C&O Canal Towpath Makes USA Today’s Top 10 List
The C&O Canal towpath in Washington, DC and Maryland was ranked eighth in USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice Recreational Trails.
The towpath is a dirt trail that runs parallel to the canal for the 184.5 miles from Georgetown to Cumberland. Before becoming a popular hiking trail, the path was built for canal mules to walk next to the canal as they pulled the shipping-boats through the water.
Now, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the towpath can be seen with hikers, bikers and runners.
Other DMV trails that made the list were the Virginia Creeper Trail, ranking second, and the Great Allegheny Passage, which ranked ninth.
The Mendota Trail is well on its way to being completed and open to the public, but there is still a chunk of it that needs some help.
The beautiful rails-to-trails project connecting Bristol, Virginia, to Mendota, a rural community on the North Fork of the Holston River, has taken large leaps in the past few months.
On the Bristol end, the trail goes from the Island Road beginning all the way to Benhams, which is about five miles north into Washington County.
The Mendota end only goes about a mile, but one of the big attractions is the swinging bridge that can be crossed near the current end of the segment.
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