As we look towards Garrett County celebrating America’s 250th birthday at a celebration event in July, we are provided an opportunity to take a moment to understand and appreciate all the county has to offer.
Friendsville, the most northern municipality in Garrett County, is a playground to both locals and visitors with all it has to offer. With a population that has hovered between 400-500 residents over the past two decades, comes a great source of pride in the town.
Offering a wide variety of recreational activities to include picnicking, biking, hiking, fishing, and rafting, a large source of Friendsville’s pride can be attributed to generations of the Friend family as descendents of the town’s founder, John Friend Sr. While Friend Sr. arrived in the area in 1765, the town was not incorporated until 1902, thirty years after the official formation of Garrett County. A visit to the town’s website will provide a treasure trove of history that has been documented and collected on Friendsville as well as access to an online story archive of town elders sharing their stories of Friendsville. For guests interested in the history of the town, a walking tour with informative placards is also available on the website.
Long before Friend Sr. arrived in the area, it was known as a popular and influential gathering place due to the Youghiogheny River that flows through it. Prior to the arrival of the railroad, the river was an essential component to transport coal and timber that were sourced from the local areas. As the river’s ecological and agricultural importance continued to be realized throughout the centuries, several measures were put into place to protect and preserve all that the Youghiogheny provided to the area. In 1976, twenty-one miles of the river, some of which runs through Friendsville, was classified as part of Maryland’s Scenic and Wild Rivers Act to help protect it.
In the present day, enthusiasts of the kayaking and rafting community flock to that same area of the Youghiogheny River that John Friend Sr. first settled for some of the most expert-level rapids on the East Coast.
A tributary of the Monongahela River, and sourced by two springs in Backbone Mountain, the rapids that run through Friendsville offer Class IV-V rapids and are known for fast-paced, technical whitewater rapids that are valued by expert kayakers and rafters.
These rapids are supplemented by the Deep Creek Reservoir, which schedules water releases several times a month from April to October. Expert kayakers and rafters are known to plan their visits around the scheduled water releases to experience the highest level of technical difficulty on the rapids.
To meet the high demand of access to the river from the town, a watercraft take-out was created in 2015 by the Town of Friendsville, funded
by both seed money from donations (much of it from the paddlers themselves!) as well as grant funds raised by the town. On a busy summer day, the parking lot near the out-take is at capacity, with cars parked in the overflow lot.
While known for its white water rapids, the Youghiogheny River that runs through Friendsville is also a popular spot for fishermen looking to catch bass or trout. This part of the river is stocked by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Due to the heavy recreational draw on the river, many safeguards have been put in place to protect this popular attraction.
The Maryland Park Service manages the region to preserve the natural scenery and water quality while the Youghigheny River Management Plan guides the development and conservation in the area. To a visitor standing near the riverbank in Friendsville, all of these infrastructures in place to protect the scenic and geologic worth of the river are invisible.
For those that don’t want to ride on the river, there are ample areas in Friendsville to enjoy its beauty, one of which is the Kendall Trail. The trail follows the east bank of the river into the part that is designated as the Wild and Scenic Corridor and has multiple places to access the river’s edge.
A well-signed trailhead provides parking for only a few cars, but overflow parking is available along Chestnut Street. While the trail is navigable for novice hikers, or those that just want to enjoy a walk through nature, visitors should take the necessary precautions based on the season in which they are visiting. A variety of factors, including snowmelt, rain, and an overflow of the river, can leave the trail wet and muddy on any given day, and the terrain is one that is best walked in tennis or hiking shoes. It’s not a trail a visitor would want to walk in flip flops or sandals. While the wildflowers of the spring bring an additional level of beauty to the trail, the gnats of summer can be an annoyance (wear a hat!).
If you are looking to make a day of it in Friendsville, there are also some great places to grab a meal as well as a community park for a picnic.
From the June issue of the Lakefront Magazine | Written by Francesca Branson.
