Towpath

People walking on the C&O Canal towpath Sunday found a man who was injured in a fall at Maryland Heights, said Capt. Arnold Martin of the Potomac Valley Volunteer Fire Co. The man, whose name was not released, was alert and conscious when emergency personnel arrived at the scene, Martin said. He was flown by helicopter to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Martin said. The incident was reported at 3:52 p.m., a Washington County 911 dispatcher said. It was not known how far the man fell, Martin said.

In January, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park experienced a significant rockslide near towpath mile 155, just downstream of the Paw Paw Tunnel. While investigating the rockslide, numerous other large rock formations were discovered to be on the verge of collapse. Due to the potential threat of another significant rockslide in addition to the blockage, the towpath area downstream of the east portal of the tunnel will remain closed until the path can be cleared and the remaining rock stabilized.

Cub Scout Pack 34 members from Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hagerstown hiked a portion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath at the Cushwa Basin in Williamsport on June 16. Two Boy Scouts, Michael and Thomas Milner from Troop 66, assisted the pack with the outing.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- Poised to fix the only gap in America's longest national park, officials gathered along the C&O Canal National Historical Park on Saturday to celebrate the start of the repair. Some mentioned the rallying cry "No slack on Big Slack" -- a reference to the persistence of many in getting funding to fix Big Slackwater, a 2.7-mile impassable stretch of towpath south of Williamsport. Big Slackwater is the only break in the 184.5-mile park, which runs from the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Md. Park officials and supporters say mending the gap could bring in thousands of new visitors and millions of dollars in tourism money, and will eliminate a dangerous detour.

Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park has temporarily closed a section of the towpath in the Georgetown area through Friday. The towpath closure is between Wisconsin Avenue at mile .68 to Potomac Street at mile .80. The temporary closure is needed to allow for the installation of scaffolding and a safety debris shield on two Georgetown Mall Associates' bridges, which span the canal. Detour signs will be posted. The canal towpath is scheduled to reopen for normal use on Saturday.

On Aug. 11, a committee of C&O Canal Association members solicited signatures for a petition at Woburn Manor on Dam No. 4 Road. This location marks the midpoint of the six-mile detour necessary to skirt the damaged section of the C&O Canal towpath. Bikers were offered ice water and brochures describing the long history of the damaged towpath and added their signatures to the many collected by the association urging the park service to expedite the necessary repairs to restore the towpath.

Conditions on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park towpath have improved during the last week due to continuous good weather, according to a release. McCoy's Ferry Campground, located at mile 110.4 of the C&O Canal near Clear Spring is open again to the public with the exception of some sites that remain closed due to reseeding, mulching and erosion. The stretch between mileposts 88 and 89, which encompasses the area between McMahon's Mill and Lock 41 of the towpath, has also been opened to the public again.

About 30 hikers walked along a soggy towpath in Williamsport Saturday morning to raise money for C&O Canal educational services. The hikers participating in the second annual March for Parks out of Williamsport raised almost $1,700, said Debbie Conway, chief of interpretation for the C&O Canal. Conway said some of the money will be used to reprint brochures given to tourists. "We always walk along (the canal) and so we thought it would be a good cause," said Lisa Mummert, who lives near Downsville.

Oakiee McKee celebrated his 72nd birthday July 10 at a C&O Canal campsite in Little Orleans, Md. He was one of 125 participants who left Cumberland, Md., that day on a four-day, 184-mile bicycle trip on the C&O Canal towpath to Georgetown, Md. The Great Bicycle Tour of the C&O Canal benefits San Mar Children's Home in Boonsboro. The tour offers a bus ride to Cumberland, meals and snacks, camp site fees, hotel for the third night, T-shirts, and return to Washington County. Participants pay a registration fee, raise sponsorship funds and share a lifetime memory.

A man with minor injuries and his teenage son were rescued Saturday night after they became lost on a closed section of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park towpath and the father fell into the Potomac River while trying to get onto a construction barge, a Williamsport Volunteer Fire and Emergency Medical Services official said Sunday. The Delaware man and his son, of Hedgesville, W.Va., biked from Williamsport to Harpers Ferry, W.Va., on Saturday, taking the detour around the closed Big Slackwater section of the towpath, Williamsport fire spokesman Scott Bragunier said.

People walking on the C&O Canal towpath Sunday found a man who was injured in a fall at Maryland Heights, said Capt. Arnold Martin of the Potomac Valley Volunteer Fire Co. The man, whose name was not released, was alert and conscious when emergency personnel arrived at the scene, Martin said. He was flown by helicopter to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Martin said. The incident was reported at 3:52 p.m., a Washington County 911 dispatcher said. It was not known how far the man fell, Martin said.

A man fell about six feet in the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park on Wednesday afternoon, according to a spokesman for the Potomac Valley Volunteer Fire Co. The man suffered a medical emergency when he fell off a wall and into the towpath's canal area, said firefighter Bobby Hunter. A Maryland State Police helicopter flew the man to a hospital but his injuries were not life-threatening, Hunter said. The man was with two other people when he fell just before 1 p.m., officials said.

In January, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park experienced a significant rockslide near towpath mile 155, just downstream of the Paw Paw Tunnel. While investigating the rockslide, numerous other large rock formations were discovered to be on the verge of collapse. Due to the potential threat of another significant rockslide in addition to the blockage, the towpath area downstream of the east portal of the tunnel will remain closed until the path can be cleared and the remaining rock stabilized.

Big Slackwater Oct. 13 - Images of the old Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, which had faded with time, were resurrected in 2012. The 2.7-mile section of the towpath known as Big Slackwater was closed after flooding in 1996 and it deteriorated into a treacherous ridge overrun with brambles, thistles and poisonous plants. Towpath visitors were detoured off the trail and onto a dangerous route with no shoulders following 4.5 miles along Dam 4, Dellinger and Avis Mill roads. Two years ago, the National Park Service determined that during a five-year period, there were 35 accidents along the detour that resulted in someone being taken to a hospital.

View streaming video from the finish line at Springfield Middle School from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday online at www.herald-mail.com .   On the nightstand of Buzz Sawyer's room in Somerford Place is a copy of “The Flying Scotsman,” a book about the Olympic runner Eric Liddell, and copies of Track & Field Magazine. “Born to Run” and “The Perfect Mile” are in his bookcase, along with an All-America cross country award from 1954, and the walls are crowded with framed photos and newspaper clippings of a life spent on the run. At 83, William Joseph “Buzz” Sawyer Jr., the founder of the JFK 50 Mile, has slowed a bit and a walker stands by his chair, but he hopes to be at the dinner Friday night before the 50th running of the race and, possibly, there to see the finish Saturday.

It was a sore amid the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park's towpath. The Big Slackwater section of the popular 184.5-mile hiking and biking trail was closed after flooding in 1996 and deteriorated into a treacherous ridge overrun with brambles, thistles and poisonous plants. The 2.7-mile stretch along the Potomac River near Williamsport was the sole disruption in the path that runs from Cumberland, Md., to Washington, D.C. Towpath visitors were detoured off the trail and onto a dangerous route with no shoulders following 4.5 miles along Dam 4, Dellinger and Avis Mill roads.

The Big Slackwater boat ramp along the C&O Canal will be closed from Friday at dusk to Saturday at 3 p.m. to accommodate a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the restoration of the area of towpath known as Big Slackwater.  The ceremony begins Saturday at 10 a.m. Park Superintendent Kevin D. Brandt will lead a tour of the newly restored towpath from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Parking for the event will be at the Bowman Farm fields at 15910 Cheneys Neck...

Tom Perry has packed nature, faith and music into his 77 years. Perry and his wife, Linda, are trained to remove an invasive plant along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal known as garlic mustard, and he volunteers to take church groups and others on guided bicycle rides on the towpath. Perry is a retired Lutheran pastor. When an Orange, Va., church where a relative played a pipe organ decided it did not want the instrument, Perry decided he did. He has the mammoth machine set up in a family room in his house on Conococheague Street in Williamsport, and he plays it periodically.