Western Maryland

I spent the day in Western Maryland, working along the C&O Canal. It was a cool day, 45 or so, overcast and breezy. The landscape had the bleak feel of forests with no leaves, but was still lovely. To get there I had to pass through Cumberland, an old factory town that is about half boarded up. Then I spent the morning in an industrial park a few miles south of town, enjoying the smells of the sewage treatment plant, the roar of the cement factory, and the charming atmosphere of the federal prison with its mile of razor wire. But there was still that wonderful view out over the floodplain of the Potomac to the mountains beyond, lots of beaver dams and lodges, and the other charms of early spring in the woods: woodpeckers, geese, ducks, and a woodcock that flew up right in front of me. In the afternoon I went to prettier places and found two new archaeological sites. All in all, it was a grand day.