The C&O, Part 2: Road, River, and Rail
Killiansburg Cave Campsite, near Sharpsburg, MD [C&O Mile 75.2] • 2026-08-20
I slept pretty badly tonight. In addition to the heat, I got woken up by a raccoon stealing the remainder of my loaf of bread. Really it was my own fault for not storing it securely, but still very annoying to deal with.
I got to play an exciting game of Find The Missing Tent Stake for half an hour, and I very nearly lost. All told, it was maybe 9:30 when I headed out.
It’s a very straightforward route: you just follow the trail for 184.5 miles. I stopped and got a bite to eat at a place called Whites Ferry that seems to consist of just one store and no other buildings.
In the early afternoon there was a brief but intense rainstorm that completely soaked me through.
I wanted to check out the town of Harpers Ferry, across the river in West Virginia. Normally this is just a straightforward bridge crossing, but the bridge in question is currently closed so that they can make improvements to a staircase, so this turned into a diversion of a couple hours involving two shuttle buses in each direction to see the actual old town. The place is known for John Brown’s failed anti-slavery rebellion, and an important Union defeat in the Civil War. The historic part of town has ended up feeling a bit like a museum of itself. I got some ice cream and walked around briefly.
Made it back to the trail and stopped at a nice campsite right by the river. There were a few other guys there, too. They were traveling from Pittsburgh to DC.
Much of the trail, including almost all of today’s segment, runs parallel to the Baltimore & Ohio Railway, AKA the B&O, which you might know from Monopoly. The two were historic rivals when it came to shipping goods here. Both existed to make it easier to go through the Appalachians, which even today are a major obstacle to transportation. The Potomac River turns out to be a very natural course to follow, and there’s not always a lot of space alongside it, so there was a pretty fierce fight between the canal and railroad. The railroad won in the end; it’s still in use today, while the canal has been disused for just over a century.
The weather has cooled down noticeably, which is a very nice change.
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