Billy Goat Trail 2018.

A friend and I went to the C&O Canal National Park recently to perambulate the Billy Goat Trail, a 3-mile rocky trail in Maryland alongside the Potomac River that involves scrambling over rocky promontories overlooking the river and traversing boulder-strewn granite outcrops that make up a large part of the trail.  While not considered a difficult trail, it does necessitate maintaining balance at high points and footing and hand grips along rock faces.

We went clockwise this year, traveling the most difficult part first, having went counterclockwise last year.  We went down the rocky valley, crossed over the first stream by going from rock to rock in the stream bed and crossed over the bridge spanning the second stream.  Thence started the climb up rock slopes to eventually arrive at high overlook points along the far-below river.

But disaster struck, as my friend's shoe came apart from the stress of rock climbing and the sole separated from the shoe.  It was unsafe at that point to go the entire distance with a floppy shoe which could catch in any rock crevice along the way and cause her to lose her balance, perhaps at a perilous point.

So we egressed the trail at the halfway point on a short exit trail to the canal towpath.  The mile and a half of rough trail we had gone had tired us anyway and we enjoyed a less stressful walk back to my vehicle, spotting some wildlife along the way including deer, cranes or pelicans, turtles and frogs.