What it's like to sleep along Maryland's 200-year-old canal, one lock-keeper house at a time

The C&O Canal was a thriving 19th-Century waterway, and a strategic asset during the Civil War. Today, its historic lockhouses offer overnight guests a unique way to relive US history.

I'm somewhere in the wilds of Maryland, following the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal past riverfront undergrowth and long-abandoned locks overgrown with vines. For the last sweaty miles, the canal's towpath has led me deeper into a sea of green where, presumably, a historic lockhouse is waiting. I cross a footbridge and finally spot the 19th-Century cottage, sunlit beneath a canopy of trees.

I've reached mile nine (13km) of the 184.5 mile (297km) C&O Canal Towpath, a recreational trail running beside its namesake waterway and parallel to the Potomac River. This cosy stone structure was once one of 57 lockhouses inhabited by lock-keepers during the nearly 100 years it was in operation. Tonight, it's where I'll sleep.

When mules ruled the towpath

My journey started in Washington DC's cobblestoned 18th-Century Georgetown neighbourhood – the canal's starting point and mile zero for the towpath. Travellers typically tackle it by bike, but several of the historic lockhouses are clustered within the first 23 miles (37km), so I'm hiking that stretch for a slow ramble through Maryland history.

Two centuries ago, only mules trod this trail, towing canal boats. Inspired by George Washington's vision of opening trade with the West, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal was commissioned in 1825 to connect Washington DC with the Ohio River.

The towpath begins at Thompson Boat Center in Washington DC's Georgetown neighbourhood. Most cyclists complete the towpath within three to six days.

Reserve any of the eight Canal Quarters lockhouses here.

Carry provisions and plenty of water as potable water is not found along the trail, or make stops in the local communities along the path.

It never made it that far, ending at Cumberland in western Maryland. On the day President John Quincy Adams broke ground in 1828, construction also started on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad – a new form of transportation that would eventually outpace the canal. However, the C&O operated as a commercial waterway for 93 years. During the American Civil War, it served as a critical Union supply route and became a frequent target for the Confederate Army. At its 1870s peak, as many as 550 mule-powered boats navigated 74 lift locks tended by the canal's lock-keepers.

Today, only 26 lockhouses remain along the towpath. In 2007, the National Park Service (NPS) and the C&O Canal Trust decided to open them for overnight stays, unveiling the first in 2010. "Staying overnight in a lockhouse provides a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in these stories," Arden Shaer, the Trust's Canal Quarters Manager told me.

There are now eight lockhouses in the hospitality network, ranging from rustic stays to full amenity cottages, each depicting different eras of the canal's nearly 200 years. Over four days, I'll stay across several decades of canal history.

My hiking boots and rucksack draw attention as I head south on Georgetown's bustling M street, the brick path following the canal as it cuts serenely through colourful row houses.

"Happy trails!" a man........

© BBC