly a boat could be unloaded from a trailer. When he got out I was regaled with a half hour’s worth of fishin’ talk.

Then another boat showed up to be backed into the river, and the fishin’ talk REALLY began. …One of the many landings frequented by water lovin’ folk

Elaine ended one day at lock 22, also called Pennyfield lock after Mrs. Pennyfield whose house is still partially standing. Apparently Grover Cleveland liked to come here to fish… bass as the story goes. I hope GC caught a lot of whatever it was he needed.

JD showed up at the Pennyfield house before we left. I wonder if Jesus loved Grover Cleveland. Do you think he would have fished with him?

After we had moved on past the section of trail containing GF, Elaine mentioned that she had wanted to get some post cards. …Chester and Elaine enjoying lunch at GF.

It was not until we got past the next section until I felt I had a chance to go back to GF and get her some. She’s doing about ten miles per day, so we were getting pretty far away for a quick round trip. Anyway, I dawdled around long enough that doing the swing down to GF and picking Elaine up on time were not necessarily both possible. I took off, hit nearly every light green, and had almost no traffic all during rush hour in an area just outside of DC. When I was going in to get the post cards, I saw JD sitting in exactly the same spot where Elaine and Chester had rested a couple of days before. What a coincidence! I had to take his picture.…JD shows up shortly after Elaine and Chester had moved on to other objectives. I wonder if Jesus ever shows up without being expected.

Going back to Dickerson Conservation Park, I arrived about 20 minutes before Elaine. (I won’t say I didn’t break the speed limit, but it would be better not to get too specific.)

Lest you think that I got away with something, when I proudly handed the cards over to Elaine, it was evident that I had not gotten enough of them.

A critical feature of this time in our lives is our dog Chester. He is Elaine’s companion during all of her walks. I see to the logistics and travel trailer, and I am working on a number of projects in my “spare” time. As we were thinking about the sabbatical, and the possibility that I would not be walking, an issue was to make sure she had adequate companionship. We found Chester at a rescue hostel in search for a labrador. It was love at first sight (for one of us) and we took him home. He’s not a lab of course, but a mix which changes from time to time, of something like a herd dog and springer spaniel. He’s white with brown markings and pretty much the opposite of a lab: somewhat nervous around new people, independent, stubborn, etc. I like ornery critters (both the animal and human kind) so I will admit that I like Chester. I have allowed him, for example, to inhabit the same couch that I use as my primary parking spot, in both homes. He responds to treats (kind of) and we coax him into doing things with them. A few months after we got him, the neighbors black “alpha” dog attacked Chester. Ever since, he barks furiously and becomes aggressive whenever he sees a black dog. He gets along with most other dogs, however, particularly if they don’t exhibit much “alpha” behavior; except, of course, for a notable exception at the campground where we are located at the time of this writing. There is evidently a dog show of papillons nearby and there were several families in the camp with them. Papillon is French for butterfly, and this dog breed has the name because of their ears, which look like butterfly wings. They bark like a miniature poodle or maltese, with both of which I have had hours of listening pleasure at parent’s or sibling’s houses. Papillons have the added distinction of thinking they are guard dogs, making them even more obnoxious. Chester has ruled out the possibility that this scrawny quadruped with antenna ears is a dog. He got so aggressive with the neighbor’s dog (which was being washed so that it looked even more like a drowned rat) that he broke his lead, and was prevented from what I suspect would have been dog murder had its owner not snatched it out of the way. He loves chasing rabbits and squirrels. I’m sure he thinks it’s something like a strange cross between a rabbit and squirrel. So we went to Pet Smart and got a heavy duty leash and a lead called “the beast.”…Chester on the couch (in my spot) after a hike.

To be fair, Chester is a great walker, actually runner. On days when I ride my bike from Elaine’s ending point, in order to meet them on the trail, I will often take Chester’s leash and he will run a mile or two along side the bike. And, he provides more than adequate protection for Elaine on the trail.

Great Falls is one of the better known spots on the Potomac. It is a series of very nice cascades that you can get to on the MD side by way of a trail from the C&O. A more noteworthy fact , in my opinion, is the pole on the VA side that shows the height of the biggest floods. The VA side is a cliff that I would guess it is a hundred feet high or so. (If anyone is reading this blog, I would be happy for you to report in a comment the exact height.) Heights are deceiving, so I really have no idea except that it is HIGH. The pole is on the TOP of the cliff, meaning that the river, which normally runs very far below, crests at a very prodigious height. We only got as far as the C&O this trip, and did not see GF from the MD or VA side.
…GF pictures taken on the VA side on a previous trip. Top: flood pole. Notice GF in the background. Bottom: taken at the barrier turned slightly to the left. For some perspective, notice the two men at the bottom, about two fifths from the right.

Without my regular camera, I was able to catch this photograph with the camera in my phone. It’s a little ragged, but encouraging that JD was present, even during a day with logistical challenges.…JD at Lock 6. Where is Jesus in the midst of hectic events?

I made it to Carderock after another missed turn. The exit sign read as if it was a military establishment (which was there), with no mention of a park or lock or canal. Given that it was a nice place but rather unremarkable, I’ll move on…

Lock 6 is about halfway from TBC to Carderock. I missed a turn (onto Whitehurst Freeway) and ended up winding my way north on the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway. Turning around is not as straightforward as one might like, and I ended up twisting my way around Mass Ave., Q St. and 28th St. to M St. which got me to Canal Rd. with a much more circuitous route than if I had been paying attention. Canal street turns into the Clara Barton Parkway (kind of, I think) and lock 6 is… Wait! Where is it? Ahh… you can’t get to it by going west. You have to turn around, which is about as obvious as turning around on the RC&PP, and finally it appears. I think I met Elaine there, but the logistical fog of the moment has obscured the memory of whether I achieved the primary goal.

If you resonate with this DC travelogue, you may synergize with the ranks of common folk like me who find Washington one of the more confusing cities on the east coast. I think the signage is for natives, with classics such as “Key Bridge next exit.” Wonderful if you know where the Key Bridge goes. (I have a great story, out of the scope of this blog, of taking a wrong turn out of Reagan National trying to find the GW Parkway and ending up sitting in a bemused state next to the Washington Monument.)

I am very tempted to extol the virtues of my GPS at this point, but I can already hear the groans. You know you have a good GPS if it helps more than hinders at least 51 percent of the time, and it doesn’t go belly up in the building canyons of the city, and it keeps its cool when navigating dense woods such as are found near the Potomac. Mine almost meets these standards, and I’m sure it has saved me hours of lost behavior. I’m trying to trace the entire path traversed by our vehicle. If I actually achieve something more substantial than embarrassing, I may include it in the blog.
…Sample Trace, Day One, Georgetown

Well, we drove from the camp to Georgetown to find the beginning of the trail. None of the guides were really too helpful, with only the description: Thomson Boat Center. TBC is near a section of winding on and off ramps for I66 down to the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway. It turns out that you have to navigate a couple of ramps in order to get to the start of the tow path. We found it and Elaine was on her way. …C&O Canal Beginning

The reference to Carderock in the title is to her goal for the day, but that’s all for this post…

Elaine applied for and received a grant to do several things on her sabbatical. The most time consuming part is planned to take seven weeks. Her goal is to walk from Washington DC to Pittsburgh while memorizing the gospel of John. The Lutheran liturgy is in three one-year cycles, one each for Matthew, Mark and Luke. John is spread throughout the three years, making it hard to see its structure and themes.

…Vines like the interwoven themes of John

Elaine’s goal is to do a series on John when she gets back, which will be the first time that most of her congregation will hear a systematic approach to the gospel written by the man singled out as the one who loved Jesus. She wants to know it well enough that she can recite from memory the scripture for a given Sunday as part of each worship service. I never cease to be amazed by my wife’s intensity and her single-mindedness in going for goals to which she is committed. (Her becoming a pastor is a primary example of this… but that’s for another day and another blog.)

There is an old canal, call the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, that goes from Washington DC to Cumberland MD. It fell into disrepair and was saved through the efforts of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in the 1950’s. The 184.5 mile length of the C&O Canal has now been preserved as a national historical park. There are really two “water ways” involved: the canal itself and the Potomac River, along which the canal runs for its entire length.

From Cumberland there is a rail trail called the Great Allegheny Passage that goes all of the way to Pittsburgh. This will be the second leg of the walk, a distance of around 150 miles. The railway runs along several water ways for pretty much its entire length, with the major exception being its traversal through Mount Savage. Out of Cumberland the GAP runs along Mills Creek, Jennings Run, through Mount Savage, Flaugherty Creek, Casselman River, Youghiogheny River, and finally the Monongahela River to Pittsburgh.

The pilgrimage will be interrupted with a couple of breaks where we are doing other things, but those will be part of another post…

I hope to keep track of the time my wife Elaine and I spend over the next few weeks. Elaine is a pastor, and her church (St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran in New Cumberland PA) has agreed for her to take a sabbatical. I work for Messiah College. The college has graciously granted me some administrative leave in order to be able to travel with Elaine. We had a rather hectic start, due mostly to my responsibilities at Messiah. One of the most interesting (and challenging) things was the Compassion Forum, which was structured as interviews with the presidential candidates about faith and caring for disadvantaged people. Messiah was chosen to host it, which meant that my department (Information Technology Services or ITS) had to care for all all of the technical details. CNN brought most of what they needed, except for phones and an internet connection. There were a couple hundred (rough guess) press there for whom we provided WiFi connection to the internet, cell phone coverage, and televisions and video projection of the actual event since they were not allowed to be in the venue. It turned out that the cell phone coverage was the most challenging. We worked with Verizon and AT&T to boost the signal in the locations where the press and others were located. There was an anxious moment or two, but everything ended up working very well.

At the same time as all of this (plus me just getting ready to be out of the office) Elaine and I were getting ready for the trip. We moved the travel trailer to our first camping location on Friday, and I came back for the weekend to see the forum through to the end (and to pick up a number of things that were left behind).…St. Paul’s Jesus doll relaxing at the camp. Did Jesus ever do any camping?

On Monday, Elaine started her pilgrimage on time… but we’ll leave that for other posts.