Potomac River – Baltimore Magazine

Adventures in Allegany County: We’ve Got a Trail for That

Megan McGaha — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 15:48:01 +0000

Is your idea of fun biking for miles along well-maintained trails, soaking in the scenery? Or perhaps you like learning about history, like the early days of our nation’s roadway and railway systems. Maybe you enjoy the small-town charm of an all-American Main Street, where you can sample the local fare. Or is your answer “all of the above”?

Whatever your idea of adventure, you’re likely to find it in Allegany County, “the Mountain Side of Maryland.” With an abundance of outdoor recreational activities, historic sites, and award-winning wineries, breweries, distilleries, and eateries, you’ll find a trail for just about any age or interest in this picturesque part of the state. Here are just a few of the spring and summer trail experiences Allegany County has to offer.

Great Allegheny Passage

Connecting Pittsburgh, PA, to Cumberland, MD, the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail offers 150 miles of scenic rail-trail for biking and hiking, with majestic views of Maryland’s mountains. The trail follows the route of the historic Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, and it’s the only location along trail where bikers can ride through a tunnel at the same time as a passing train. The GAP trail links up to the C&O Canal Towpath in Cumberland.

The official trail towns of Frostburg and Cumberland boast Main Street districts full of unique and charming shops, restaurants, and arts and entertainment venues. Be sure to take the self-guided walking tours to admire the architectural beauty and enduring history when you visit.

C&O Canal Towpath

The 12-foot wide, nearly level path was built for mules to pull the canal boats along the 184.5-mile canal from Cumberland, MD, to Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Today, the path is maintained by the National Park Service and draws visitors from all over the world looking for scenic biking and hiking.

Tracks and Yaks

If you’re looking for something fun and different for all ages, try rail biking! Pedal-powered tandem or quad rail bikes take riders along the smooth, steel railroad tracks. This is not a physically strenuous activity since the tracks steer the rail bikes and the terrain is mostly downhill. The Track and Yak excursion includes a 15-mile rail bike trip, a 4-mile float on the North Branch of the Potomac River in a kayak or tube, and a shuttle bus back to Frostburg Depot. Shorter rail bike-only tours are also available.

Ice Cream Trail

If your warm weather goals are to sample as many sweet frozen treats as possible, the Ice Cream Trail is for you. From end-to-end, the self-guided drive is just under 55 miles and includes nine stops at local eateries. Or, you can take a break from biking or hiking one of the trails above to pop into one or two of them, such as the Oak Barrel Café, offering soft serve and smoothies, or Frostburg Freeze, family owned and operated for over 50 years, purveyors of the Boston Shake—a hot fudge sundae inside a milkshake or a milkshake poured over a hot fudge sundae, depending on your viewpoint.

Mountain Maryland Tap and Pour Tour

If your idea of a treat leans more toward adult beverages, this is your kind of tour. Mountain Maryland’s Tap and Pour Tour was recently named “Best Beer/Wine/Spirits Trail” by Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine. Visit the area’s award-winning wineries, breweries, and distilleries, including 1812 Brewery, the ﬁrst farm brewery in Allegany County, located on 190 acres where they grow their own hops, and Charis Winery and Distillery, oﬀering award-winning sweet and semi-sweet wines and brandy, as well as seven diﬀerent oils and balsamic vinegar for sampling.

For even more ideas, destinations, and events, visit our website where you can request a destination guide.

Maryland. Be Open.

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Follow Your Trail

Megan McGaha — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 20:11:56 +0000

As the summer heat subsides and the leaves start to turn, there’s nowhere better to appreciate the spectacular sensations of fall than the mountainside of Allegany County, Maryland. Adventure is abundant along the county’s more than 200 miles of trails. Dive into dozens of outdoor recreational activities, travel back in time with scores of historic sights, or try a taste of world-class food and drink. Whatever adventures you seek this fall, Mountain Maryland has a trail for you.

Do you crave fresh air and stunning fall foliage? You’ve got to check out the Great Allegheny Passage. Named one of the ‘Top Fall Trips in the World’ by National Geographic, the trail starts in Cumberland and follows the route of the historic Western Maryland Railway up toward the Eastern Continental Divide. The 150 mile trail winds through Maryland’s mountains to connect with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and travelers can catch majestic views across four states from the overlook outside the Big Savage Tunnel just over the Mason & Dixon Line. Grab your backpack, your bike, or even your skis when the snow begins to fall and get going – you won’t want to miss this.

If outdoor sports aren’t your thing, no worries – Mountain Maryland has trails for you too. Climb aboard the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad for a range of experiences on the rails, with astounding views, authentic coaches, and fun for the whole family. Or try Tracks and Yaks, Maryland’s only rail biking excursion, which will whisk you through lush hills and valleys on tandem or quad railbikes. If you’re more comfortable in the car, drive the three-hour, 45-mile, self-guided scenic overlooks tour of Green Ridge State Forest. Maryland’s largest contiguous forest is not so green this time of year, and you’ll be mesmerized by the tapestry of fall colors.

While losing yourself in Mountain Maryland’s natural splendor, take a tour through history along the C&O Canal Towpath. One of the most-visited National Parks in the U.S. last year, the nearly 200-mile canal connects the region’s towns, parks, and forests, as well as the Potomac River. Learn about local industry, transportation, and recreation dating back to the early 1800s at the Allegany Museum and Canal Place Heritage Park. Then take it for yourself — the 12-foot wide, nearly-level towpath is perfect for biking and hiking. Stop for self-guided tours of Cumberland and Frostburg, which will walk you through the history and culture of these charming trail towns.

Before, after, or amid your outdoor exploits, reward yourself with delicious treats along Mountain Maryland’s tastier trails. The Tap and Pour Tour was named ‘Best Beer/Wine/Spirits Trail’ in Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine’s 2021 ‘Best Of’ awards. Bask in the ambiance of outdoor gardens and patios at award-winning wineries, breweries, and distilleries, or take your favorites in a growler to go. For early birds, the irresistible offerings along the Donut and Coffee Trail will give you the sugar rush and caffeine buzz needed to knock out an early climb or a day of kayaking.

There’s something in the autumn air, something that drives us to get our, explore, and chase down adventure. Lots of places have incredible fall experiences. But if you’re looking to pursue your passions against a backdrop of sweeping mountain views and vibrant fall foliage, there’s only one place to go: Mountain Maryland.

Visit mdmountainside.com/startshere to learn more and request a destination guide.

Maryland. Be Open.

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More Than a Mansion

Megan McGaha — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 19:19:50 +0000

“No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this. It lyes [sic] in a high, dry country 300 miles by water from the Sea and…on one of the finest Rivers in the world.” -George Washington to Arthur Young, 1793

Built on a promontory overlooking the Potomac River, Mount Vernon was the home of the United States’ first president, George Washington. Over time, Washington himself expanded on the home and the residence was the backdrop against which some of the most dramatic moments in the formation of the nation played out. It was also a working farm and the location of George Washington’s Distillery & Gristmill. Today, Mount Vernon is every bit as bustling as it was in the 18th century and, just as it was then, it is so much more than a mansion.

While the 21-room Mansion is the centerpiece of the estate, showcasing what life would have been like at one of the largest and most esteemed residences in colonial America, the Mansion is only part of the experience. There are 500 acres for visitors to explore that include gardens, the fully restored gristmill and distillery, and the farm where visitors can see cows, chickens, and sheep, heritage breeds that would have been raised when Washington lived. The historic area offers many ways to experience the past, from interacting with costumed interpreters and watching live demonstrations to stepping inside a replica slave cabin or one of more than a dozen historic outbuildings where enslaved people and tradespeople engaged in work such as tool and textile making.

Because so much of the estate is outdoors—and you can buy a ticket just to explore the estate without entering the Mansion—it is a relaxing place to spend an afternoon simply strolling and absorbing the historic atmosphere. The estate is dog friendly, too.

When you visit, will you take advantage of the adventure map and take the kids for a scavenger hunt across the estate? Or perhaps visit the interactive museum and education center to trace Washington’s life through exhibits, a 4D Revolutionary War film and the Be Washington Interactive Theater? Maybe you want to enjoy a specialty tour, like the National Treasure: Book of Secrets or Hamilton the Musical tours?

Because there is so much to see and do, the best place to start your visit is the Mount Vernon website, mountvernon.org, which offers suggested itineraries depending on how much time you have to enjoy the estate and is the place to purchase tickets in advance. The website is full of useful tools and information including details on the many events hosted by Mount Vernon. Consider timing your visit to coincide with one of the following upcoming events:

August 6: Purple Heart commemoration day

September 10: The Patriot Run

September 17-18: Colonial Market & Fair

October 7-9: Fall Wine Festival & Sunset Tour

October 22-23: Fall Harvest Family Days

October 29: Trick or Treating at Mt. Vernon

November 11: Mt. Vernon Salutes Veterans

November 25-26: Mount Vernon by Candlelight

Complete your visit with a delicious meal at the Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant (or grab a quick bite at the Food Court), and select from exclusive Mount Vernon wares such artisan woodworking crafts, jewelry, and reproductions from the museum collection, at the estate shop.

The entire estate is made possible by private contributions and there’s no better way to ensure the legacy continues than by becoming a member. Membership in Mount Vernon offers many perks including discounts at shops and restaurants, free estate admission and Mansion tours, and discounts to selected events, programs, and lectures.

Mount Vernon is within easy driving distance of Baltimore but allows you to travel back centuries in time to experience from many perspectives what life was like at the most preeminent home in colonial America. To begin your journey into history, visit mountvernon.org.

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Talk of the Bay

Lauren Cohen — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 12:23:00 +0000

Janet Mann had been studying dolphins in Australia’s Shark Bay for several decades when her husband suggested buying a cottage off the Potomac River in Virginia’s Northern Neck several years back as a dolphin-free retreat.

“I resisted it,” Mann explains with a chuckle. “It was my husband’s idea. He thought I worked too much and wanted a getaway place for us. Literally the day we close on the house, there are dolphins in our backyard.”

A professor of biology and psychology at Georgetown University, Mann thought the dolphin sighting was an anomaly. No scientific literature on the mammals in the Chesapeake Bay existed, let alone in the Potomac River. But so many kept popping their bottlenoses up behind Mann’s “escape” cottage, she soon turned it into a field station. “My husband is a patient man.”

Following a dolphin die-off in the Bay caused by a virus outbreak, Mann and her research team launched the first-ever formal study of the local population in 2015. That effort grew into the Potomac-Chesapeake Dolphin Project, which today surveys the social and super-smart mammals from May through October in about 14 square miles of the Potomac. They’ve documented dolphins up river as far as the Harry W. Nice Bridge in Charles County, about 75 miles south of Baltimore. (The distressed dolphin that died in the Inner Harbor last year was a peculiar incident; normally they come no closer than the mouth of the Patapsco.)

A year ago this month, researchers witnessed a dolphin giving birth in the Potomac. It’s believed to be one of only three times scientists have seen a bottlenose dolphin giving birth in the wild anywhere. Ann-Marie Jacoby, the assistant director of the Potomac-Chesapeake Dolphin Project, was trailing a group of 50 dolphins in the lower section of the river when a cloud of blood floated to the water’s surface.

“At first, it was alarming,” Jacoby recalls. “I thought, ‘Did we hurt one of them? Was there a shark?’” Then she saw another cloud of blood and a “slightly bent and still wobbly fin” surface near an adult dolphin.

Dolphins, as Mann, an expert in animal behavior, notes, live long lives—40 to 50 years—and possess an extraordinarily cognitive ability, with a brain-to-body weight ratio greater than great apes and second only to human beings. They are natural learners, cooperative, and able to adopt new foraging and hunting strategies. Some use tools, placing sponges on the ends of their snouts as they rummage through the ocean floor.

Their sonar, which can detect the difference between a ping-pong ball and a golf ball from hundreds of yards away based on its density, is the envy of the U.S. Navy. But it is their facility for “conversation,” as some scientists characterize it, through clicks, whistles, and body language, plus the lasting bonds formed with each another, as well as their playful and charming personalities, that make them both endearing and fascinating. Dolphins even “name” themselves by listening and then developing unique signature whistles.

In truth, sightings in the Bay and Potomac are not new. In July 1844, a pod of dolphins was spotted swimming near the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Others were seen in the 1880s in the river near Alexandria, Virginia. After that, sightings in the Potomac evaporated as pollution began to destroy the condition of the river. A half-century of clean-up and restoration now appears to be helping bring them back.

Since 2017, Helen Bailey, a research professor at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science, has managed a cellphone app, DolphinWatch, which enables the public to log Bay-area sightings. Submitted photos are entered into sophisticated fin matching software (dorsal fins are akin to finger prints for dolphins) that can identify individual dolphins and follow their movement. So far, citizen scientists have uploaded more than 2,700 sightings.

It’s a challenge studying fast-moving marine mammals, Mann says, in that you can’t see everything they’re doing. There remains a lot of mystery, in terms of understanding their lives, what they are doing with their big brains, and “what it means to be a dolphin.”

“These are really big, powerful animals, yet human beings feel entirely safe around them. Small children will happily jump into the water with them,” Mann says. “I think that’s fascinating.”

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Canton Waterfront is Baltimore’s First Organic Park

Ron Cassie — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 18:11:00 +0000

Three years ago, the State House grounds in Annapolis began a transformation that ultimately led to Maryland’s capital becoming the first in the nation to have its lawns successfully managed with organic care.

Now, the Canton Waterfront Park has followed suit as Baltimore’s first organically managed municipal park, and the City’s Sustainability Commission and Recreation and Parks Department, partnering with the Maryland Pesticide Education Network, are highlighting the achievement—it’s also been a three-year process—with a celebration this Saturday afternoon.

The free event this weekend from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. includes activities for kids, sports, information booths staffed by local environmental groups, kayaking and canoeing, as well as giveaway garden plants and presentations from city officials involved with the project.

We may assume parks and green spaces are natural, healthy places. But this is not always so. Pesticides, some of which are known endocrine disruptors, are still used to maintain green lawns and keep weeds and bugs from recreational areas and public grounds.

“It’s been a goal of the Baltimore City Sustainability Commission and the Recreation and Parks Department to reduce pesticide use,” says Ruth Berlin, executive director of the Maryland Pesticide Education Network. “The Canton Waterfront Park was the right size—manageable for the project—and it’s also right on the harbor, which matters in terms of keeping pesticides out of the Chesapeake Bay. And it’s used by a lot of people and families. It was a perfect test for use as a model.”

Creating an organically managed park, Berlin explains, starts with building healthy soil. The first step is testing the soil’s pH balance and finding out what the soil needs, in terms of supplementation, microorganisms and minerals, and then overseeding to push out weeds and aerating the soil. Proper fertilizing, watering, and mowing heights, which vary from season to season, are also important.

KW Landscaping, based in Anne Arundel County, did much of the work, which was overseen by natural turf management expert Charles Osborne, who will be speaking and on hand Saturday to answer questions along with Berlin.

“A number of cancers have been associated with pesticide use, along with asthma, Parkinson’s disease, autism, and, of course, they threaten the aquatic life in the Chesapeake Bay,” says Berlin. “The intersex fish found in the Potomac River have been linked to endocrine disruptors, including the herbicide atrazine, and we’re killing pollinating bees with pesticides.”

“The good thing is that government [in Annapolis and Baltimore City] is leading by example here,” continues Berlin, adding, however, that expanding the organic park movement in the city and state will require more private and/or public funding. “You can bring your children to the State House or the Canton Waterfront Park and see it looks good and know it’s also healthy.”

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