I went back to Chesapeake and Ohio National Park today to conquer their toughest hike, the Billy Goat Trail. The Billy Goat trail is divided into three trails A, B, and C. A being the toughest trail down to the most moderate. All three of these trails are below the falls that I saw yesterday. The Billy Goat trail A is on Bear Island which is sequestered between the canal and the Potomac River.
Have you ever been going against the grain of society and you wonder why everyone is coming at you but no one is following you? I have been marching to the beat of my own drum all my life in many different arenas, so this didn't bother me, but it did make me wonder. The Billy Goat trail A has two entrances from the towpath. Just for the record, I did google which entrance would have me scaling up the 50 ft traverse rather than going down. I really couldn't find much on it, so I took a guess. As you can imagine, I guessed oh so poorly. After, oh I don't know 25 people or so passed me; I asked a gentleman if I would be going up the cliff or down. He kind of giggled and said, "Sorry lady, you will be going down. Just be careful with your step." "Thanks buddy!" With all the scary signs and heavy traffic going against me, trepidation continued to build so I stopped on an overlook and called my pathetic brother Blake to say my goodbyes. :-) LOL!
What a beautiful area! So I was sitting atop a 200 foot cliff overlooking the Potomac river towards a comparable cliff on the Virginia side. Every thirty seconds or so a Blue Heron would soar through at about eye level and each one would amaze me as much as the last. Sorry to continue on about the Heron. These can be seen in Ky, but not in the numbers they are at this park. I have only seen a few back in Ky. They soar majestically in multitudes here comparable to robins back home. All the while, I was keeping my eyes peeled for a bald eagle. No such luck. I saw Herons, cliff swallows, Turkey Vultures, canadian geese with babies (as if they aren't mean enough, throw a few young in there and they will down right chase you.), and the cool bird of the day was a screeching peregrine falcon. I heard this guy before I saw him. These are cool falcons because of their fierce speed. When they are going after prey or an annoyance with determination; they can reach speeds up to 200 mph. He took off after a turkey vulture. Quite a difference in sizer there. I have Dr. Rambo, from NKU, to thank for my knowledge and love of birds.
After watching the birds for about 30 minutes or so I decided to press on. Easy to get lost in the beauty of the moment. I had to laugh several times because there would be a clearly beaten down dirt path that headed into the interior of the island that I would think was the trail and then as I looked for the blue blaze marking the trail it would be on these huge boulders screaming "This is the way over all two hundred of these huge boulders." I guess that was the path for those scared of heights.
So by the time I got to the cliff; it was a 200 foot drop in my mind. After climbing boulder after boulder then boom; there it is. Oh okay, Holy Billy Goat! Yep, now I understood why everyone was walking against my grain. This definitely would have been easier to scale up rather than to lower down. I conquered it and had a great remainder of the hike. I then hiked the B and C trails of Billy Goat. It was such a beautiful day there were people out doing all kinds of activities, as you will see in my pictures. Well, I need to figure out what to do the rest of my weekend outdoors as the great weather is to continue.
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