Running the MoCo Watershed
This mid-section of the mid-Atlantic state in which I live serves as a vast drainage area, sloping from the Blue Ridge and Appalacian areas in the west to the flat coastal plains in the east. A map of the MoCo (Montgomery County) watershed looks like the capillarized cross-section of some vital organ. As I suppose it is. Today's planned 6-hour run begins in a dense early morning fog at the small parking area in front the ruins of Black Rock Mill. I am here, not the trailhead at Riley's Lock, where Seneca Creek flows into the Potomac, because with the soggy past week we've had and warm, almost spring-like January day, parts of the lower lying portion of the Seneca Greenway Trail will likely have turned to bog. For the first half hour, I move slowly, warming up the legs and picking my way carefully along the muddy track. River and forest are wreathed in fog. The air is damp, cool but not cold--not a typical day for January. Along t...