The Potomac River flows through American’s capital, past the iconic tidal basin, ringed by museums and monuments, and the perennially optimistic cherry trees. Close by are the gleaming edifices, the blocks of granite, cold or comforting, intimidating or inspiring depending on your business there. Radiating north, south and west from federal zone are the wealthy towns, suburbs, and farther still, the farmlands.
Nature does not suffer human contrivances, instead it plants mountains, hills, valleys and forests, brooks and streams where she will. Criss-crossing the great river are its tributaries, no respecters of surveyed boundaries. Catoctin Creek, just as many other waterways, defiantly violates the state lines of Maryland and Virginia. Beyond the beltway, journeying an hour or two away from the noise that inundates our newsfeeds, are those pursuing lives…