Next week marks the 277th anniversary of George Washington’s birth, a man known not only as the ”Father of Our Country” but the “Father of the American Foxhound.” George Washington, an avid foxhunter, sought to breed a new type of dog to course the terrain around his estate at Mount Vernon. He crossed French hounds from his friend the Marquis de Lafayette, with his own smaller black-and-tan English hounds. Washington listed 30 new “American” foxhounds by name in his journal and hounds currently registered with the American Kennel Club are descended from those originals. The Father of Our Country often favored silly names for his beloved dogs: Drunkard, Tipler, Tipsy.
Here’s another dog story about George Washington. During the American Revolution, two days after the Battle of Germantown outside of Philadelphia on October 6, 1777 a dog was found wandering in the American Camp. Inspecting the dog’s collar it was apparent the dog, whose name and breed is lost to history, belonged to victorious British commander General William Howe, who remained at Germantown. Even with the loss of the Colonial capital of Philadelphia hanging over his head, General George Washington steadfastly adhered to the code of gentlemanly behavior in wartime by returning the dog with a handwritten note: “General Washington’s compliments to General Howe. He does himself the pleasure to return him a dog, which accidentally fell into his hands, and by the inscription on the Collar appears to belong to General Howe.”
For a fellow who lived almost 300 years ago, even before his life as commander of the Continental Army, George Washington got around quite a bit, both physically and, if we are to believe the recent revelations that Martha Custis was quite the Colonial hottie, socially. You can cobble together an adventurous outdoor trip with your dog by tracing Washington’s early footsteps...
George Washington’s Birthplace (Montross, Virginia)
The Washington family saga in America began in 1657 when seafaring John Washington tarried in the Tidewater region of northern Virginia, befriended Nathaniel Pope and married Pope’s daughter, Anne. The couple was given 700 acres on Mattox Creek as a wedding gift to start a tobacco farm. John eventually acquired more than 10,000 acres.
John Washington’s grandson, Augustine claimed his inheritance on Bride’s Creek and purchased more than 1,000 more acres on Pope’s Creek. He fathered four children by Jane Butler who died at the age of 30 in 1729. Washington remarried a year later, taking as his bride Mary Ball, an orphaned daughter of a prominent planter. Their first child, George, was born in 1732 in the manor house at Pope’s Creek. Although the family moved away when he was not yet four, George returned many times as an adolescent to work the family plantation.
On Christmas Day, 1779, while Washington was busy guiding the Continental Army, the manor house of his birth burned. It was never rebuilt. The birthplace was excavated in 1936 and the foundations preserved. Its location and dimensions are indicated by an oyster shell outline. A typical Tidewater house of the upper classes of the 1700s has been constructed on the property as a memorial to President George Washington.
The 538-acre George Washington Birthplace National Monument has been developed as a representative tobacco plantation and there is plenty of room to roam with your dog. Packed gravel paths lead around the house, fields, groves of trees and gardens. A wooded nature trail runs for a mile on a wide, leaf-littered natural surface through a coastal mixed pine forest. Plus, there is plenty of grass for your dog to trot on. And you can hike with your dog along the Potomac River beach. All in all, not a bad day for your dog.
Sky Meadows State Park (Fauquier County, Virginia)
When he was 16 years old George Washington joined a surveying expedition to western Virginia, garnering a valuable skill in a colony where land was being settled constantly. He was soon able to begin buying unclaimed wilderness land. One of his speculative parcels today is part of Sky Meadows State Park, a crown jewel in the Virginia state park system on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The real star here for your dog are the meadows - there simply aren’t many open-air hikes available across Northern Virginia. Be advised, however, that if you’ve never gone much beyond your neighborhood walk with your dog, this isn’t the place for your first big adventure. Except for the Snowden Trail nature loop you will be hiking up a mountain at Sky Meadows.
The trail system offers about ten miles of marked paths that can be molded into canine hiking loops, the most popular being the North Ridge-South Ridge circuit. The South Ridge Trail utilizes an old farm road while the North Ridge Trail picks its way up the mountain like a traditional hiking trail. You are probably best served by going up the South Ridge since it is not as steep and are longer coming down the North side.
For those looking for a full day of hiking with your dog the Appalachian Trail is 1.7 miles away and there are loop options up there as well. If you just want to enjoy the meadows you can confine your explorations to the Piedmont Overlook Trail on the North Ridge. It is also possible to enjoy the park without hard climbing on the Snowden Trail interpretive nature walk and the Shearman’s Mill Trail.
Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (Suffolk, Virginia)
At the age of 21 Washington could be found down on the Virginia-North Carolina border organizing the Dismal Swamp Land Company. His plan was to drain the Dismal Swamp - so named by the English because there was no need for settlers to force Indian tribes off the land since they had already left - and set up logging operations. Over the next 200 years all of the cypress and Atlantic white cedar forests would be logged at least once.
Establishment of the refuge began in 1973 when the Union Camp Corporation donated 49,100 acres of land to The Nature Conservancy. This land was then conveyed to the Department of the Interior, and the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was officially established through The Dismal Swamp Act of 1974.
If you are looking for a place to disappear with your dog on a hike for hours, this is it. During its logging years, over 140 miles of roads were constructed through the Dismal Swamp. The best place to launch your adventure is the parking lot at the end of Jericho Lane, off Route 642. Your dog will be hiking on firm sand/dirt roads, level and easy everywhere. Shade is at a premium on hot days so pack plenty of water for your outing. You can create a hiking loop from the several ditches that join at Jericho Lane.
The refuge has also developed an interpretive trail at the site of Washington’s former camp, Dismal Town. An extensive boardwalk, nearly a mile long with a couple of spurs, snakes through the heart of the swamp. For a full day’s adventure with your dog a 4.5-mile hike along the Washington Ditch will get your dog to Lake Drummond, one of only two natural lakes inthe state of Virginia.
Fort Necessity National Battlefield (Farmington, Pennsylvania)
George Washington’s military career began in 1754 when the newly commissioned 22-year old lieutenant colonel was sent to the Ohio Valley to build a road and help defend British fortifications against the incursions of the French. Events deteriorated and Washington rapidly constructed a small, circular palisade he named Fort Necessity. When a force of 600 French and 100 Indians fell upon the crude fort, Washington was forced to capitulate, the only time he would ever surrender to an enemy in his career. The confrontation at Fort Necessity was the opening battle in North America that would become the French and Indian War. It would end in the expulsion of French power from North America and India.
George Washington called Great Meadows, as the area surrounding Fort Necessity was then known, as “a charming field for an encounter.” You will take away the same impression today as you hike the grounds with your dog - minus the musket fire, of course. The focal point of the battlefield tour is a reconstructed fort built in the exact location of Washington’s original stockade.
The interpretive trail traverses open meadows and light woods. Subsequent landowners grew fruit trees here that contribute to the park-like feel of one of America’s oldest battlefields. Part of this easy canine hike trips along traces of the Braddock Road that was first blazed in 1750 by Nemacolin, a Delaware Indian, and built by Washington’s expedition. The battlefield tour covers about one mile.
Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon, Virginia)
In 1759 George Washington set himself up as a gentleman farmer on 2,000 acres at Mount Vernon. He wrote about his plantation on the Potomac River, “No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this.” It was with the greatest reluctance that he would leave his life at Mount Vernon when the events of a revolutionary new nation led him to a greater calling in 1775.
Today Mount Vernon is the most visited private estate in America. After picking up a biscuit at the entrance gate, your dog can trot across much of the 500 acres that have been preserved. On the grounds are more than 20 outbuildings and 50 acres of gardens for your dog to explore. She may even meet some grazing livestock.
The Forest Trail is a short interpretive walk through a wooded area over a ravine and past an old cobble quarry that was used to create roadways, walkways and the main entrance. This little hike features one steep climb and a wide, groomed path for your dog.
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