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MD’s Rocky Gap State Park: Habeeb Lake and the Canyon

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On the morning of August 2, 2025, my son Matt, Alabama grandson Jack (17), and I hiked to the Canyon Overlook at Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park. We then visited the Habeeb Lake spillway and returned to the parking lot along the Lakeshore Trail. We enjoyed Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe hidden in plain sight along the trails. I dutifully captured the bounty with photographs, brief videos, observations, and reflections.

 

Habeeb Lake

 

I’ll begin with the 243-acre lake, which post-dated my high school era visits to what is now Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park.

 

The spillway cuts through its own geologic history written in sandstone strata. The view west from the dam shows the beginning of the canyon and the southern toe-slope of Evitts Mountain.

 

I recorded a 59-second video from the footbridge crossing the spillway.

 

The life-circle is rounding. I visited the park when I was 17. Matt visited with me when he was 17. Now he is there at age 48 with me and his sister’s 17-year-old son. They are a core element of what I consider Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe. The image of them and the lake speaks volumes to me on life and living.

 

Life is great; God is good!

Rocky Gap Canyon

 

I walked with friends to the canyon 57 summers ago (age 17), with no signage, just a crude path through the woods. All that has changed, but the canyon has not; it is still a marvelous natural gift.

 

The southern toe of Evitts Mountain, where Jack and I hiked four days prior, extends downhill from right to left. Rocky Gap Run flows past Evitts’ toe.

 

I reecorded this 59-second video of the gap.

 

I never tire of rocky crags and surrounding forests, whether back in Alabama or within the Appalachians into Pennsylvania, New York, and beyond.

 

The physical landscape remains constant. Rough and weathered sedimentary geology, trees rooted on steep hillsides, and ecosystems that change subtly over shorter segments, yet tremendously over the entire 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail.

Trees and Shrubs: Echoes from Decades Past

 

Table mountain pine’s range does not extend to Alabama. I encountered it often when I served as a forester’s aid on western Maryland’s Green Ridge State Forest between junior and senior undergraduate years. I found it mostly on xeric stony sites in ridge and valley Allegany County. Its form is gnarly, seldom growing straight and tall. Its needles are coarse and spiny. It finds anchorage in shallow soils.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contrarily, white pine, whose range barely extends into northeast Alabama, grows well in western Maryland. Among the eastern US pine species, white pine is my favorite, especially on rich sites from the Smokey Mountains north intoPennsylvania, New York, and New England. Its history intertwine significantly with the birth of our nation.

The strength and size of Eastern White Pine is so renowned, it may have been a bigger factor in the start of the Revolutionary War than tea and taxes. King George I assumed ownership of the tallest Eastern White Pines in the forests of New England, appointing a legion of surveyors to mark their choices with a symbol of three hatchet slashes known as The King’s Broad Arrow. This indicated that they were for use by the British Royal Navy only. They were shipped back to Britain.

Already rankled over the issue of taxation on tea, many colonists whose livelihoods depended on Eastern White Pines disregarded the mark and harvested the trees anyway. When six mills in New Hampshire were searched for trees bearing The King’s Broad Arrow, the owners were charged with disobeying the King’s law, and many townspeople rioted in protest. 

Some historians believe that this conflict was a key in bringing about the American Revolution and the first real acts of rebellion against British rule. The Eastern White Pine was such a potent symbol for colonists that it became the emblem emblazoned upon the first colonial flag. (Northeatern Lumber Manufacturers Association online)

 

Paraphrasing Aldo Leopold, I love pine trees, but I am in love with white pine!

I recorded this 58-second video highlighting white pine and hemlock.

 

Hemlock thrives in lower slope forests of Rocky Gap and vicinty.

 

Rhododrendron and mountail laurel likewise transported me to those halcyon days.

 

Black huckleberry evoked strong memories.

 

 

 

 

 

Black gum (aka sour gum and black tupelo) grows commonly from northern Pennsylvania deep into Alabama. The photo at left demonstrates the species’ tendency for lateral branches to extend at right angles to the bole. An insect injury on the leaf at right has discolored the leaf spot to its distinctive autumn red.

 

As is so often the case, I could have traipsed this forest for hours, discovering the riches hidden in plain sight.

 

Special Features

 

I like naturally expressive tree faces. A physical injury began the process, opening a portal for internal decay. A woodpecker excavating a nesting hollow. A squirrel gnawing edges to enlarge the opening. Both tree are actively callousing the edges in attempt to close the openings. The tree at left has successfully closed the left upper opening. The other tree has almost buttoned the lower hole.

Each of these red oaks can tell a story of your choosing. At left, I see two eyes, one covered by a patch; the other eye wide in surprise or amazement. Its mouth could not be more expressive! The one-eyed oak at right is fearful…deeply concerned. I categorize both inviduals as tree form oddities or curiosities. Our forests are rich with wonder, awe, and mystery.

 

I seldom explore Nature without detecting magic in plain sight, prompting deep thought and mirthful musings, igniting a burst of wild imagination. Albert Einstein, the preeminent theoretical physicist of the twentieth century elevated imagination above laborious scientific rumination:

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

 

Pinchusion moss embraces a back oak base, bringing to mind a neck scarf on a breezy winter morn.

 

Orange jelly or orange witch’s butter (Dacrymyces chrysospermus) is a species of jelly fungus that grows on dead pine wood. Trail crews bucked the fallen pine to clear the trail, I’m estimating within the past two years. Already the fungus has infected the wood and is now producing spores to secure the future, a goal embraced by all organisms.

 

We saw two timber rattlesnakes sunning near the dam, this one more exposed than the other, a yellowish variety. The beautiful individual, sporting nine rattle buttons, kept its head behind a rock. I wanted a better image, yet not enough to stumble over the stones for a full-length image!

 

Such is the case with many subjects of my Nature exploration and photography…we must be satisfied with what she reveals. I know she unveils little to nothing if we do not venture into her realm. A fishing enthusiast friend reminded me often that there is one way to guarantee not catching a fish — stay home! My photo of a snake with hidden head, although not complete, came with a full-bodied set of memories. A first (and second) rattlesnake sighting nearby for my son and grandson. The depth of their awe and amazement, awakening some admitted level of primal fear. Their reaction to hearing the second one vigorously rattle an alert. My thrill in being there with them.

John Muir long ago captured the thrill:

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • I never tire of rocky crags and surrounding forests, whether back in Alabama or within the Appalachians into Pennsylvania, New York, and beyond. (Steve Jones)
  • In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. (John Muir)
  • I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (Albert Einstein)

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2025 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

 

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

  • People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
  • They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

  • I love hiking and exploring Nature
  • I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
  • I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
  • I don’t play golf!
  • I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
  • Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
  • And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hiking the Homesite Trail at Rocky Gap State Park

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On July 29, 2025, my older Alabama grandson, Jack (17), and I hiked the Evitts Homestead Trail on Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park. We ascended 1,100 feet from Lake Habeeb to Evitts’ 2,200-foot summit. I wanted to share the magic of the place with Jack and rekindle my aging memories. Still in high school, I had explored Rocky Gap Canyon and Evitts Mountain before authorities created the state park and built the dam. We discovered the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe of Nature hidden in plain sight along the trail.

 

Those youthful excursions are now two generations past. I was about 17; Jack’s age. He is my daughter’s son. Time marches on at 24 hours per day, just as it did 57 years ago, yet its relative pace accelerates. I heard my maternal grandmother say more than once, “The older I get, the faster time passes.” I thought she was old and confused; I now recognize her wisdom.

 

Ascending the Trail: Moss, Ferns, and Fungi

 

I recognize another truism: the older I get the more challenging trails become. I hiked this trail five years ago, prior to a series of surgeries: shoulder replacement; triple bypass; bilateral inguinal hernia repair; two total knee replacements; and kidney stone blasting. Add in a minor stroke. It’s no surprise that my recent hike proved tougher. I view summitting Evitts as a major recovery benchmark…and a family milestone. This time next year, Jack will have departed for college and a demanding and rewarding life journey. I pray that he carries the memory of his Evitts hike with Pap into a bright and promising future.

The trail is an old jeep path, rising at a steady rate. I noticed greater erosion and rutting since my 2020 ascent. Park crews are not controlling surface water flow. Instead, runoff is in control, seeking and finding a route with no concern for trail integrity. I saw no recent evidence of constructed water bars, broad-based dips, or other measures to usher overland flow from the trail. Without immediate attention, the trail will degrade beyond easy repair. Ongoing road maintenance cannot be ignored.

 

Okay, so much for critiquing park trails and their management. Across my decades of wandering eastern forests, moss is ubiquitous. Pincushion moss embraces tree bases and often covers rocks (right).

 

This patch of broom forkmoss welcomed the dappled sunshine penetrating the forest canopy. An online dictionary defines moss as a small flowerless green plant that lacks true roots, growing in damp habitats and reproducing by means of spores released from stalked capsules.

 

Ample rain during the early summer stimulated prodigous mushroom growth. Mushrooms are the reproductive (spore-producing) structures of common fungi in our eastern foressts. Fungi include tree disease organisms, decomposers, and mycorhizza. Two-colored bolete is a beautiful polypore mycorhizzal fungus, this one with a pink/red umbrella and a smooth cream/yellow undersurface. Although some boletes are choice edibles, I haven’t achieved a necessary level of confidence in distinguishing among the group members. This bolete is symbiotically engaged with oak species.

 

A distinctly polypore underside.

 

I like the moniker of yellow American blusher, another mycorhizzal fungus associated with oak. this one is gilled. Mushrooms of the Southeast offers an explanation of what prevents me from expanding my culinary foraging to species about which I am not 100 percent certain:

In North America Amanita rubescens has historically been considered edible and relatively distinctive; however, since it is related to some of the most toxic mushrooms, we cannot recommend eating it.

Life in our eastern upland hardwood forests is amazingly complex.

 

Yellowing rosy ruella, or brittlegills, is a gilled Russula mycorhizza fungus, common in hardwood forests. Considered edible but seldom occurs in numbers sufficient to collect.

 

iNaturalist identified these tiny golden mushrooms as clubs and corals, genus Clavulinopsis. Mushrooms of the Southeast steered me to golden fairy club, C. laeticolor, but the book image differed somewhat from my photographs. One reference declared this fungus a mycorhizza; another said that it’s a forest litter decomposer.

 

I am a mushroom novice. My fascination with their unique kingdom of life grows with each woodland Nature excursion, where I learn how little I know.

White-pored chicken-of-the-woods (or sulphur shelf) is a decay fungus at home on both living trees, primarily oak, or dead individuals of the same host group. The speices is a choice edible when young and tender, like this one growing at the trail edge.

 

Were I wandering closer to home other than on a state park, where the rule is to take only what you bring, I would have made several meals from this perfect specimen! I wondered how many more flourished within 100 feet of our six-mile circuit.

 

Umbilicaria mammulata, smooth rock tripe, is among the largest lichens in the world. The species forms large sheets (rarely, up to 2′ across), like aged curling leather sheets, on cliffs and boulders. This patch is on a sandstone boulder. The sheets are attached at only a single point (hence the genus Umbilicaria). They are reddish- or grayish-brown on top, and velvety black below.

 

From an online source regarding edibility:

An hour of boiling is said to convert this leather-like lichen into an edible source of protein, palatable by itself or when added to soup or stews. Soak for 2-3 hours first to remove acids that, while not dangerous, may send you running to the bathroom in a hurry. Even after all this soaking and boiling, you’d better be good and hungry—many say it still tastes like shoe leather.

I will not be adding this species to my foraging list!

 

I recall moist forests in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Hampshire, all former woodlands haunts where I’ve rambled, covered with common bracken fern. I noticed only this single specimen.

 

Our journey covered the distance with as much haste as I could muster. I would do it again on a mid-60s-degree October day, devoting hours to extensive study and exploration. Drafting this narrative reminds me to saunter future wanderings with greater attention to full discovery, seeking more than a surficial inventory of what lay hidden in plain sight.

 

Ascending the Trail: Turtles, Millipedes, Invasive Plants, and Sign-Eating Tree!

 

An eastern box turtle hurried across the trail. Yes, he moved quickly, not at an exagerated turtle’s pace.

 

I captured his rapid gate in this 21-second video.

 

An American giant millipede compelled us to take a closer look.

 

A dense growth of mile-a-mintute-vine infesting at least an acre of forest, stopped me cold.

 

A Penn State Cooperative Extension online resource tells the tale of this aggressive invasive:

Mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata) is a trailing vine with barbed stems and triangular leaves. In contrast to other invasive vines, mile-a-minute is an herbaceous annual, meaning it dies each fall and new plants grow from germinating seeds in the spring. Originally from India and East Asia, this species was first reported in York County, Pennsylvania, in the 1930s in contaminated nursery soil. Mile-a-minute is listed as a “Class B” noxious weed by the State of Pennsylvania, a designation that restricts sale and acknowledges a widespread infestation that cannot feasibly be eradicated. The dense foliage of this invasive weed blankets and slowly suffocates native vegetation, making it extremely destructive and persistent despite being an annual plant.

 

I wondered whether park managers are aware of this infestation. When we returned to the Lake Habeeb dam I told a maintenance worker of our discovery. He seemed concerned. Enough to take action?

I always remain alert for tree form oddities and curiosities, including sign-consuming black cherry trees!

 

I love the Central Appalachian forests of my childhood and early professional days. Rocky Gap State Park drew memories, warm and fuzzy, from more than five decades ago. At age 74, I can say with confidence and satisfaction that those were the good old days…and that blessedly these, too, are the good old days. Life was…and is…good!

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I revisited my October 10/15/20 post from the prior Evitts Mountain ascent: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/10/15/a-tough-hike-and-deep-reward-at-rocky-gap-state-park-in-western-maryland/

I offered three lessons from my late September, 2020, solitary trek:

  • The extraordinary Nature of place is indelibly written in my head, heart, mind, body, and soul. I am a creature and product of place… place defined by Nature.
  • Countless days in Nature define my life across these 69 years — I look, see, and feel Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe… and find immeasurable lift.
  • My connection to Nature is unmistakably SACRED!

Today, five years later, I would modify only minimally: My connection (across these 74 years) to Nature (and Family) is unmistakably SACRED!

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2025 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

 

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

  • People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
  • They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

  • I love hiking and exploring Nature
  • I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
  • I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
  • I don’t play golf!
  • I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
  • Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
  • And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part One 175-Year-Old C&O Canal Pawpaw Tunnel: Where Nature Meets Engineering and History

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I once again visited the Pawpaw Tunnel on the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) National Historical Park on July 28, 2025. Alabama grandsons, Jack (17) and Sam (11), accompanied me. I grew up 30 miles upstream along the Potomac River in Cumberland, Maryland. I wanted the boys to experience the Nature, history, and engineering marvel of the tunnel and canal. We walked east through the 3,600-foot tunnel, traversed a mile beyond it, and then hiked the Tunnel Hill Trail over the mountain to return to the parking area. Part One (this Post) carries us through the tunnel; Part Two takes us back over the Tunnel Hill Trail.

 

The Tunnel

 

Jack and Sam stand above the west end of the tunnel, completed in 1850 (175 years ago!). The structure has stood the test of time. The east end is a pinprick of distant light. Midway through, the darkness is near total.

 

Here is my 59-second video at the west (upstream) entrance.

 

I’ve been to the tunnel scores of times across my seven decades. Camping with my parents and siblings beside the tunnel-tender’s canal-era house adjacent to the river. Fishing on the bank, often at night for catfish. I recall once Dad and me holding frantically to tent poles during a fierce storm that threatened to tear away our shelter. Cooking chili on a Coleman stove. Breakfasts of sauage, eggs, and hashbrowns. The list of indelible memories reaches endlessly. My experiences from those formative years shaped me, sculpted my lifetime addiction to Nature…propelled me to a forestry degree, a meaningful career committed to natural resources sustainability, and a retirement dedicated to:

Employing writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

 

Because I neglected to photograph the tunnel’s interior in July, I borrowed a photo I took in November 2019.

C&O Canal

 

The east (downstream) end of the tunnel is forever etched in my memory. Immigrant laborers with picks and shovels, black powder, wheelbarrows, drag-sleds, and horse/mule carts began construction in 1836; the first boats passed through 14 years later. Crews worked from both ends and from two 360-foot vertical shafts. I’d like to visit in 2036, the centennial anniversary of pickaxes first striking the shale. Eleven years hence takes me to age 85. What are the chances of me retaining life, health, vigor, endurance, and mental acuity for another 4,015 sunrises? There is no guarantee even that I or any one of us will witness tomorrow’s dawning. I take comfort that I will seek the goal one step after another, visiting special places and enjoying everyday Nature as I’m able.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo from the National Park Service Pawpaw Tunnel brochure during operations more than 100 years ago shows little difference from today’s image. The tunnel is timeless, except that the decades have moved beyond it. I can’t imagine much change between now and 2036.

 

Interestingly, the brochure notes:

In the span of a lifetime, canals faded from beacons of a dawning age to quaint reminders of a bygone era. From 1828 to 1850 thousands of immigrants found work–and hope for a new life–building a canal. Families worked and lived on the long, narrow boats, and children often tended the mules. 

Nature doesn’t care about the blossoming and disappearance of technologies, the tough life of hopeful humans tending the boats, or the miserable fights among immigrant laborers. Moss grows on the dripping sidewalls at the tunnel exit, shrubs sprout on the shale scree, and spring rains temporarily flow in the long-abandoned channel. Decomposers relentlessly attack the wooden decking. My ken is to follow the process over the fleeting years of my lifetime, when little of the tunnel’s countenance has changed from the quaint reminder I relish.

 

I recorded this 53-second video at the east portal.

 

I ponder whether Jack and Sam will catch the fever enough to visit when I and my Pawpaw Tunnel Blog are little more than their own quaint reminder. I wonder who else will care. From the east end exit, the boardwalk stretches through the cut into the distance. How far into the decades will my passion persist?

 

Those thoughts accompanied me as the boys and I sauntered beyond the tunnel and its deep cut through the shale. Perhaps a better verb suggests that my ruminations haunted me. Lift lock 66, numbered consecutively upstream from the Georgetown terminus, captured our interest and spurred our imagination. Like the tunnel, the lock resonated with faint echoes of the thousands of long-gone souls who worked, lived, played, and prayed along the canal. This was the future…fading to a quaint reminder. Nature lives on, finding and claiming its place. My role in leading our trek, planting seeds for tomorrow in the boys, and probing was to encapsulate our experiences in this weekly photo essay.

 

I recorded a 58-second lift-lock video, chronicling Nature finding and claiming its place.

Nothing in Nature is static, including the works of man. Were the 184.5 miles of the canal not preserved as a National Historical Park, Nature would hve revegetated the towpath, canal, infrastructure, and associated memories to obscurity. I recall celebrating in 1971, when the tireless efforts of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas prompted Congress and the President to secure protection and preservation for the important recreational and environmental landmark. There was talk of converting the landmark to a Blue Ridge Parkway kind of roadway. Douglas penned a seminally persuasive letter to the Washington Post:

I feel that if your editor did [walk the towpath with Douglas], he would return a new man and use the power of your great editorial page to help keep this sanctuary untouched. … He would see strange islands and promontories through the fantasy of fog; he would discover the glory there is in the first flower of spring, the glory there is even in a blade of grass; the whistling wings of ducks would make silence have new values for him. Certain it is that he could never acquire that understanding going 60, or even 25, miles an hour.

I was 20 years old, a junior in forestry school, and already addicted to the magic of the C&O Canal. My memories run deep and indelibly for this sacred (to me) recreational and environmental landmark!

I will repeat the circuit another time, when I return, preferably during the dormant season. Like so many of my special places and the everyday Nature that defines them, the C&O Canal and Pawpaw tunnel extend tendrils deep into my mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit. Where do those intense feelings and vivid memories go when we are called Home? Perhaps fragments will live on through my children, Matt and Katy, and in Jack and Sam, Katy’s boys. Robert Louis Stevenson nailed the sentiment:

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Nature is a mosaic of place, time, and use; every landscape reflects the past and portends the future. (Steve Jones)
  • Nature lives on, finding and claiming its place. (Steve Jones)
  • My experiences from those formative years shaped me, sculpted my lifetime addiction to Nature…propelled me to a forestry degree, and a meaningful career committed to natural resources sustainability. (Steve Jones)

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2025 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

 

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

  • People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
  • They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

  • I love hiking and exploring Nature
  • I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
  • I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
  • I don’t play golf!
  • I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
  • Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
  • And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

 

 

 

 

 

Observations from the Narrows in Western Maryland: A Step back to My Roots!

/in /by

I grew up in Cumberland, Maryland, one of the transportation gateways to and over the Appalachian Mountains, a portal to the Ohio frontier and beyond. The Potomac River Valley rises over 600 feet from Washington, D.C.’s tidewater to Cumberland. I visited my hometown in late July 2025. My two Alabama grandsons, Jack (17) and Sam (11), accompanied us. On July 28, we three sauntered two miles through the Narrows along the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP), a 144-mile Rails-to-Trails that stretches from Cumberland to Pittsburgh, PA. I offer photos, brief videos, reflections, and observations on the intersection of human and natural history, overlain by my personal musings.

This view is downstream from the western terminus of the C&O Canal. Years ago, I biked from this point on the foreground gravel trail, the 184.5-mile towpath to Georgetown. Flood control construction in the 1950s erased the canal and towpath infrastructure at this location, leaving the gravel path along the levee for beginning the trek to Washington. West Virginia, across the river, rises to the right.

 

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal began as a dream to wealth in the West. Operating for nearly 100 years, it was a lifeline for communities along the Potomac River as coal, lumber, and agricultural products floated down the waterway to market. (National Park Service)

Railroad commerce proved economically superior and better able to withstand river flooding, which in 1924 forced the canal’s closure.

Today the canal (A National Historic Park) endures as a pathway for discovering historical, natural, and recreational treasures.

[Dedication: I dedicate this Post to John Milford Parker, Jr. who passed away September 3, 2025. John was among the three people who accompanied me on the bicycle trip to Georgetown. We also occasionally fished, hunted, and hiked together when I returned to western Maryland to visit family. From his obituary: The hunt is over; the woods are still. May he rest in peace on God’s eternal hill.]

From the same point, Cumberland’s hilltop steeples rise where colonial Fort Cumberland once commanded the frontier transportation hub. Beyond the churches, Haystack (left) and Wills (right) Mountains tower nearly 1,000 feet above the Narrows gorge.

 

This 60-second video sets the stage for my trek with Jack and Sam through the Narrows.

 

The historic  railroad station stands less than a quarter mile from the 184.5-mile canal photo point. In my younger years I biked the GAP from Pittsburgh to this endpoint. Sam explored the eastside plaza. Six and one-half decades earlier, at about Sam’s age, I watched my maternal grandfather depart the station for his final B&O Railroad train run to Pittburgh. A World War I veteran, Pap engineered both steam locomotives and diesels. I watched his departure with rapture and deep envy. Rapture because I revered Pap and loved trains. Envy because my teenage brother sat in the cab waving with Pap as they tooted farewell heading to Pittsburgh.

 

 

 

 

 

As the three of us completed our morning walk through the Narrows, the Western Maryland Scenic Line locomotive surprised us departing, like Pap so many decades ago, from the station outbound through the Narrows.

 

I recorded this 60-second video of the mighty engine departing Cumberland.

 

The fading train reminded me that I’m gazing at my own metaphorical sunset from a long and distant dawn, when Mom and Dad brought me to see Pap’s retirement departure. I’ve been blessed to have lived well across the decades, returning repeatedly to these Allegheney Mountains, and their Nature that has nourished and enriched my life and living. So much in my own life, and across Nature, distills to seasons, chapters, and volumes. I’ve enjoyed 74 spring surges in ecosystems and terrains where I’ve resided…from these mountains to the Adirondacks to Alabama’s southern Appalachians to New Hampshire’s Whites to the Alaska Range and more. Different sections in Earth’s physical and life library.

 

So much for my home-woods nostalgia. Let’s head to the Narrows. My recollection is that the Narrows GAP trail is the only paved segment of the 144-mile total length. The shrub-vegetated strip borders the trail on the highway 20-feet below, which hugs Wills Creek another 20-feet below it. The far side at the base of Wills Mountain carries two tracks of the still active Chessie System. The RR sign below signals bikers and pedestrians to carefully cross the rail ahead as the GAP crosses to the tail-slope side of the trail.

 

The Narrows is a natural canyon. Its geologic history is complex. Wills Creek occupies the canyon that separates Wills and Haystack. The Creek did not cut down through the continuous ridge called by the two different names. Instead, the ridge rose up during the Appalachian-building process, and the stream cut its path as the landmass uplifted. I will stop there before I venture even deeper into a science remote from my own.

 

I recorded this 52-second video of the Narrows near our turn-around point two miles from Cumberland.

 

We began our trek 15 minutes before a heavy shower forced us under the eaves of a commercial building near the trail. We dried as the skies cleared and a hot summer sun baked us.

 

I recorded this 57-second video offering commentary on my 74-year personal and professional story that began in these Allegheny Mountains.

 

The Haystack Mountain tailslope forest provides afternoon shade for the trail. Knowing the long period of coal-fired rail traffic, I wondered how many times hot cinders ignited the forest. The current stand has likely not burned since the onset of diesel locomotives.

 

We found a large patch of Japanes knotweed, an aggressive invasive. I reluctantly admit that the plant has particularly attractive shiny foliage.

 

After the shower, the boys stand dripping beside one of the benches, acknowledging a longtime GAP proponent and supporter.

I could not resist posting this snapshot as one of 15-or-so rail pedal-carts trundled toward Cumberland. The recreational vendor boards passengers at Frostburg, about a dozen miles up the GAP from Cumberland. I’ve biked the route, enjoying a nearly pedal-free coast to the Narrows and then a flat ride to the railway station. The occupants pedaled past us. In Cumberland, the passengers return to Frostburg aboard the Western Maryland Scenic Line. The vendor somehow transports the carts back to Frostburg. Perhaps a diesel engine pulled them as a train?

 

An historic frontier transportation and industrial hub, Cumberland now draws sustenance from its Natural beauty and recreational amenities. The place I loved as a youth, that shaped my future direction and life, has deepened and polished its Nature-luster, drawing me to its breast…nurturing me and fanning a nearly latent homing instinct. No, don’t fret…I won’t be vacating my retirement domicile, but I did feel the attraction.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • A historic frontier transportation and industrial hub, my hometown now draws sustenance from its natural beauty and recreational amenities. (Steve Jones)
  • The place I loved as a youth, that shaped my future direction and life, has deepened its Nature-luster. (Steve Jones)
  • Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. (Albert Einstein)

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2025 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

  • People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
  • They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

  • I love hiking and exploring Nature
  • I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
  • I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
  • I don’t play golf!
  • I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
  • Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
  • And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future