Monocacy Aqueduct and C&O Canal

The Chesapeake and Ohio canal is one of the best places to get a somewhat easy hike/walk on. Along the trail there is plenty of wildlife and history to explore. One of the nicer places to explore is the Monocacy Aqueduct over the Monocacy River.

Monocacy Aqueduct closest to the parking lot.

The aqueduct, built between 1829 and 1833, spans the Monocacy for 438 feet. Today, one side of the aqueduct has a fence for walking, while the other for the more adventurous does not. For the bicyclists the middle part is opened.

Near the parking lot are the remains of a grain storage area. I've often wondered what those old ruins were.

Grain storage, with my bike in the background.

 The river also seems to be a great place to fish as I almost always see at least one person fishing when I'm there. Boating and kayaking, something I'd like to do there, is also quite popular. Plenty of wildlife can be seen in the area as well.

Some sort of salamander found under the aqueduct.

Old grill found near the confluence.

There should, if what I've been told is true, be a county boundary marker in the confluence area. I took a trip down there this past week and was not able to find one. However, the rain that he had the day before caused the rivers to be fuller and I wasn't able to go all the way out to the end of the point. It looks like there was areas for picnic tables and such near the point as there are some old grills still there. There are still some trails leading to the point.

The river has flooded part of the end of the point.

 For those bikers looking to make their way down there, there are a few large pot holes, the bridge over the railroad tracks is wood, though easy to go over when dry, and the railroad tracks that cross the road are in bad shape. It's not difficult to get to the aqueduct, but there are some things to watch out for.

Spring is almost here

With snow on the ground for most of the last month it's been impossible to go cemetery hunting. The cold weather has also kept me off the bike.

I haven't been able to do much with the Titus Atlas either as my program has been crashing a lot.The good news with the atlas though is that I'm down to only needing to do one more district, Frederick, which happens to be the largest. After that I will work on the smaller cities. I am hoping that there are only about 1600 more names to enter.

The Historical Society at least has kept me a bit busy. The last two times I was there they were fairly busy. A couple of times a distant relative has come in and I tried to help him out. He wanted to know where one of his Main family lived in downtown Frederick. We were able to find that he most likely lived in the old Barbara Fritchie cabins where the tea house was on West Patrick Street.

Post Card of the Barbara Fritchie Cabins

Now with TV!

At the time the Mains lived there it was also a grocery store.

Also while helping someone with their family history we ran into an interesting will. It seems that this man never married and when he died he left most of his belongings to his brothers and sisters. However, he also freed his female slave and her son. I would like to look further in to this to see if the son was possibly his.

For those motorcyclists out there, remember that the cages are not expecting to see you after the winter, and for those non-riders please remember to look for us bikers.

Christmas day ride

The above average temps this past Christmas made for a great day for a ride. My girls left a bit after noon so I got my camera ready and headed towards Frederick.

My first stop was Resthaven Memorial Gardens to drop some flowers off at my grandfather's grave. Resthaven is a fairly large cemetery and I occasionally have a bit of a problem finding the right spot. Luckily I had no problem finding the right place this time.

The next stop on my list was the Devilbiss family cemetery. I had an idea of where it was at, but had never stopped. Both Names in Stone and Find a Grave had good directions and the stones are visible from the road.

The owner of the house and land was quite friendly and talked a bit about the house and the few stones in the yard. He was also quite enthusiastic about my taking photos and such to document the old cemeteries of the county.

Devilbiss family cemetery

After cataloging the graves I rode through the Woodsboro area. After crossing the Legore bridge and at an intersection I saw a fox crossing the road. He was unable to figure out which way he wanted to go and seemed a bit scared of me. He finally made  his way across the field where I was able to get a nice shot of him.

While the rest of the ride of was not as exciting as spotting a fox, it was a beautiful day for a drive.

Veteran's Day

Very few of my direct ancestors served in the armed forces. My father served in Vietnam, his father in WWII. Prior to that I have one or two that served in the American Revolution. I have yet to find a direct ancestor that served in the Civil War, WWI or the Korean War.

 

 

My grandfather, pictured here, was an MP during at least part of WWII. I really haven't researched what he did. Notice how on the photo on the left there are black marks, this was done on the original photos before it was sent home, the blackouts were done to keep the enemy from knowing where he was at. Even his company patches were blocked out.

 

 Here's a photo of my grandfather and a motorcycle, I'm guessing it's his since he is holding it. I didn't know him well, he died when I was 9, so I never talked to him about riding. I never really talked to him at all which is a shame. I have some memories of my father riding a motorcycle, but that was when I was quite young. It seems riding motorcycles is in the genes. 

Have a good Veteran's Day and remember those that served.  

Motorcyling tip

Being that this is supposed to be a blog about motorcycles as well as genealogy I'd thought I'd give a quick tip, especially for this time of year.

This time of year, at least for me in these middle latitudes, the sun can be at some really bad angles, even with sunglasses the glare can get to you and make seeing the road a real pain. A very quick, and cheap, way of combating this is to place a strip of black electric tape along the very bottom of your face shield. Then, when the sun starts hitting that wrong spot simply lift the shield to put the tape in front of the sun.

Granted, this is an old school way of taking care of the problem, but it does work. My Nolan helmet has a sun visor, but even that doesn't cut the glare down enough. Don't forget to have some sort of eye protection as well if the face shield is up.