Trailing Into Autumn: Sauntering along the Billy Goat Trail

How does one enjoy a free trip home in late-October courtesy of a work trip to the nation’s capital?  Go for a hike with the parentals and shoot lots of photos of the East Coast in all its fall glory, of course!

And what a glorious day it was. 

The sky was blue, the waters were bluer, and the film in my camera was eating it all up like candy. 

How is this even real life? 

The Billy Goat Trail is a trail that I’ve been hiking for almost my entire life.  It is part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and located between the C&O Canal and Potomac River near Great Falls in my hometown of Montgomery County, Maryland.  

While my parents and I were walking along the banks of the C&O Canal and I was reveling in the beauty of the still waters in the early morning, we heard a cacophony above us.  A flock of birds was flying by, and they were also enjoying the crisp, fall morning, singing and calling to one another as they roamed the skies above.

But in addition to the birds’ voices, there is also the roar of the falls.

What’s fantastic about this hike is that people can cut across from the canal-side to the Potomac River side and see the Great Falls.

It’s like a painting.  The swirls, the eddies, and the roar of water, captured in moving stillness in these photos.

A walk among the trees and beside the water is perfection.  Absolute perfection.  Especially when I get to do it with my parents. 

// 35mm film photos taken with my Canon AE-1 one bright, October morning along the Billy Goat Trail in Potomac, Maryland.