Home sweet home

Trip Start Jul 20, 2004
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144
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Trip End Jul 20, 2012


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(Frederick hotels)

Flag of United States  , Maryland,
Thursday, July 23, 2009

After not having been home for 2.5 years, it was time to take some time off and head back home. So, for two months in July and August, I will spend time with family and friends and being a tourist in my own backyard.

Frederick is an historic city famous for its Civil War memorials and battlefields, historic houses and covered bridges as well as surrounding vineyards. Its proximity to Baltimore and Washington makes it an ideal location to work and live. While back home, I started biking and running again. Frederick and especially Montgomery county and Washington D.C. has a couple of active running and biking clubs, so I joined the Frederick Pedalers to go on a couple of rides.

Besides picking and munching on tons of raspberries and contracting poison ivy, I have been exploring some historic places like Burkittsville, Harpers Ferry and the C&O Canal First Burger back home
First Burger back home
 . Burkittsville gained notoriety with the 1999 release of the film The Blair Witch Project, and its follow-ups: a film sequel (Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2), a series of video games, a Showtime special (The Burkittsville 7), and many Internet fan sites. "The poor town of Burkittsville suddenly found itself overrun with Blair Witch groupies, wandering around in the woods, trying to find the 'real' places where the story had happened." Contrary to popular belief, however, the majority of the film was not filmed in Burkittsville but in Maryland's Seneca Creek State Park, and the events depicted in the film and the legend of the Blair Witch itself were entirely fabricated by the producers themselves.

The C&O Canal is a 185 mile stretch of Towpath from Washington D.C. to Cumberland. My friend Donn and I biked about 80 miles round-trip from Point of Rocks to Mile marker 85 and back. I am planning on riding the rest of the canal, from Point of Rocks to Washington and back and from Cumberland to Williamsport, over a period of two days.

Another wonderful area is the Dolly Sods Wilderness area in wild and wonderful West Virginia. Located in the Monongahela National Forest, Dolly Sods is an area of high elevation wind swept plains on the Allegheny Plateau Savoring a good burger
Savoring a good burger
 . Areas within the area are designated Dolly Sods Wilderness, Dolly Sods Scenic Area, and Flatrock and Roaring Plains. The area is well known for its extensive rocky plains, upland bogs, and sweeping vistas. With the elevations in this part of West Virginia ranging from 2,600 feet to over 4,000 feet, the climate and plant life resembles northern Canada. It is a unique 'island' of wild country surrounded by Appalachian hardwood forests. Unusual plant communities are one of the attractions of the Sods. Sphagnum bogs, groves of wind-stunted, one-sided red spruce and twisted yellow birch, heath barrens, grassy sods, rhododendron and laurel thickets, and rocky barren plains invite exploration and provide an endless variety of vistas. The highest areas are covered with heath barrens, where azaleas, mountain laurel, rhododendron and blueberries seldom grow taller than chest high. These plants provide a fantastic floral display from May through July. And blueberries I picked although the majority of blueberries will be ready for picking in August.

Upcoming trips are planned to, possibly, California and then NY and CT.

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