The title of this blog is not meant to be some kind of a deep philosophical statement about the state of human affairs. Rather, it is a simple and straightforward reference to a short encounter that we had on the towpath while hiking last weekend. The encounter was over in a matter of seconds, but this was the thought stayed with me, a hopelessly hokey phrase – shirtless and happy. It happened towards the end of the walk, when the traffic on the trail was beginning to increase in volume. A group of bikers went by. The last two people in this group were not wearing shirts. This was a somewhat unusual sight on the trail. My eyes locked with the last person in the group. He was a little pudgy in the middle, and the paleness of his skin was notable. And he had a huge smile on his face. He was definitely in a happy frame of mind. Being on the trail on your bike with your friends can do that to you.
We visited Taylor’s Landing last weekend. It is a fair distance away from home, but not as far as some of the other places we have been to recently. Once you get off the main roads, you have to pass through a few residential areas to get to the trail head. You feel like you are in a different world when you see the Trump 2020 signs on the lawns. We are doomed!
There is nothing particularly significant about this section of the trail. It is a few miles south of Dam 4, which we could have walked to if we had wanted. Rather, we walked in the direction of Sharpsburg, MD. Antietam, the site of the bloodiest one-day battle in the Civil War, is also close by. I had thoughts of making it half way to Sharpsburg, to a place called Snyder’s Landing. But I had not looked at my guide book before leaving home. It turned out that Snyder’s Landing was just beyond our reach. We had to turn back before we got there. It was a peaceful enough walk and we got our exercise – under the trees next to a meandering river.
Here are some pictures. The trail head at Taylor’s Landing is in a residential area. The houses here are old. The area used to be known as Mercerville – named after Charles F. Mercer, the first president of the C&O Canal Company.
There is a road that runs for a short distance along the berm of the canal, on the other side of the canal from the towpath, at Taylor’s Landing. The area around the trail itself feels relatively open here because the canal bed is completely free of trees for the short distance that the road runs next to it. There were a few flowering plants to be seen on the other side of the trail, facing the river. I think this one is called a Tall Coneflower.
Beyond the area of the local roads, the trail disappears into the familiar woods. The only flowers that remained in these woods were the Touch Me Nots.
There is only one lock in this section, lock 40,
and one campsite called Horseshoe Bend.
There were not many photo opportunities. Hopefully, the pictures below will suffice.
You had to catch the early morning light at just the right angle to be able to see this spider’s web.
These mushrooms on a log of wood next to the trail caught my eye. They look like Trametes versicolor to this untrained eye.
We saw this little fellow sitting on the trail as we were getting closer to the end of the walk. I do not know the difference between frogs and toads, but I did try to investigate. This might be a toad. It did not move even as I came close to it to take its picture.
We left it on the trail to continue on its way – wherever it was going. Hopefully it avoided being stepped on or ridden over by a bike.
We stopped at the boat ramp at Taylor’s Landing at the end of our walk for a few minutes.
And that was the end of the day on the canal.
Splattered Brains 