Garret County - Gone To The Hills

   We moved to DC from Vermont - the first time we had a chance for a vacation we headed to the highest point in Maryland figuring it would be somewhat Vermontish.....

Garrett County, Md., beyond Deep Creek Lake

By Ann Cameron Siegal, Published: July 18

After three visits to Maryland’s largest freshwater lake, I have yet to set foot on it or in it. Deep Creek Lake is an enticing destination, for sure, but Garrett County is awash in numerous hidden treasures just beyond the summer sounds of motorboats and jet skis.
As a traveling buddy and I made our first excursion into the county a year ago, I recalled a lesson architect Frank Lloyd Wright learned while traversing a snowy field as a child. Wright’s uncle admonished him to compare the footprints each had left: Wright, his uncle said, had wasted his time meandering left and right while he, the uncle, had proceeded directly to their destination. But Wright, in remembering that conversation, realized that his uncle had missed out on delightfully unexpected finds along their walk.
If you go: Garrett County, Md.
In that vein, I set off with a friend to explore Garrett County’s Barn Quilt Trail — one small link in an art-and-culture-oriented scavenger hunt phenomenon found in 45 states.
These country road treasure hunts are perfect for meandering travelers who want to get off main roads and explore small communities, local markets, cozy inns and down-home restaurants. Our self-guided tour wound past 16 barns, each decorated with an eight-foot-square panel displaying a quilt pattern chosen by the property owners and often painted by community volunteers.
Our route took us along part of the historic National Road — the first highway built by the federal government, in the early 19th century — and through a town curiously named Accident. Apparently, when King George II wanted to pay off a debt with a gift of 600 acres, the intended recipient hired two separate surveyors to scout out the best land. Unbeknownst to one another, they both selected parcels with the same oak tree as a boundary. Thus, the “Accident Tract” was born.
It was certainly no accident that recently brought my family to FireFly Farms Creamery in that same small town. The creamery’s artisan goat cheeses are well known to farmers market aficionados in Dupont Circle and Silver Spring.
You’ll never take cheese for granted after watching the intense, time-consuming and temperature-sensitive hands-on process involved in this craft. For example, one batch of Cabra LaMancha, a mature washed-rind cheese, gives FireFly’s cheesemakers an incredibly physical workout. I watched as Dan Porter briskly and rhythmically ladled curd from the 140-gallon pasteurizing vat to make 24 four-pound wheels. After 10 minutes of gravity settling, each wheel is flipped by hand, then again in three hours, and again the next morning before being stored for aging.
In the meantime, a similar process started in another 140-gallon vat — this time to make Merry Goat Round brie. Stabilizing the milk, cutting and agitating the curd, flipping each of 240 10-ounce rounds and moving all into aging rooms is seamless choreography.
Every step taken and each person involved becomes part of a batch’s written “birth certificate” ensuring product consistency. Even seasonality is a variable in making goat cheese. The deepest part of winter makes for the best goat milk, with the highest protein and fat content, said Dan.
Another “I had no idea” moment came as we visited Husky Power, just 10 minutes south. If you only think Iditarod when you hear “dog-sledding,” Linda and Mike Herdering, owners of what they say is the nation’s southernmost dog-sled touring kennel, will expertly broaden your knowledge through year-round, information-packed two-hour presentations. Husky conditioning, weight training, commands and care are just some of the topics covered during these appointment-only sessions.
“Many people learn about dog sledding through books and movies,” said Linda, which she called “a very incomplete picture.”
We were surprised to learn that many mushers use wheeled carts (gigs) for training, touring and racing. “There are more dry-land mushers in the world than snow mushers,” Linda said. “These dogs are genetically predisposed to pull, and they don’t care what they pull.”
The most important factor in dog sledding is keeping the lines taut by having an alert musher and excellent brakes on one end and a competent lead dog on the other. Slack lines can get tangled, creating a deadly situation, especially for canines.
I was curious about what makes a first-rate lead dog. The selection begins in puppyhood. The dogs are observed while jogging along trails, said Linda. “You look for one that doesn’t wander off — one that keeps going and doesn’t look back.” Sled dogs usually join a team when they turn 2.
The team’s shaded gravel yard is practical, not scenic. Wooden boxes serve as shelters, and each dog is tethered by a precisely measured chain to allow exercise room apart from the others. “They’re happier knowing that they have their own space and no other dog can get into it,” said Linda.
My daughter particularly loved face-to-face time with the most personable Alaskan and Siberian huskies ever. Litters are named in themes, such as Jag and Colt for sports teams, or Slider and BlackBerry for cellphones.
Mike Herdering referred to one dog, Denali, as his “attack licker.” Doffing his cap and revealing a gleaming bald head, he grinned. “She really got me!”
Snow is not required for dog sledding, but temperatures below 60 degrees are, so actually trying the sport on Husky Power’s extensive trail network must wait for the September-to-April running season.
Although we’ve only scratched the surface of Garrett County’s offerings, our list of favorites is growing.
For whitewater fixes, the adventurous are drawn to the Class IV and V rapids of the north-flowing Youghiogheny, Maryland’s wildest river. A 10-mile stretch from Sang Run to Friendsville is particularly popular during scheduled water releases.
For those preferring quiet, upright paddling, New Germany State Park and Broadford Lake beckon. Hikes through the old-growth hemlock forests of Swallow Falls State Park catch mesmerizing views of rushing water — especially as it pours over several falls, including Muddy Creek, the state’s highest single-drop waterfall.
A recently restored 1884 Queen Anne-style B&O train station, now a museum in the very walkable, cute small town of Oakland, is a definite head-turner.
The stately Casselman River Bridge in Grantsville — celebrating its 200th anniversary in September — was the largest single-span stone arch in the nation when constructed in 1813. A walk across it leads to Spruce Forest Artisan Village, where experts in weaving, paper quilling, pottery, metal crafts and more demonstrate and sell their work.
Okay, one day I’ll stop meandering and focus on Deep Creek Lake itself. But first, I must swing by Sugar & Spice Bakery and Cheese, a wee Amish shop on Route 219 just south of Oakland.

Siegal is a freelance writer/photographer in Alexandria.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/garrett-county-md-beyond-deep-creek-lake/2013/07/18/dc32bcf2-ee50-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_story.html

Washington Gas Starts To Pay The Piper

Washington Gas to clean Anacostia riverbank under new agreement

By Darryl Fears, Published: December 12

Washington Gas Light Co. has agreed to clean a section of land along the Anacostia River that it contaminated with harmful chemicals for more than a century, federal officials announced Monday.

As part of an agreement involving the utility, the U.S. Interior Department and the D.C. government, Washington Gas will also pay for a comprehensive investigation of toxic contamination of soil and groundwater on the site. It will repay nearly $1 million to federal agencies for investigations that revealed how badly the river was fouled where the company once processed gas.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called the agreement “a milestone in our efforts . . . to transform what was once known as America’s forgotten river into a model urban park.” A walkway is slated to traverse the area once when the work is done.

But the Anacostia Watershed Society said much is unknown about the agreement, including its cost and how the utility will be held accountable for its work. “How much they’re committing is really unclear at this point,” said Brent Bolin, director of advocacy for AWS.

A Washington Gas spokesman said contaminated soil will be removed and replaced with clean soil over four acres. The spokesman, Reuben Rodriguez, declined to give an estimate of the cleanup cost.

For 60 years, from 1888 to 1948, the utility manufactured gas feed stocks at a facility along Water Street SE, just upstream from the 11th Street Bridge on the river. Waste created by the gasification process contained harmful organic compounds such as benzene, cyanide, arsenic and other contaminants such as tar, coal and coke.

The company continued to use the “East Station” site intermittently until it was closed in 1983 and demolished in 1986. Between that time and 1999, six major federal environmental investigations were performed at the site.

“This has been a cleanup 100 years in the making,” Bolin said. “These are known carcinogens. They are an exposure risk for people who fish, people who boat, people who row.”

The Anacostia River was called “one of the most polluted waterways in the nation” in a May report by the advocacy group DC Appleseed.

With its low flows, the Anacostia cannot easily flush pollutants, many of which come from combined sewage runoff and from chemical waste from the Navy Yard, according to the report. It called on the federal government, as one of the river’s biggest polluters, to take a larger role in the cleanup.

Despite of a 2006 federal decision that called for a cleanup amid hiking trails, yacht clubs and a fishery, work was never completed, Bolin said. AWS filed a suit in August to compel the utility and federal government to act. “You couldn’t get the federal government to care about this issue until the Obama administration,” Bolin said.

The city has been acquiring land nearby with an eye on its Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, a vision for recreational, residential and commercial development along the river.

“This settlement is a major step forward in restoring this vibrant river . . . [and] protecting habitat and wildlife,” Salazar said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/washington-gas-to-clean-anacostia-riverbank-under-new-agreement/2011/12/12/gIQAc0ihqO_story.html

Paper Trail Missing

Maryland lab destroys documention on lead poisoning of children

By Timothy B. Wheeler, Sunday, March 13, 6:37 PM

Maryland’s health secretary said Friday that his department’s laboratory has destroyed test results dating to the 1980s documenting lead poisoning of Maryland children — potentially thousands of records that plaintiffs’ lawyers say are crucial to pursuing lawsuits seeking damages on behalf of poisoned children and their families.

Joshua Sharfstein said he has asked for an investigation of how the destruction of records happened, replaced the lab’s director and ordered that efforts be made to recover whatever test results might have been deleted from state computer files.

“We regret this, and we’re going to do everything possible to make it right,” Sharfstein said in a phone interview.

Doctors and health clinics have been required since the 1980s to report to the state health department results of tests showing that children had elevated levels of lead in their blood. Lead is a potent neurotoxin that can cause lasting learning and behavioral problems in even tiny doses.

The department has maintained those test results for years and provided them on request to people who had been tested, their parents or their attorneys. Scott E. Nevin, a lawyer with the firm Peter T. Nicholl, called the records “critical” to the hundreds of lead-poisoning cases that his office and other firms have pending or are preparing.

“If in fact the records are permanently gone,” Nevin said, “it will just make it impossible for some citizens in Baltimore to pursue cases.”

The revelation comes more than a week after the Baltimore Sun had reported that the Baltimore City Health Department had lost federal lead abatement money for failing to meet treatment targets.

Sharfstein, who took over leadership of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in January, said he learned of the destruction of records recently and has acted promptly to halt the practice and restore any results that can be restored.

“We are not destroying any more records. We are preserving records. We are going back and reconstructing databases,” he said, and “doing everything possible” to find and replace the lost test results.

John DeBoy, the lab director for the past 7¹ / ₂ years, has been removed from his position and placed on “administrative status,” Sharfstein said, pending the outcome of an investigation the secretary has requested of the health department’s inspector general. DeBoy did not reply to an e-mail or phone messages left at his home.

DeBoy, who has been with the state health department for 27 years, received the Gold Standard Award for Public Health Laboratory Excellence in 2007 from the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

The lab’s deputy director, Robert A. Myers, was named acting director Tuesday, Sharfstein said.

Sharfstein said he found out about the practice after being told that lawyers specializing in lead-poisoning lawsuits had filed a petition in Baltimore Circuit Court seeking a restraining order barring his department from destroying any more children’s test results. He said he had met with some of those lawyers and pledged to do what he can to remedy the loss of records.

“Regardless of whether the department has a legal obligation to maintain these records, we intend to do so,” the health secretary wrote in a letter to lawyers handling lead-poisoning cases.

The petition for a restraining order was filed by Brian Brown, a lawyer with Saul E. Kerpelman & Associates, a firm that specializes in lead-poisoning cases. Since then, Nevin’s firm and another handling lead-poisoning cases have filed to join in the request for a restraining order. A hearing is scheduled Monday.

— Baltimore Sun

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/maryland-lab-destroys-documentation-on-lead-poisoning-of-children/2011/03/13/ABaFo8T_story.html