Oneness with the woods
We’re never bored with a journey on McKeldin Rapids Trail at Patapsco Valley State Park
It was just Millie and me heading off to one of our favorite all-time trails on a clear, chilly afternoon this past week. We drove about 45 minutes north of Annapolis to Marriottsville, where we found the McKeldin Area of the Patapsco Valley State Park.
This is one of eight distinct areas within the park. The park itself stretches along 32 miles of the Patapsco River — most of the river’s 39-mile length. More than 200 miles of trails wander through the park’s 16,043 acres.
But the one trail we were eager to take is the McKeldin Rapids Trail. You need to drive to the far end of the McKeldin Area to find the trailhead. It’s at the end of a narrow, paved road that winds through the oak forest down a steep embankment.
I put Millie into her harness and clipped on the leash. She’s always happy to be buckled in. She’ll stand expectantly and wait patiently until the elaborate process of figuring out which strap goes where has been completed, and doesn’t show too much eagerness to get on with the adventure we’re about to share.
This behavior is in sharp contrast to when our next-door neighbor comes to take Millie for an occasional walk around the block. When this happens, Millie goes wild with excitement. When I take her for a hike in the forest, she’s all ho-hum, but somebody else takes her for a stroll in the neighborhood, and she acts like she’s won the bones-for-life lottery. I guess she has to keep up with all the messages the other dogs leave for her. People think they take their dog’s bladders for a walk, but the dog knows she’s taking her nose for a walk.
Of course, once we’re on our journey, Millie is always happy to be out in the wild, and I’m always happy she’s with me. The scents she detects on the trail seem to hold a particular fascination, and I generally give her the time she needs to investigate them thoroughly.
We traipsed down the hillside from the parking lot to the rapids overlook where the south branch of the Patapsco tumbles into a large pool. These rapids mark a distinct geological feature set between the tidal Chesapeake Bay and the piedmont — the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Geologists call this transitional area the “fall line.” It runs north to south, more or less following Interstate 95.
If you look at a map, you can see where the falls of the rivers feeding the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay attracted settlers as far upriver as they could sail at sea level. Then in the mid 1700s, early industrialists used the power of the falling water at these sites to run mills of all descriptions — grist mills, saw mills and textile mills, to name a few.
These places grew into the cities of Richmond and Fredericksburg on the James and Rappahannock rivers in Virginia, Georgetown on the Potomac River nd Ellicott City just a few miles downstream of where we were on the Patapsco. Even today, the Conowingo Dam at the fall line on the Susquehanna River uses the same power of falling
water to generate electricity.
Up until about four years ago, there was another dam on the Patapsco about 10 miles downstream from where we were. The Bloede Dam was built in 1907 to generate electricity, but over the past decade it’s been considered more of a curse than an asset. For one thing, it blocked the passage of river herring, American shad and American eels heading upstream. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources blew up the dam in 2019. Since then, the eels in particular have made a dramatic comeback. They migrate from the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean east of the Bahamas.
Millie led me carefully down a crude set of steps leading to the water’s edge. In the bottom of the valley, the dominant trees are astounding sycamores, their exposed roots enmeshed with the boulders along the bank. Signs warn against swimming in the pool at the foot of the rapids because of dangerous undercurrents. The park’s website also alerts visitors to the presence of snakes that might be found sunning on the rocks, including the northern water snake and the occasional copperhead, both of which should be left alone to do what they do best — eating little critters and getting eaten by hawks and other predators.
The river tumbles dramatically over the boulders as it leaves the pond. The trail follows the stream around several bends. Once you’ve reached the valley floor, the path is fairly flat, but there were fallen logs to hop over and some sections were muddy, even though we followed the park’s advice and waited at least 24 hours after a rain event before venturing out on the trail. At one point, you need to scooch across a sloping stretch of bare rock to get back on the trail, but it’s worth the effort. Just beyond that, you get to the confluence of the south branch and north branches of the river, forming the main body of the Patapsco.
You can follow the north branch to where the path merges with the Switchback Trail that loops around the entire McKeldin Area. This stretch is particularly dreamy. You’re strolling through a mature forest alongside a beautiful, clear-running stream, deep in a valley that might as well be in the middle of West Virginia — or a William Wordsworth poem, for that matter. You get this lovely feeling of oneness with the woods, as powerful here as anywhere I’ve encountered. And you can go on and on for hours, or double back before you get fatigued. You’ll never get bored.
As we walked, I wondered about the namesake of this section of the park. When we got back home, I looked him up.
And he turns out to be a pretty remarkable guy. Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin (1900—1974) was the 53rd governor of Maryland from 1951 to 1959. Like his fellow Republican, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, McKeldin focused his efforts on creating the state highway system.
So the next time you’re stuck on the Baltimore Beltway (now I-695), the Capital Beltway (I-495) or the John Hanson Highway (U.S. 50), you know who to blame. I also read that McKeldin was an advocate for civil rights for African Americans.
Millie and I made our way back up the hill to the car just as the sun disappeared beyond the treetops.
PATAPSCO VALLEY STATE PARK — MCKELDIN AREA
11676 Marriottsville Road, Marriottsville, Maryland 21104 There is a modest entry fee. Toilets are available. Open dawn to dusk. Polite dogs on leashes are welcome.