Atlantic Region Conference – 2006



Atlantic Region Conference – 2006

by Jerry Baugher

The 3rd Biennial Atlantic Region Conference the Piedmont Pacers co-hosted with the Annapolis Amblers, the Cumberland Valley Lead Foot Club and the Atlantic Region Director in Hagerstown, MD on March 17 to 19, 2006, offered some great walking events.

On Friday the Annapolis Amblers sponsored a walk in Williamsport, MD founded in 1786 by General Otho Holland Williams, a friend of George Washington. According to legend, George Washington visited Williamsport in October 1790 to study the feasibility of selecting Williamsport as a potential site for the U.S. capital, but because the Potomac was not navigable at this point for large ships, the capital was moved downstream. During the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee held the town for a week on its retreat from Gettysburg while the Confederate Army waited for the swollen River waters to abate to cross into Virginia. The walk went by the Williamsport Town Museum, 3 canons on Battery Hill also know as Doubleday’s Hill, in honor of Major Abner Doubleday, a Union Army Captain, who crossed the Potomac at Williamsport in June 1861. Abner Doubleday is better known as the creator of baseball. Battery Hill offered a defensive position because of its high ground and also provided a sweeping vista of the C&O towpath and the Potomac River and is part of the Riverview Cemetery. The walk continued down to the C&O Canal path and picked up the trail at mile marker 99 at Lock 44 completed in 1834 and was one of 74 lift locks along the 184.5 mile canal which raised or lowered boats approximately 8 feet at a time for a total of 604 feet total elevation change during the 4 to 5 day trip between Cumberland, MD to Georgetown. The Williamsport Lock is one of the best preserved along the entire route of the C&O Canal. The walk continued along the C&O canal for almost two miles, passing one of the few remaining Bollman Iron Truss Bridge invented by Wendel Bollman in 1850. The advantage of the Bollman suspension-truss design was that each trussing system acted individually to carry its loads to the abutments which lessened the chances of the bridge collapsing under the weight of its own load. One of the first Bollman Iron Truss Bridge’s can be seen on the Savage MD YRE. The walk continued pass the 1923 Railway Lift Bridge which carried Norfolk and Western trains over the canal here at Williamsport to the Power Plant and then over the Conococheague Aqueduct, a three arch, 210 foot limestone aqueduct. Just before mile marker 101 at the Williamsport Water Works, walkers returned to the aqueduct and the C&O Canal Visitor’s Center. The entire 184.5 mile C&O Canal was completed in 1850 and had taken 22 years and $13 million to build. It remained in operation for 74 years till a flood closed it in 1924. The canal sat neglected until the early 1950s when Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas led a march to save the canal and towpath from demolition. Today it remains a national historical park.

Saturday morning started early for the Piedmont Pacers as we hosted a morning walk through the town of Hagerstown. Both a 10K and 6K trail was offered. The walk started near the center of town on Potomac Street and continued past the Farmers Market which opens at 5:30 am to noon every Saturday and is one of the oldest continuing operating farm markets in the state established in 1783 by an act of the Maryland General Assembly in Annapolis. The walk passes many stately homes and churches built in late 1700 to 1800s. The walk passed a large outdoor wall mural entitled “View to Wesel” which is a window to Hagerstown’s sister city many restaurants on its way to the checkpoint at Superior Ice Cream & Subs. Even though it was cool, I found it wasn’t too cold to have a double dip waffle cone to replace some of the calories I had been burning. The walk continued through the beautifully landscaped 50 acre Hagerstown City Park with three man-made lakes that are home to hundreds of ducks, swans, and geese and. The walk continued past the Jonathan Hager House Museum, home of the city’s founder, and continued by the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Miller House, and Mansion House Art Gallery and Welcome Center before returning to the finish.

On Saturday afternoon, the Atlantic Region sponsored 2 workshops and a general session. The first workshop was presented by Tom Baerwald from Northern Virginia Volksmarchers who provided suggestions and a guide to prepare clear written instructions to make sure participants at our events have an enjoyable experience. A second session on AVA paperwork requirements was presented by our Atlantic Region Director Nancy Stenger. The keynote speaker at the general session was George Wunderlich, Executive Director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine who presented a very interesting presentation on medicine practices during the Civil War, facts and myths. At the end of the General Session, Atlantic Region Director awards were presented to one individual in each club who deserved special recognition for their contributions to volkssporting. Joanne Merkel was the 2006 award recipient from the Piedmont Pacers for this Volunteer Service Award.

Sunday’s scheduled event was in Greencastle, PA less than 15 miles from Hagerstown which was hosted by the Cumberland Valley Lead Foot Club in the Borough of Greencastle. Besides these three scheduled events, a fourth event was sanctioned and available all three day at Antietam Battlefield in Sharpsburg. The Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg) on September 17, 1862, climaxed the first of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s two attempts to carry the war into the north. Some 41,000 Southerners were pitted against the 87,000 man Federal Army of the Potomac under General George B. McClellan. Referred to as America’s bloodiest day, that one day battle which changed the course of U.S. history resulted in 23,110 dead and wounded casualties, more than any other single day of the Civil War. The walk took you by Dunker Church, the Cornfield, Bloody Lane, and Burnside Bridge. This 3200 acre national park stands as a monument to the cost of freedom and democracy and the pain of a nation.

This Conference and the four walks presented a full weekend of interesting sites to visit as well as to socialize with fellow walkers at the “Meet and Greet” Friday night and the Saturday night banquet. Thanks goes to all the volunteers from the four host clubs who worked very hard to make this a quality weekend.

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