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The Lazy Man’s C&O Canal Towpath Trip Report

Pierre

Putting on skis
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May 11, 2017
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NE Ohio
Love this trip report. I just did an overnighter a few weeks ago on the Ohio-Erie canal towpath south from my house. I connects to the GAP-C&O with two trail gaps totaling 45 miles. The first gap starts where I quit. total miles was 118 miles.
 

Jim Kenney

Travel Correspondent
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1605836664239.png


For comparison, I found this old photo from 2010 of @SKI-3PO and son (in blue and yellow) at Blue Knob, PA:
500
 
Thread Starter
TS
SKI-3PO

SKI-3PO

Making fresh tracks
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That’s pretty funny. Thanks Jim!
 

Erik Timmerman

So much better than a pro
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It's crazy how small the locks are, I'd like to see the boats that went in them.
 

cantunamunch

Meh
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It's crazy how small the locks are, I'd like to see the boats that went in them.

In non-Covid years you could even ride on one.

Small as they are, they're deep, and when they're closed the overspill forms an absolutely *vicious* hydraulic below the doors.

You know the Hollywood movie romantic trope of ducking just into a waterfall? You _really_ don't want to do it downstream of a closed canal door, and just one rescuer with a rope probably won't be enough.

Part of the reason they're small is that, during droughts especially, water had to be made up by steam pumps upstream, pumping from the main river.

Another reason they're small is that, in several spots including the Monocacy river, the canal had to be aqueducted across the stream gorges. https://www.nps.gov/choh/learn/historyculture/themonocacyaqueduct.htm
 
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