Walks 11-12: Swains Lock and the Potomac Midpoint

I'm going to add two walks under a single entry because they both start from the same point which is Swain's Lock at roughly milepost 16.5 on the canal.

Morning on the Potomac.

As you move upstream past Little Falls and then Great Falls, the locks become less and less frequent because the elevation gain of the C&O Canal diminishes. With fewer locks, there are also fewer parking areas which is why Swain's lock is a good starting point for both an upstream walk and a downstream walk.

First the downstream walk. You can follow the towpath to roughly mile post 15.5 where you will find the start of the River Trail marked by a waist high concrete pylon. I wanted to follow this trail all the way to the end because I believe it takes you to C&O Canal visitor's center at mile post 13 but rain cut the walk short. I don't mind getting wet but my digital camera sure does.

 Another overlook on one of the Potomac's channels.

The best thing about this section of the canal is that it is the portion that most closely resembles what the canal probably looked like in the 1800s.

George Washington was an early proponent of the canal, whose name is an abbreviation for Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. He wanted to provide a link from the Eastern Seaboard to the Great Lakes region of the country. Work on the canal started in 1831 and originally the idea was to push it 350 miles inland. But with the advent of railroads, the canal only made it 185 miles to Cumberland Maryland before construction stopped for good. Still, according to the Potomac midpoint market, the canal's busiest year was 1871 when boats transported 850,000 tons of coal, grain and whiskey up and down stream.

I could have delivered this lecture to Loki, but, as always, he's pretty much only interested in the feth possibilities of the situation and you can't fetch history.

 Loki clears some river water from his ears.

Dying to do what he does best, he selected a massive tree branch on the shore of the Potomac and waited dutifully for me to chuck it in. I found him a smaller, more manageable because bigger isn't always better.

 At this point on the canal, there aren't that many people so as long as there are no geese for Loki to disturb, it's a good place for him to swim.

The canal much as it must have looked in 1850, if someone had a Border Collie back then.
                                                                                   

What the canal did look like in the 1900s

The canal pretty much shut down for business in 1924 and fell into ruin as a property of B&O Railroad company. The railroad sold it to the National Park Service in exchange for a loan in 1938 which strikes me as a pretty good deal. We didn't get much out of the banks in the last financial meltdown. Further downstream, finding water in the canal is pretty much hit or miss. Depends whether the latest breaches in the canal have been repaired.

Upstream, the walk is much the same up to mile post 18.5. At mile post 17.5 you reach the mid-point of the Potomac, or the half way marker between where it enters the Chesapeake and its mountain source in the Blue Ridge.

 
 Midpoint marker.

  The Lock House at Swain's lock 
So how did Swain's Lock get it's name since it is really Lock 21? Well, the Swain family lived in the Lock house from around 1900 to 2006 first as lock keepers before they switched over to a concession stand selling food, drinks and renting canoes you could paddle around on either on the river or the canal.

I'm not sure what happened in 2006. Some reports say the National Park service forced the family out because their concession stand competed with the one at mile post 13 at the main visitor center. The Swain family itself said they were moving on to other things but hoped to keep doing business with the Park Service. Either way, they are gone.


Canada Geese with Goslings on the Canal.



 Practical information: Take River Road towards Poolesville. Swain's Lock Road will be on your left just past Piney Meeting House Road. This is the first parking area upstream from the visitor's center at mile post 13. Swain's Lock is about mile post 16.5. At milepost 15.5 you can pick up the River Trail for a variation of a towpath walk. Heading upstream to mile post 18.5, it is a towpath walk.