See beautiful Catoctin—if you can

Thursday, July 6, 2006

I’ve got a beef with George Bush.

While there are seemingly limitless sentences that could follow that first one, this is personal. George Bush ruined my Saturday.

Of course, Bush has ruined a lot of things for a lot of people. But on Saturday, as I labored up and down the paths that crisscross Catoctin Mountain near Thurmont, I found myself stymied when attempting an approach of the summit. Signs, bearing the official Park Service imprimatur, were posted to the effect that Hog Rock and its immediate environs were off-limits.

Catoctin is 1,880 feet at its peak, putting it well below the state’s 10 highest mountains. Nor is it particularly difficult to summit, except that its various trails do not actually take you to the highest point, but rather very near it. The summit is to the northwest of Hog Rock, itself some 1,610 feet and accessible by road.

I’ve written about Catoctin Mountain in these pages before. On this most recent trip, I’d intended to reach the summit via a little cross country scrambling and describe the view, surely comparable to the command from dazzling Thurmont Vista (1,499) on the mountain’s east side, or Chimney Rock in the southeast.

My plan, however, was thwarted by what a ranger called ‘‘security issues.” That’s government-speak for ‘‘The president is riding his mountain bike at Camp David this weekend.”

Now, George Bush deserves his recreation time as much as the next guy, probably more. He certainly seems to think so. But I complain because this has happened before—the last time I visited, in fact. I can only conclude that George Bush likes to ruin my vacations.

I’ll leave aside the argument against mountain bikes (which everyday visitors are forbidden to use), knowing that Bush has bad knees from years of jogging and must find his exercise somehow. Camp David, established as the official presidential retreat in 1942, is represented by a huge blank spot on the Park Service map (Here There be Secret Service), so there’s no way of telling how necessary it was to cut off whole sections of trail to keep the public away from the president.

And a nice trail it is, too. Steep at the start (approaching from Cunningham Falls), the path plunges into mixed hardwood forest—oak, hickory, maple, poplar—at a sweat-inducing angle before leveling out to a couple of rolling, wide-open valleys. A ‘‘nature trail” loop offers an easy stroll through rich-scented stands of trees where chestnuts porbably once flourished. Hog Rock itself, like Chimney Rock and Wolf Rock, is a Weverton quartzite and greenstone plinth of igneous rock—tough stuff, highly resistant to weathering. It has been, and will continue to be, around for a long while.

It’s a nice trail. But to take an entire weekend—the Fourth of July weekend at that—and turn a popular national attraction into a private playground is ridiculous. Mr. President, I propose we coordinate on your next visit. Next time you’re headed to Camp David for a weekend of tumbling over handlebars, drop me a line so I won’t be there.

Or maybe you could concentrate a little more on clearing brush?