Having recently read a BFRO website report stemming from 1985, we decided to take a trip to the Catoctin Mountain Park located in Thurmont Maryland, northern Frederick County. In the 1930's this area of the Catoctin Mountain was set as a recreational center for federal employees. In fact, the park is home to the presidential hide-away Camp David. In the 1950's the land was divided into 2 parks, Cunningham Falls State Park and Catoctic Mountain Park. Today the area comprising Catoctin Mountain Park and Cunningham Falls State Park boasts over 10,000 acres of land and includes the twenty-seven-mile Catoctin Trail as well as other shorter hiking trails. Click here to view the official National Park Service .pdf map of the area.
Interested in seeing some of the parks wildlife, we opted to start out on the Deerfield Nature Trail Loop which connects with the Catoctin Trail. This trail follows along Owens Creek and highlights various environmental effects of the mountains wildlife. The one thing that struck us about this area was the silence. Everything with the exception of the chipmunk seemed to have been on vacation. As we made our way over the creek in a rough rock area, I saw a little movement in the woods about 250 feet above us by a clearing. Pausing to listen, we did not hear anything, but again we both saw some movement behind some trees. We decided stray away from the trail so that we could investigate what we had seen. Steadily making our way up the steep incline running into spider web after spider web, we kept our eyes open for snakes. As we got closer, we saw two white tailed dears run away from the area where we had seen movement. Seeing a clearing in the trees, we decided to continue out ascent because we were interested in seeing where the light was coming from. Once at the clearing we saw a beautiful house situated on acres of land which at one time was prime mountain farming land.
We returned to the Nature Trail and headed north where the trail connects with the twenty-seven mile Catoctin Trail. The vegetation in this area was very overgrown indicating the infrequent use of the trail; there were many instances where the path was completely covered by vegetation which stood rose about two feet off the ground. Along the way we saw many natural shelters which were created by the thick vegetation. We also noted the effects of erosion as a few of the steep hills appeared to have been affected by the unusual amount of rain which has fallen on the area this year.
Once we were on the Catoctin Trail, the vegetation seemed to thin out and the path was more defined. As we came upon a bend in the trail, I noticed an area off to the left of the trail that looked a bit peculiar. Leaning against a large jutting ten foot boulder was a larger tree which was positioned in a manner so that the trunk extended above the boulder and the leaves were laying ten feet in front of the boulder creating what I would deem a nice, partially covered den. As we came closer to the area I noticed that the tall vegetation, standing roughly three feet was matted down in several areas heading towards the 'den'. I am not sure whether this could have been a natural matting due to damp conditions or whether it was done by an animal. All I know is that I stand 6'3" and when I entered this patch of vegetation, I simply matted down everything my legs touched. The matting which we observed was in clumps, so if it was not natural and was indeed an animal, then it was a tall animal!
I decided to get a better look at the 'den' so that I could document with my camera. As I walked, I did notice an impression that appeared to be shaped like a human foot. I decided to photograph the impression but I can not say with certainty whether this was in actuality a foot impression, or just a natural depression in ground. Another interesting aspect to this area was that my wife detected a faint odor. We believed that it was most likely a dead animal or perhaps the result of the heavy rain making the leaves musky, but one can always hope. After walking a little further we decided to turn back, our stomachs rumbling and muscles aching from the strenuous hike. We had had a great day experiencing the beauty of nature and were looking forward to returning to the comfort of home.
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