The Clean Potomac

Carroll Valley, PA

When the sun is low in the sky it can shine on the surface of the river in such a way that you can clearly see the bottom:  vegetation lined up with the current, clinging to mud and sand, with the occasional branch from some long forgotten tree.  I never expected to see all the way to the bottom of the Potomac River.  Perhaps all of the government's efforts to reduce agricultural runoff have met with satisfactory results.  But also, the river seems very shallow right now.  In fact, while I was camping at the water's edge just downstream from Williamsport, I saw two all-terrain vehicles make it all the way across to the West Virginia side.

Just fifteen miles downstream from the fordable Potomac is the Big Slackwater, miles of water kept deep by dam 4.  Here, the cliffs come so close to the river that the nineteenth century engineers decided not to dig a canal at all, but to route barges into the river instead.  When I came through there four years ago the towpath along Big Slackwater had washed and I had to take a long detour while contractors were building a new, flood-resistant towpath.  That project is now finished and it is a delight to ride along a hard and smooth pathway between the cliffs and the great Potomac.