A Concession On the Billy Goat Trail

I recently traversed the Billy Goat Trail, a 3-mile scramble over rock precipices and boulders big and small along the Potomac River in Maryland just off the C&O Canal in Great Falls Park, west of the District.  I do this traipse every year.

It's always a slog because although it's not technically hard, it is a lot of up and down, has some minor climbing and you have to be careful about your footing.

And awaiting you near the end (or at least waiting for me) is the dreaded log bridge, a twelve-foot scamper across a felled tree five feet over a rocky stream with no soft landing if you slip off.  There is a nearby footbridge but until recently, that was no option for me.

The walk across the stream atop the log has gotten more difficult though as the years pass, more uncertain and less sure, shall we say?  This year I teetered across it one more time, overcoming the trepidation and wavering balance brought on by the passage of time and upon reaching the far bank, I reflected with satisfaction my successful passage and decided that, being on the far side of sixty, I had just retired from that particular tree scramble henceforth and will take the footbridge in future years.