Where Eagles Fly

     One of my favorite rides is up old Route 17 in Washington County, Maryland to the town of Smithsburg.  From there I take Maryland Route 77 up and over the mountain to where Fort Ritchie was and the area known as Pen Mar.  The Fort was closed and its operations were moved to Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland in 1998.  Fort Ritchie was constructed in 1942 and served as a training center for military intelligence operatives, but the really interesting history of the area begins long before the Army decided to locate there.
     In 1878 the head of the Western Maryland Railway, General John Mifflin Hood decided to build a resort on property near there and connect it with a rail line.  The Generals idea was to generate tourism for his financially suffering railroad by creating a summertime retreat in the Pennsylvania-Maryland mountains, and
appropriately name it Pen Mar.  Soon an amusement park, artificial lake, and grand hotel
named the “Blue Mountain” were built.  There were also over a hundred smaller boarding houses started that served heat stricken city dwellers who flocked to the 1400 foot mountain in search of relief.  In its heyday Pen Mar boasted over one million visitors per year.
     One of the most popular attractions at Pen Mar was the wooden observation tower built atop the mountain on an outcropping known as “High Rock.”  The view from the observation tower was breathtaking not to mention the cool refreshing breezes that sweep over the mountaintop during summer evenings.  Sadly, rail travel declined sharply with the advent of the automobile and Pen Mar entered a downward spiral towards oblivion.  In 1913 tragedy was narrowly avoided when the 300 room “Blue Mountain Hotel” caught fire and bur
ned to the ground miraculously without any loss of life.  This was truly amazing since the “Blue Mountain” was built out of Georgia Pine, a wood which is known for its ability to resist rot and insect infestation, but unfortunately is only slightly less volatile than gasoline.
   
Today Washington County maintains a public park on the site of the old Pen Mar resort boasting a multipurpose pavilion that features live music and dances on most Sundays during the summer.  There is a road that still snakes its way up the mountainside to a rock outcropping called High Rock.  High Rock is still a popular destination for view seekers, motorcyclists, and last but not least, hang glider enthusiasts.  There is no written schedule but on any given weekend when the weather is clear and the wind is blowing more than fifteen miles per hour you will probably find dozens of glider pilots waiting their turn on the rock to take that great leap of faith.
     I have gone there on several occasions to watch the men and women that apparently love the feeling of soaring through the crisp mountain air on artificial wings made from aluminum and sailcloth.  Like soaring birds they float on rising air currents driven by the fields below, and to these brave souls I say, “you gotta be crazy.”  In order to fly from High Rock you have to strap into you glider, then walk up the giant man made rock to the launch point where you stand with your toes gripping the edge of the precipice and wait for the wind which is by now trying to blow your kite everywhere except in the correct direction to attain the fifteen mph required takeoff speed.  Not to worry though if you accidentally slip off the edge it’s only a mere hundred foot drop straight down to certain death on the rocks below.
     Now you would think that the glider pilots are the crazy ones, but oh contraire, you see because the wind tries to blow the pilots off the rock before they get airborne, four or five escaped inmates from the local sanatorium stand on the edges of the rock in order to help steady the glider.  No safety harness, no net except a small one directly in front of and under the pilot, and no rail to hang on to.  All this while the glider is trying to launch you over the side of the cliff in order to measure how high you will bounce when you hit the bottom!  All I can say to these brave men and women that pursue this elegant and majestic sport is, “more power to you friends.”