Boat Ride on the C&O Canal

24 May 2009

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

The unofficial start to summer came with warm temperatures and summer-like humidity. Seeing patches of blue sky peeking out from behind the clouds, we decided to go ahead with our plans for an interpretive boat ride on the C&O Canal in DC’s Georgetown neighborhood.

There was surprisingly little traffic on the freeway when we headed into DC at 8:30a — just a few cars and a couple of bands of motorcycles making their way into the city for the aptly named Rolling Thunder event (see footnote below). Street parking is notoriously difficult to find in DC, but luck was with us and we managed to get a spot near the National Park Service (NPS) C&O Canal Visitor Center — it helped that it was early on a Sunday morning.

Replica of a canal boat from the 1800s.

We’ll be riding into history aboard the “Georgetown.”

When the center opened at 9:30a, we purchased our tickets and then set about trying to decide what to do for the next hour and a half. The answer came to us when we spotted Baked & Wired, a coffee/espresso/tea bar with a smorgasbord of baked goods to delight the palate. We picked up a “chocolate silk” cupcake for me, a pecan caramel bar and a cappuccino for Mui, and headed to the Washington Harbour two blocks down. The view along the Potomac River was a bit murky — we didn’t care. All we needed was a place to sit so we could enjoy our treats … and enjoy them we did.

Washington Harbour overlooks the Potomac River.

Yummy “chocolate silk” cupcake from Baked & Wired.

We returned to the NPS Visitor Center just before our 11:00a boat ride. By this time, the crowd going on the boat had grown considerably, although we were still shy of being at full capacity.

Ready to sail down the C&O Canal.

When plans for the C&O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal were first conceived, it was intended to stretch 318 miles (509 km) from Washington, DC to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Twenty-two years and $13,000,000 later, the construction was brought to an end at Cumberland, Maryland — 133 miles (213 km) short of the goal. It’s said that the problems President John Quincy Adams experienced during the 1828 ground breaking (his shovel hit tree roots on the first four tries) was a precursor to the construction challenges that awaited the project.

C&O Canal Map
(scanned from NPS map)

Our boat ride today traversed a minuscule portion of the actual length of the canal — a mile or two, I’m guessing. As the interpretive guide gave us a safety briefing, the boat was man-hauled into the first lock where we slowly rose 8 feet (~2.5 m) to match the water level in the next lock. When the lock gates were opened, the boat floated into position and we were hitched up to “Molly and Nell” the two mules on towing duty today. The mule-drawn boat easily glided through the water — with no currents and no waves, it was a smooth ride, albeit a slow one, with a maximum speed of 3 mph (4.8 kph).

Molly (right) and Nell provide the mule-power for the boat ride on the C&O Canal.

Gliding down the C&O Canal on a mule-drawn boat.

Before we knew it, the ride was over and we were disembarking the boat. With the noon hour at hand, we decided to grab a bite to eat before heading back home. Our meal at Paolo’s Ristorante was a bit anticlimactic — the food was OK; the sidewalk seating was fine, yet we didn’t really enjoy ourselves. Perhaps the heat and humidity had taken its toll.

Nonetheless, we ended our outing on a high note when we arrived back at the visitor center to see our canal boat going out for the 1:30p ride. We stayed to watch the lock operations from one of the bridge crossings, thus completing the cycle of our own cruise down the C&O Canal.

The water level in the canal rises, carrying the boat with it.

Operating a canal boat was a family affair.
On the left, “mom” man-hauls the boat so that it can be hitched up to the mules.
On the right, hitched up to a pair of mules, the boat continues down the canal.

Bon Voyage!

To close, here's some mule trivia from the NPS website: "A mule is a hybrid animal, a mix of a female horse (a mare) and a male donkey (a jack). Remember, "M" for mom, "M" for mare and "D" for dad, "D" for donkey. Switching the parents will produce a hinny. The mule is the superior work animal, preferred by canal boat captains on the C&O Canal."

You can see a short clip of our C&O Canal Boat Ride here.

Footnote: The annual event known as Rolling Thunder is intended to “publicize POW-MIA issues … educate the public that many American prisoners of war were left behind after all previous wars … help correct the past and protect future veterans from being left behind should they become prisoners of war-missing in action.”