Day 3 of biking from Philadelphia to DC: 42 miles of trail and then….

This is the way you want to start a bike ride: go to the back of the hotel, turn right and stay on a trail for the next 42 miles.

If only it had been that smooth the entire day.

For us, the trail meant the York County Heritage Trail, which becomes the Torrey C. Brown Trail at the Maryland line.

We’d ridden the York County trail in 2020, starting at the northern tip. This time, we started from the hotels along U.S. 30 as part of our bike ride from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. One change: you no longer have to pick your way into downtown York on city streets. Trail the whole way! Thank you!

We had discovered some of the fun sculptures on the trail three years ago, but now there’s more, including these metal animals half-tucked into the woods.

We also found a new business: rail bikes, where you (and up to three of your closest friends) pedal on more recumbant-style bikes that stay on the railroad tracks. We did something like this in France 20 or so years ago. Will it take off here?

The Maryland side of the trail is a little different. Narrower, and part of it is paved vs crushed stone. A long downhill, much longer than the climb we had at the end of the Pennsylvania side (be warned, anyone heading north). It’s also much more rural, with no options for food until Monkton (where there also are real bathrooms and where you join the East Coast Greenway, the developing 3,000-mile trail from Maine to Florida).

We shooed away a chicken on the Maryland section and stopped for the gnomes:

And then the trail ended outside Baltimore. Right into a hill, of course. At least it was in a residential neighborhood. Keep going only if you’re really, really comfortable with busy roads (there’s sidewalk, but still…). Otherwise head for one of Cockeysville’s light rail stations 1-1.5 miles away and get to downtown Baltimore that way.

In hindsight, that’s what I’d do.

I remembered busy McCormick Road from my East Coast Greenway ride nine years ago. Back then, I attributed it to shift change at the spice factory. That wasn’t the case this time, and it was still bad. No shoulder. We hopped onto the sidewalk.

Was that a whiff of Old Bay I just caught while passing the McCormick factory? Followed by diesel fumes from a passing truck?

To be honest, we didn’t compare the route that Komoot generated for us with the East Coast Greenway route, generated for free on the ECG website. But in hindsight, it looks like both had plenty of the same awful. In particular, I’m thinking of an allegedly 40 mph road where everyone seemed to be going … 60. And with a hill. Or two. But there’s a bike lane so that makes it OK? City officials and planners, go ahead and tackle Charles Street just south of the Baltimore Beltway on bikes. Let me know what you think.

I didn’t experience that road nine years ago because we had headed to a hotel in Towson. But wow. And it was early afternoon, before schools were out for the day and before rush hour.

I know. Getting into cities can be really hard. It’s easier to stick to rural areas and small towns.

That’s why I so appreciate the East Coast Greenway’s vision of connecting cities. And when the options aren’t great, the East Coast Greenway can only pick out the least bad. Thank you ECG and area advocates for pushing for a feasibility study on connecting the Torrey C. Brown Trail to downtown Baltimore, no doubt using the expanding network of existing trails and bike lanes.

And there are plenty of trails. The East Coast Greenway route goes through Druid Hill Park. We did not; instead we picked up that route again along Jones Falls and Falls Road, where there’s a trail/sidepath. The end point: a downtown Baltimore hotel a short walk from Camden Yards.

Can’t beat those $10 bleacher tickets.

Day 4: We made it to DC!