Pennyfield Lock and Muddy Branch

The wind made fly fishing difficult today on the Potomac, so I quit after two good-size bluegills on a surface bug. Although I had been on the river for a couple of hours, I spent more time wading than actually fishing. I then decided to hang around the C&O Canal drying off on this beautiful day.

A tributary, Muddy Branch, flows into the river just upriver from Pennyfield, and the engineers who designed the C&O Canal about 170 years ago had an easier time than they had upriver for the Monocacy since the required aqueduct for the much smaller Muddy Branch was much simpler:

During the Civil War, there was a major camp for Union soldiers along Muddy Branch.  Although I was unable to find out how many were stationed there, I seem to remember hearing during a course I took on Montgomery County archeology just after retiring that there were more Union soldiers in the county at the time than residents. I guess it was prudent to defend Washington with many troops especially since the county was generally pro-Confederate in sympathies.

Water levels were 2.9 at Little Falls which is about the same as they've been despite the heavy rain we received (finally) on Saturday.