Yesterday we biked along the Mon River Rail Trail from Star City North to Pennsylvania. We made it as far as the Lock & Dam before the trail became complete mud, and we turned around. (The tires on our bikes are not good enough for riding in mud.)

This section of the trail has lots of interesting man made structures falling into disrepair and decay. (All of these pictures are marked on the map–I grabbed a picture at each of these places with the GPS.)

At this point, you can quite clearly see the stacks of Fort Martin. The rest of the ride past you’re viewing it through the trees. It’s also surprisingly loud, and you can hear it quite a distance off.

We also stopped at the strange cement hut that must have been something for the railroad (there’s a similar hut south of Morgantown on the trail) but I don’t know what.

Regardless of it’s intended purpose, it fascinates me.

Here’s where we turned around (after wandering down to the lock). You can see the road, wandering off in the top right corner, complete mud and puddles.

And we scrambled down to the lock. I’m thinking my investment in a collapsible walking stick was one of the smartest purchases I made in the past several months. It made me comfortable scrambling down paths that I wouldn’t otherwise be sure my ankle was up for.

And we saw a little hut, in the back corner of a field. Michael refused to climb down, claiming it was because he wasn’t interested, but really it’s because he’s Lawful Good.