A trail at the back of the hotel! But getting into Baltimore was tough.
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.
Continue reading “Day 3 of biking from Philadelphia to DC: 42 miles of trail and then….”Baltimore has a trail system that gets cyclists downtown, around the inner harbor and then south using the Jones Falls Trail, the Fallsway, the Gwynns Falls Trail, the Middle Branch Trail, the BWI Trail and the B&A Trail.
I understand more about why Baltimore is a bicycle-friendly community and Maryland is ranked seventh among the states for bike-friendliness by the League of American Bicyclists.
Baltimore has figured out a trail system that gets cyclists downtown, around the inner harbor and then south. That’s pretty amazing for a large city.
It’s not always pretty and it could use some better signage in spots, but given that the trails (multi-use paths, sometimes just wide sidewalks, sometimes out-of-the-way roadways, like the one past an incinerator, and switching from side to side of the road in spots) came after the city, it’s impressive how officials got the Jones Falls Trails to connect to the Fallsway to the Gwynns Falls Trail to the Middle Branch Trail.
And it’s doing more. It looks like this federal grant for bike-ped infrastructure in South Baltimore will improve the East Coast Greenway as well.
While we didn’t see Camden Yards, we did see the stadium where the Ravens play (photo courtesy of Melinda):
And once we were out of Baltimore County and in Anne Arundel County, we were on part of the 11-mile BWI Trail that loops around BWI airport and connects to the 13.3-mile Baltimore and Annapolis Trail, a straight line of asphalt that got busier and busier as we got closer to Annapolis. And an ice cream shop or two along the way. Bliss!
But Annapolis, what were you thinking when you put the World War II memorial on a large grassy section between two northbound and two southbound lanes of traffic? How accessible to visitors is that?
No part of the story of the Star-Spangled Banner is too small for Baltimore to honor.
We didn’t go to Fort McHenry, but we did find this in downtown Baltimore:
Clearly no part of the story of the Star-Spangled Banner is too small for Baltimore to honor.
Riding a horse on a state road and on the BWI Trail.
What we saw on the BWI Trail on Wednesday:
The light rail tracks are behind me, and roads for cars aren’t far away. Then there’s a bunch of us on the trail.
We first came across this young woman and her horse on Maryland 170 (also known there as North Camp Meade Road) as we all had to cross a not-busy on-ramp to Interstate 695. When we came across her the second time, she said she had taken the horse to her house about a 30 minute walk away – just because – and was now taking her back to the stable.
No stranger than our group riding 325 miles, I guess.
When things go wrong, you sometimes get lucky.
(Finally catching up on the blog after a few late nights…)
When things go wrong, you sometimes get lucky.
I headed out of Towson with two other riders. One had checked his tire pressure that morning and it was really low. So he pumped up the tires to the maximum amount listed on the tire sidewalls.
Bad idea. The tires, it turned out, were old and cracking (but somehow not spotted by the bike shop that did the pre-ride check). We were just a couple of miles into the ride when one blew. Not badly, but there was a cut on the sidewall, and the inner tube had a puncture.
So we pulled over and were just starting to haul out the tools when a guy biked by in the other direction. And as many cyclists do when they see someone pulled over, he called out to see if we were OK or needed anything.
Amazingly, the two guys said we’re not sure. (First clue that I probably have more experience fixing flats than this pair.)
So Ross hit the brakes, came over and took charge. Turns out he’s a bike mechanic (and full-time student and on a local racing team), and he diagnosed the problem behind the flat in an instant. This bike clearly needed new tires if it was going to get its rider to Fredericksburg. Ross got the bike rideable and we headed to the shop where he works (which wasn’t supposed to open for at least another 90 minutes). Between him and Mike, we were back in business pretty quickly. Better yet, we were only a few blocks off the East Coast Greenway route.
So thanks, Twenty20 Cycling!
Exploring by bicycle 