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[Narrator] Coming up... Netting the Bay's largest native fish... Thrilling terrain that takes technical skill... And legends of the landscape.

Next.

Outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

♪ ♪ [footsteps] [rev of engine] [splashing] [roar of waterfall] [splashing] [waves rushing] [hooves clopping] [beating of wings] ♪ ♪ [Narrator] A spring breeze blows steady across the Nanticoke River, but biologist Chuck Stence and his crew with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources ignore the cold.

They're on a hunt for something prehistoric.

[Chuck Stence] No sturgeon.

We would love to find one Atlantic sturgeon just to prove that they're here, that the juveniles are here, and that the adults had a successful spawning.

It would be the first documented spawning population in Maryland.

[Narrator] With a gargantuan growth potential, up to 14 feet and 800 pounds, the bony-plated Atlantic sturgeon is a relic, a fish that shared ancient oceans with the dinosaurs.

Once plentiful throughout the Chesapeake Bay region, sturgeon meat and eggs were an important food source for thousands of years.

Historians believe it was sturgeon, caught on the James River, that in 1609 saved the Jamestown Colony from famine and collapse.

In the late 19th century, the fish was harvested up and down the East Coast for its eggs: caviar, a delicacy.

But overfishing and habitat loss soon caught up with the Bay's sturgeon and the population was listed as endangered in 2012.

And because they're dealing with a federally listed endangered species, Chuck and his crew have a special permit for their research.

Strict guidelines govern their work.

[Ashley Horn] Yeah, these are American eel.

[Chuck] So far, white perch, a couple menhaden, hogchokers.

That's about it so far.

[Narrator] And a glut of invasive blue catfish.

So far, the sturgeon, if they're here, have managed to evade net after net.

Also going in the water today: these acoustic receivers.

Chuck's team places them up and down the Nanticoke and it's tributary, the Marshyhope Creek.

(beeping) If a sturgeon tagged with a transmitter swims past, it will ping the receiver.

Devices like this collect information all over the East Coast.

[Chuck] We can tell when they're in South Carolina, how long they stay there, when they begin their migration back to the...Chesapeake, when they enter the Bay.

[Narrator] And importantly, when and where they might spawn.

Chuck and other researchers believe the fish start making their way from the ocean to the Bay in the spring before spending the summer in the Nanticoke River and moving to Marshyhope Creek to spawn in the fall.

Unusual, because most populations reproduce in the spring.

(splash) Finding a juvenile fish with Nanticoke River DNA would prove it.

[Chuck] They are an endangered species.

That's what I always remind myself.

So the chances of catching one are very slim.

(whistling music) [Narrator] For a long time, researchers thought sturgeon weren't spawning in the Marshyhope.

But one fateful autumn day in 2012, a pair of fishermen, longtime friends, Bill Harris and Randy Rowland, came face to fin with the evidence.

[Bill Harris] We were carp fishing.

We were actually right up the river here a little bit.

Then all the sudden, this fish comes up right here, breaks this rod holder off, crossed my leg, and lands back into here and starts going nuts.

[Randy Rowland] We were astonished.

I mean it was like, once in a lifetime never.

You know?

[Narrator] They managed to grab a hold of the five-foot fish and release it into the water, but not before snapping a picture and posting it online.

[Randy] Once it went on the internet, I got a call from, I don't know if it was Chuck or not, but I got a call from DNR guys.

And they said, "Where was this?"

You know, "What were you doing?"

Because it's illegal to you know target them and catch them.

[Bill] Who's going to believe he jumped in the boat?

[Randy] Right.

[Narrator] But Chuck did believe them.

And in September, the team is back on the water.

Their sights this time set not on a juvenile, but on something bigger.

[Ashley Horn] All right.

[Narrator] Any adult sturgeon will do, but catching a female, especially an untagged pregnant female, that would be a coup.

[Ashley Horn] So right now we are setting gill nets.

This is a 12.5 inch mesh net.

[Narrator] The crew sets a series of four weighted nets stretching from one side of the shore to the other.

[Ashley] I'm hoping that my net makes it all the way across the channel.

[Narrator] Ashley Horn has been working with Chuck on this project for seven years.

[Ashley] We have to check the net every hour.

So we put the first net out at 8:21.

At 9:21, we'll go back to the first net and start picking them up and seeing if we catch any fish.

So now we just wait.

We wait around all day for one fish.

[Narrator] To successfully reproduce, sturgeon need a gravelly bottom on which to lay their eggs.

Sediment runoff caused by development and agriculture can ruin prime spawning grounds.

The Marshyhope, especially upstream, is about as pristine a habitat as is possible these days.

When it's time to check the net, no luck.

But a quick check of one of the acoustic receivers shows the fish are here.

[Chuck] Looks like we have two fish that are currently here as of 6:30 this morning.

[Narrator] The sun moves across the sky and the fish, if they're here, continue to evade the nets.

[Chuck] We set 11 nets today, fished both tides, incoming and outgoing tide, and didn't catch any sturgeon.

So we're going to call it quits for today and come back tomorrow.

We did see one jump near the net.

Definitely here.

[Narrator] A new day brings fresh optimism, an outlook that soon pays off.

[Chuck] Bingo.

Now, you got the rope.

[Ashley] That's a big fish.

♪ ♪ [Biologist] I need something where I can get her tail up.

[Chuck] Don't let her go.

(Chuckles) There we go.

[Narrator] Now that they've caught a fish, time is of the essence.

The team only has an hour to process it.

[Chuck] All right, you can hook them up.

[Narrator] Before they must let it go and start checking the other nets.

[Ashley] The Floy tag number is 106.

We apply three tags, a Floy tag, a PIT tag, and an internal acoustic transmitter.

Right now, I'm just making the incision to put the transmitter in.

This is definitely a female.

There's eggs.

[Chuck] Yep, there they are.

[Ashley] That's what their eggs look like.

[Narrator] Female Atlantic sturgeon can lay anywhere from 400,000 eggs to 2 million.

[Ashley] Putting the transmitter in.

We make sure that it's up in there.

[Narrator] Since this is a new fish, the transmitter will allow DNR to track her.

Once she's stitched up, they take a DNA sample.

[Ashley] And this will go to a sturgeon DNA repository.

[Chuck] 2100.

[Narrator] Time is running out.

A quick check of her length, nearly seven feet, and weight, 130 pounds, and she's back in the water.

Sweet success.

[Chuck] There we go.

[Narrator] Bringing them one step closer to understanding these captivating creatures.

The payoff is worth the long days.

[Chuck] How many times do you see a fish that size in a small creek like this?

They're dinosaurs.

You get to play with dinosaurs.

♪ ♪ [Narrator] Tucked away just a few miles outside of Baltimore exists a quiet refuge from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Running 32 miles along the Patapsco River, Patapsco State Park consists of a serene 200 miles of trails winding up and down the river valley.

And while the symphony of the forest may lull some visitors into an environmental zen, (didgeridoo plays in background) one subset of users leans a little more rock and roll.

♪ (rock and roll music) ♪ Six months ago, Chris Mead fell off his bike and broke his collarbone.

He's been sidelined from mountain biking ever since.

This is his first day back on the trails.

[Chris Mead] For whatever reason, this was my introduction back into testing my collarbone.

See, I'm like, getting readjusted and I was- I can't help myself, so I'm bombing some hills and like, well I guess we'll figure it out.

(laughs) Still getting warmed up.

[Man] Ready.

Go.

[Narrator] This is Trail Fest at Patapsco State Park.

Hundreds of mountain bikers grind their gears on a 28-mile fun ride through the woods.

[Biker 1] Yeah, Patapsco Trail Fest.

Woo!

[Biker 2] Woo-hoo!

[Chris] These are definitely some of the more technical trails for sure.

Lot of rocks, lot of roots.

Good bit of hills.

It's a lot up and down.

There's a few nice flowy, fast sections, but even those have rocks and roots and stuff sticking out and trees you're trying to avoid.

[Narrator] The crowds rush to Patapsco because it's known for some of the best trails on the East Coast.

Riders call it the Moab of the East.

And Moab, Utah is known for some of the best mountain biking terrain in the world.

[Biker 3] Patapsco is one of the best places to ride in the mid-Atlantic.

Probably one of the best places to ride in the country.

We have a lot of different terrain.

Some of it can be very technical, some of it's very accessible.

It is something that I would literally travel from another state to come to.

(rustling) [Narrator] Patapsco boasts one of the largest trail systems on the East Coast.

A staggering 240 miles of natural surface trail runs up and down the river valley.

Something for all levels.

[Dave Ferraro] 18-5 at Patapsco is not like 18-5 on some other trail system.

[Narrator] Dave Ferraro is the executive director of the Friends of Patapsco and an avid mountain biker.

[Dave] Make sure you're prepared.

Patapsco's no joke.

These are difficult backcountry-feeling trails.

It's a very deep stream valley.

So the trails are, I think a lot of people are surprised.

[Biker 4] Ah!

Shrubbery.

[Dave] You'll be in your backyard, you can be at Wegmans in Columbia, and in 15 minutes you're having this backcountry experience.

[Eric Crawford] What we're doing here today is something called full-bench trail work.

Okay?

We uh, there's something called half bench and full bench.

Because we have horses that put a lot of pressure down in a very small space, we have to build full-bench trail.

[Narrator] A good ride doesn't just happen.

A lot of thought and planning goes into making trails fun and sustainable.

[Eric] All the way across.

If you've got a hole like this guy here, you can bring a little soil back up in there.

You'll notice this in good trail design today.

A lot of times if you're going down a steep hill, that trail design will actually aim for big trees.

So if you're on a bike or you're running, somebody at speed, we're going to cause, it's a little bit of a psychological trip, we're going to cause you to look at that tree rather than the trail.

That's going to slow you down a little bit so that if somebody's coming uphill, you don't run over them.

Right?

[Narrator] Eric Crawford is the president of the Friends of Patapsco State Park.

[Eric] ...and that's what that's for.

[Narrator] He also works with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to design the trails.

[Eric] And I want to make sure that people are on the right side of the flags and they're creating drainages appropriate to what we're doing.

So like right behind you, there's a grade reversal there.

I don't want to see that disappear as the guys are digging in it.

We don't want this root to live here like this because that is going to impact the tree much more than just cutting the root.

I'm also looking at the corridor right now to make sure that it's nice and wide open because we do have you know, all sorts of different types of uses here.

We have to make sure that corridor is nice and wide.

[Narrator] The goal of trail design is balancing fun, safety, and sustainability, making a rideable trail that manages both water runoff and speed.

As much as possible, they try to build trails perpendicular to water runoff using dips and valleys in the trail as a way to dump off any water that does end up on the path.

Trails have to be accessible to all types of outdoor enthusiasts, not just mountain bikers.

[Eric] Good, fun trail is much more sustainable than something that goes straight down the fall line.

So what we're doing benefits both arguments.

[Narrator] It takes more work than ever to keep up the trails.

Outdoor activities exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And mountain biking is one of the fastest-growing outdoor sports.

And getting into it isn't cheap.

A good entry-level bike costs at least $1,000, maybe more.

[Eric] Borrow a bike, rent a bike, find some friends that like to ride, and then see if you can join them and get your toes wet and see if it's something that you like.

It's not real hard to do, it's just you got to get out there and do it.

[Narrator] But once they catch the bug, many riders stick with a sport as long as they can physically handle it.

Steve Vilnit and Rob Price have been riding for decades.

[Steve Vilnit] People don't realize how close we are to the city and we still have this wilderness.

[Rob Price] I looked for a sport that was outdoors and adventurous and got me some exercise.

And I happened to live right near Patapsco Park and it was perfect.

It gave me everything that I was looking for and it was right in my backyard.

[Steve Vilnit] We'll see people that you know all the time.

And I'll go on a ride and I will see people that I haven't seen for years.

I'll see people that I'll see every week.

And then I'll run into people who will say, "Hey, I'm here from Pennsylvania."

Or, "I read about this place online and I came up here from West Virginia."

And that's pretty cool.

[Narrator] For some of them, the allure of Patapsco is so strong they've chosen to put down roots here.

[Steve] One of the amazing things I've seen back here is that guys who used to ride their bikes when they were in their early twenties are now buying houses in their thirties and forties and they're literally buying houses around the perimeter of the park.

And I just think that's amazing that the park has become that important to them and the ability to ride out their door, that they will make an investment in the community.

♪ ♪ [Narrator] Investing in the community and working to improve access to the serenity of the woods they love so fellow mountain bikers like Chris can enjoy the trails.

[Woman] She's been pretty competitive.

[Narrator] A symbiotic relationship, rocking and rolling through the quiet symphony of the forest.

♪ ♪ Like an ancient giant rising from the Potomac River at Weverton Cliffs, the northernmost peak of the Blue Ridge range cuts across the state.

Its forested slopes steeped in mystery and magic.

[Sarah Cooper] So we're out here on South Mountain, which is in Western Maryland.

[Narrator] Sarah Cooper is a local folklorist.

[Sarah] This area is kind of the hotspot for most of the Maryland cryptids, creatures, and ghost stories that... we all like to talk about today.

[Narrator] Legends that seem to spring forth from the landscape itself.

And few places on South Mountain are richer with lore than Turner's Gap, where tidy farm fields meet the margins of a dense wood and the Appalachian Trail crosses the old National Road.

Here, lone travelers report sightings of a ghostly black beast, the Snarly Yow.

[Sarah] The Snarly Yow is this great big black dog.

People reported seeing it along this road kind of right at sundown or at night.

A lot of people believe that the Snarly Yow is a harbinger of doom, so you see it and then something horrible happens.

And Snarly Yow sightings, I believe the most recent one that I could find was in the 60's or 70's.

[Narrator] And the story might have been lost to time if it weren't for a wealthy widow, Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren, who in 1876 purchased an inn at Turner's Gap to use as her summer home.

Rather than scaring her off, South Mountain's strangeness drew Dahlgren in.

[Sarah] We are inside of Dahlgren Chapel, and this is the chapel that Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren actually had built.

Spending your summers up here, you're surrounded by these people that have these really interesting stories and folktales and superstitions.

And she started to talk to people about it and it inspired her to write about it and kind of catalog all of these different ideas in one place.

[Narrator] A book, South Mountain Magic, full of other-worldly tales of phantom soldiers and Snarly Yow encounters, even a local sorcerer, Michael Zittle Jr., The Wizard of South Mountain.

[Sarah] So we're actually right by Zittlestown where some of his relatives I believe still live today.

[Narrator] The son of German immigrants, Wizard Zittle's spell book is on display at the Boonsboro Museum of History.

Just one example of the many magical traditions and tales brought to the region by German settlers.

Another is South Mountain's most notorious monster... the Snallygaster.

[Sarah] So we're on South Mountain headed towards the Washington Monument.

[Narrator] The original in Washington Monument State Park.

[Sarah] And we are up in this area because this was prime Snallygaster territory.

[Narrator] Just ask hikers Todd Jones and Kim Casem of Sykesville.

[Todd Jones] As a kid when we would come visit areas out here, my father would often make reference to you know, look out for the Snallygaster, it's in the woods.

Look out for the Snallygaster in the outhouse.

And I actually introduced that to Kim and a friend of hers at a state park a couple years ago.

And they were none too happy about it.

[Kim Casem] When we were going into the porta pot.

[Todd] Yeah (laughs).

[Narrator] So what is a Snallygaster?

[Sarah] The believed origin is Schneller Geist, which is German for quick spirit.

Similar to poltergeist, it was something that just disrupted your life.

[Narrator] But over the years, it's evolved into a different beast entirely.

And taking a trip up the monument's dark winding stairs offers one of the best vantages around of Snallygaster country.

[Sarah] So pretty much anywhere over these skies, you would've seen this big winged, one-eyed dragon coming through the skies to eat your chickens and livestock.

[Narrator] That is if you believe the local paper.

Patrick Boyton is the author of Snallygaster: The Lost Legend of Frederick County , and a frequent visitor to the microfilm collection at the Frederick Library's Maryland Room.

[Patrick Boyton] See if we can find it.

It should be right here on the front page.

March 5, 1909.

There it is.

Emmitsburg Saw the Great Snallygaster.

Now, that may seem like a strange headline to see in a newspaper, but papers around the turn of the century were filled with these sensational type stories.

In the first couple stories, it's merely described as having a long beak, large wings, a single eye in the center of its forehead.

[Narrator] And a screech like a locomotive.

(train horn blows) [Patrick] There's another eyewitness you know, a couple weeks later that says, "Oh yeah, and it also had octopus tentacles."

[Narrator] But according to Patrick, these outlandish articles can also be read as a veiled critique of voter suppression.

[Patrick] When there's articles about the suppression of the African American vote, which was a big issue in 1909, and then there are the stories about the Snallygaster going after African American voters, I believe they were using the Snallygaster story as a metaphor, as a stand-in for the suppression of of the African American vote.

[Narrator] The local landscape provided a backdrop for this 21st century fable.

[Patrick] Origin of the great Snallygaster, it's abode is in the bowels of the Earth.

[Narrator] There are no known caves on South Mountain proper, but Wolf Rock on neighboring Catoctin offers a glimpse at what such a cave might look like.

Rebecca Adams is a geologist with the Maryland Geological Survey.

[Rebecca Adams] The rocks that make up the crest of Catoctin Mountain and South Mountain are the same geologic layers.

[Narrator] Called the Weverton Formation.

[Rebecca] This fine orange line marks the top of a sand layer that was being deposited by a river channel around 550 million years ago.

Over time, with a lot of heat and pressure, turned into what we call quartzite.

[Narrator] Quartzite doesn't dissolve, meaning it can't form the classic solutional cave with its dripping stalactites.

But this durable stone has its own way of creating subterranean crevices.

[Rebecca] We're standing in a fissure cave.

It formed because a crack that was preexisting in the rocks, somehow that crack got pushed apart either by ice or by tree roots.

[Narrator] Forming a dark chasm that the human imagination seems prime to fill.

[Rebecca] Caves are mysterious.

Whenever I enter a cave, I feel like in every dark spot in that cave and around every corner that I can't see, there could be a creature there that is as fantastical as my imagination can make it.

[Narrator] So could there be a Snallygaster lurking in the cracks of the mountain?

Not according to the register, which proclaimed in 1932 that South Mountain's resident dragon had officially been vanquished, boiled in a vat of moonshine.

[Patrick] To comment now on the evils of alcohol.

[Narrator] But the story lives on and continues to evolve.

[Kim] I think he's part alligator.

[Todd] Scaly, part alligator.

[Kim] Yeah.

[Narrator] There's an American Snallygaster museum founded by Sarah and a series of murals in Sykesville.

[Kim] Sykesville actually loves the Snallygaster and claims it.

[Narrator] Even a little local rivalry.

[Patrick] I would say if any town can lay claim to the Snallygaster, it would be Middletown.

[Narrator] Though perhaps Maryland's monsters belong to the landscape itself, to the hidden crevices, dark roads, and dense woods which fire the imagination and inspire dreams of magic.

♪ ♪ [Narrator] To stream episodes of Outdoors Maryland, visit mpt.org.

And don't forget to follow us on social media.

[owl hoots] Learn more about Maryland's diverse natural resources at... or download the official mobile app.