Hiking and History

21 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, Hiking, HISTORY

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Baltimore, Dams, engineering, Gunpowder Falls, Hiking, HISTORY, Loch Raven, nature, photography, Public Works, water history

Kathy just loves it when we go on hikes and I fill her head with a bunch of useless information! Went to Loch Raven Saturday since it was so nice out – looking for eagles.

Before the eagles, we saw this guy trying to hide from us.

I guess we saw about 4-5 different eagles. This one was trying to hide too.

Kathy has known that I always wanted to go to the other side of the dams (in all my years hiking, I’ve never been there), so she grabs up Molly and starts heading across the rocks.

Looking for more eagles.

Top of the east side of the old dam. Across the way are the gate house valves.

Next we headed towards the newer dam, which actually underneath is a 100 year old dam.

Look! An Eagle! Damn – too slow on the shutter!

Here is the same dam in the 1970s – it was falling apart really bad. Looking close you can see a circular cap on the lower face.

When they refinished the face of the dam, the round hole became square. It was locked.

Besides the face lift the dam gets, they also built a Zebra Mussel station – tall white building in background. They never used it and now more construction is going on behind it – an admin building of some sort.

How Loch Raven dam looked in 1922. Notice on the lower portion across the water. The land is at the same elevation as this side, but…

Now it is elevated by the placement of this pipe. This pipe is covered in dirt. I’m still not sure why they installed this pipe into the face of the dam??? I have the drawings and project photos, but nothing to say why?

So all this is to say that the original dam, under this one was built in 1914. It was at an elevation of 188′. The newer dam was placed on top of it in 1922 – elevation 240′. Then in the 70s and again in 2005 it received various face lifts and this is why it will never get a historic designation..

Hiking at CVP

13 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in Hiking, Photography

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Baltimore, Cromwell Park, engineering, Gunpowder Falls, Hiking, Loch Raven, nature, photography

The guys I use to volunteer with up at Cromwell Valley Park asked me to join them for a hike the other day. They wanted to show me something. That something was the house I wrote about a few weeks ago up at Loch Raven. It is now gone. Making way for a new maintenance facility. They also wanted to show me the tree grinder and another surprise…

This is the site of the old house and barn. The house was where the yellow excavator is to the left, the barn was the hole in the foreground. Loch Raven is a little frozen between the dams.

The tree grinder. What a machine that is! Unlike a regular wood chipper, this thing you drop the trees in the bowl (tub) on top.

After watching that for a while, we hiked the old fire road. It was a nice day out and the path was muddy from the warmer weather we were having, but some things take longer to thaw.

The surprise…

Wow, this took some time to build! Two rooms and an outdoor fire pit!

The next day I took Kathy to see it.

A nice two afternoons, walking in the park!

Last Hike – First Hike

02 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in Hiking, HISTORY, Photography

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Baltimore, Cromwell Park, engineering, Gunpowder Falls, Hiking, HISTORY, lime kiln, Loch Raven, nature, photography, Public Works, water history

The state parks around Maryland promote the First Hike of the year. The way Kathy and I look at it – any day is a good day to hike! And the weather couldn’t have been better! Last day of the year and the first day of the year hikes.

On Saturday we did a small hike at a park we never hiked before. Kathy came up with the idea to hike somewhere we never have for the last hike of the year and somewhere we have hiked for the first hike of the new year. Louis Krause Memorial Park was the last of 2016

When trees hunt no hunting signs

Small park wit a couple roundabout paths

After a complete circuit, leaving the woods we came upon these steps.

The top of a lime kiln

A kissing bench. (If you have been paying attention to my post, most hikes have benches)

An old kiln. This one is a lot smaller than the ones at Cromwell Valley Park.

Some history on the kiln

The next day, New Year’s, we took a hike at our favorite place to hike – Cromwell Valley Park. Lots of first day hikers there – it was crowded.

First stop – the big sycamore tree.

Kathy told me to lie down on the picnic table and take one straight up – ok, I’m easy!

Another type of view of the tree, using a filter.

A smaller kiln at CVP. A lot of people don’t even know this one is here. Can’t find any history on it.

Marble Spring. I’ve always called it bubbling brook. Usually there is some movement in here from the lime stone underneath meeting up with the spring. Watercress floating on top.