C&O Canal @ Monocacy Aqueduct Hike

This late summer excursion will highlight one of the most picturesque structures along the entire C&O Canal: The 516-foot-long Monocacy Aqueduct, with seven arches gracefully spanning the mouth of the Monocacy River at the border of Maryland's Frederick and Montgomery Counties.

This magnificent structure, the longest aqueduct on the whole C&O Canal, has seen more than its share of history in the past 200 years. Its sturdy construction has enabled it to survive not only numerous catastrophic floods but also the best efforts of Confederate armies to blow the whole thing up during the Civil War.

After starting with a stroll across the Aqueduct, our itinerary will take us upstream past Nolands Ferry, where we will lunch at the site of a Potomac River crossing used by Native American tribes long before colonial times. We will continue upstream as far as the scenic Point of Rocks Railroad Station, a Gothic confection still in use by today's commuters, before retracing our steps to the Aqueduct.

Total length of this moderate-to-strenuous round-trip hike will not exceed 11 miles. If it's excessively hot, we may shorten our trip either by turning back before we reach Point of Rocks or by converting our walk into a one-way trip with a car shuttle.

Bring lunch, plenty of beverages, bug spray, sunscreen, the $5 Adventuring trip fee, and about $10 for your driver if you're a passenger in the carpool. When you RSVP, please indicate whether you can be a carpool driver.

We will meet at 8:30 Sunday morning the 17th in the Kiss & Ride lot at the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro Station on the Red Line. We should return well before dinner time.

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