Amidst the otherwise busy C&0 Canal east of Hancock we experienced one slow day, meeting only two other people on the trail. Perhaps the one gray, overcast day interrupting the spectacular blossoming of spring discouraged some recreationalists. Perhaps the location about halfway in between Harpers Ferry and Georgetown allowed for mainly long distance travelers on that stretch. If so, we were fortunate to encounter the one person out there for his daily walk.
Bahram is an Iranian taxi driver who walks regularly to address a sciatic nerve problem. Upon our meeting he referred to us as inspirations and phoned his Costa Rican wife just to tell her about meeting us. He then handed the phone to Cindy, not me, and Cindy gladly took the phone and chatted with a woman she never met. An unremarkable thing, unless you consider that a woman once in cognitive decline was growing more confident each week.
Bahram turned around to walk with us back to the parking lot where he started. He brought us to a nearby store, where we ordered a couple of pizza slices, then returned us to the rail trail. We later met Scott Matheson, also a hiker fitted with his rain gear for the day, who was hiking the towpath to Cumberland, then following the Allegheny Trail towards Pittsburgh. No one besides us stayed at the Chisel Branch campsite that night, perhaps because of Dulles International Airport being a mere ten miles away.
Our destination the next night was Swains Lock, where we met none other than Irving Swain, whose grandfather was the last locktender there. Locktenders were on 24/7 call to open the locks for passing boats and were given canal quarters to live in near the locks. The canal ceased operations in 1924 but some locktenders remained for a while afterwards. Irving’s cousin remained at the Swains quarters until just a few years ago.
At age 75 himself, Irving asked if I was 70. The farther east we hiked I went from an old man with a young blonde, to a father with a daughter, to looking thirteen years older than my real age. The trail is a humbling experience for all, but this was a new twist to that humility.
We camped next to five young urban professionals near Swains Lock, four whose work involved transportation, two who worked for the Department of Transportation. Ironically, none of them owned cars and had cycled to the campsite from the city. Cindy did well at helping me set up the tent, then spent some time writing in her journal, not once asking me about what happened that day.
More confirmation that Cindy was on the cognitive mend came the next day. As we neared Georgetown the traffic on the C&O Canal increased, with most people walking. Cindy Stewart walked with us for a little while, engaging mainly Cindy in conversation while I walked behind and listened. The other Cindy led an impressive life as a photographer, journalist and an exotic trip leader for a nonprofit. Cindy in turn shared a little about her own impressive life.
We met a woman walking two dogs, which irresistibly drew Cindy towards her. Cindy recalled the names of other pets we met along the way, starting with Buster and moving on to dogs that slipped my mind. In general now Cindy no longer deferred to me answering questions if she enjoyed the topic, which was a good thing since some things she remembered that I did not.
The C&O Canal ended and we continued on an urban walkway into Georgetown and onto the Thompson Boat House. Ky met us there to bring us to the home of Cindy’s close friend Jean Fregeau, well off the ADT route in Ellicott City, Maryland. Technically we were all friends, all had hiked long distances together, but this was a case of Cindy and Jean being friends and college roommates first, leading to them hiking together. The only thru-hike Cindy did without me was the Long Trail in Vermont with Jean.
The past few days revealed Cindy was quite up to the task of engaging our hostess herself. I did my usual thing of creating blog posts and podcasts, while Ky visited her relatives in the DC area. The three of us did a few things together, after all Jean was a hiking friend of mine as well, and Jean’s daughter joined our company occasionally, but otherwise Cindy often spent time with Jean on her own..
While staying with Jean we took a trip into DC for an interview with Krista Lenzmeier, the Executive Director at the time for the American Discovery Trail Society. We met with Krista at the Wilderness Society where she debriefed us in regards to our American Discovery Trail experiences and then took us out to lunch. We had a wonderful, chatty time together.
Ky dropped us back at the Thompson Boat House where we played the role of tourists hiking across DC. We stopped at the Capitol along our way for the long anticipated talk with our Congress representative about kindness and community across the country. Unfortunately, our representative seemed to think we mainly wanted a photo opportunity, definitely a false impression, and dropped in briefly only for that purpose. We instead talked to his interns about the problem of declining community involvement and the inspiring solutions we encountered during our journey.
Krista had been attempting to find us a place to stay within DC for the end of this day, but one barrier we faced was a DC law preventing churches from allowing the homeless to stay overnight on their premises. The law was passed in response to growing numbers of homeless, which is a bit ironic. However, we did see signs in the vicinity of the Supreme Court, displayed by both the United Methodist Church and Unitarian Universalist Church, demonstrating support for immigrants.
Without any churches or other prospects available in DC we continued hiking towards Greenbelt, with Ky picking us up at the end of the day to stay at the Community Church there.
