Elevation and Lincoln

This Memorial Day weekend John and I were planning on going out to Western Maryland, but at the last minute I re-looked at our hotel reservations and saw that pets weren't allowed, so we decided to stay home and make a couple of day hikes.

On Saturday we went to Harpers Ferry, WV and decided to climb the formidible Maryland Heights. We have been to Harpers Ferry a couple of times before and we always meant to hike up to the top, but by the time we got to the split between the lookout and the top, we always went for the lookout. Not this time! We were determined to climb these heights. At the split, the trail practically goes straight up.

Looking at this picture - well, it looks pretty steep, but no where near as steep as it felt! We hiked 1,920 feet of elevation - it was a beautiful day and pretty cool for these parts considering it is the end of May. At about the half-way point up this trail there is a little information board that said President Lincoln came to check out the troops here and he got to the point where the trail went straight up and he turned around and went back down! I don't blame him one bit, it took us 3 tries in 3 years to make it! On top of the hike are ruins of a camp that the Union soldiers made - there are still stone foundations and breastworks. Here are John and Chops on the foundations of the Old Stone Fort.

On Sunday we decided to push ourselves and go for another hike. This time we stuck a little closer to home and went to White Hall, Maryland to hike on the North Central Railroad Trail. This used to be a railroad line that ran from Northern Maryland to Baltimore. It would deliver milk and other goods into town. When President Lincoln died, this rail line carried his body north so it could be transported back to Illinois.

Chopper sat out this hike because he was still tired from the Harpers Ferry hike. In the morning when I was getting my shoes on, he sniffed my shoes, jumped on the couch and gave me a sidelong glance as if to say, "I ain't going anywhere today!"

This trail was a really nice walk along flat ground, which we both appreciated after the Harpers Ferry hike. I look a little tired here because we made this a 9.2 mile hike - our furthest trek yet!

On Memorial Day we decided to take it easy and we went to Ft. McHenry here in Baltimore to hang out, read and watch boats go by. This was a great weekend!