Posts Tagged ‘Brunswick’

Earlier this year I stopped at the Catoctin Aqueduct.   For background on what I am doing with the C&O please look at this post.

LocationCatoctin Aqueduct

Mile Marker – 51

Historical Comments –One of eleven stone aqueducts (allowing the canal to pass over Catoctin Creek) it was recently rebuilt. From 1978, when it was destroyed in a flood, until October 2011 the span across the creek was via a steel footbridge.

You can stay overnight in the Lock house, see here for detail.

Ride to Site – This stop on the C&O is between Point of Rock and Brunswick, MD.  You will use State Route 464 and turn onto Lander rode to get to the canal.  When approaching the turn off of 464 from the east pay close attention, the sign gives you the appearance that you take the next left.  It is actually the second left!

Amenities – parking, lodging

Road Conditions (from main road) – Paved to parking area

Railway Situation – Ground level

Parking Lot Conditions – Large, loose gravel and, use a kickstand puck.

Main Attraction – Aqueduct is about a mile from the parking area. Lock house number 28

My Thoughts – This is a good area to see a lock house and how the canal flowed along the river.  The restored aqueduct is a bit of a hike if you are wearing riding gear.

Map

From Google Map

…nowhere in particular.  We did not start out that way; we had intentions of riding to Camp David (the presidential retreat in Maryland). I know that we would not get in to Camp David but riding up to the gate would have been cool.  But, speaking of cool, it was anything but, by 10AM it was 85 degrees with 95 the high. So we thought better and decided to run around with no particular destination in mind.

115 miles later we had passed through a dozen small towns in Maryland and Virginia including Lovettesville, Point of Rocks, Poolsville, Brunswick, and Frederick.  We stopped at the Monocacy Aqueduct (part of the C&O Canal) and dipped our feet into the cool water of the Monocacy River while sitting in the shade of the aqueduct itself. It was a fascinating notion that we were, basically, setting under what use to be a river that flowed over a river to move goods to and from Washington DC in the 1800’s.

While we were in Frederick we stopped by Frederick Harley Davidson. At the dealership we bought a magnetic tank pouch (part number 76000193) to hold my phone to the tank. I wanted this in order to connect the phone, and its music, to the Aux input with more ease vice pulling the cord to my rear pocket.

The pouch held very tightly to the tank and the neoprene like surface between the tank and the magnets gives me faith that the pouch will not mare the paint. The clear face of the pouch allows the user interact with the device. The only draw back is that in the heat of that day the phone got very hot, which killed the battery quite fast. Now I need to get a USB port to push into the cigarette lighter and a cord to charge the phone while it is playing.

After visiting the dealership we had lunch at the Mariachi restaurant. We have eaten there in the past and the food has been good today, maybe because we were so hot, it was only ok.

In the end Debbie and I had a nice day out on the bike going

nowhere in particular.