Biking on the B&A Trail

The goal of the ride!

The recent warm weather in Maryland enticed me to try out my new bike. Since I hadn't ridden a bike for 20 years (at least -- where did that time fly to?), we decided to start with small goals. A comfortable 2.5 mile ride to -- get this, a coffee shop along the scenic Baltimore & Annapolis (B&A) Trail purported to sell the most delicious breakfast harvest cookies (sounds healthy, doesn't it?), and back.

A venture into my neighborhood right after purchasing the bike revealed that biking up hills was harder than other bikers made it seem. I made it less than a mile away from the house and I was huffing and puffing, out of breath, and frankly a little depressed. So I was nervous last Saturday morning: could I even do a 5 mile ride?


Middle-aged, unfit women everywhere should rejoice! "Granny gear" makes it all possible! And, had I understood how to properly shift the first time I'd taken my bike out, I probably would have been fine. I think the more than 8 hours I've spent since then climbing 18 to 20 flights of stairs a day have probably helped my fitness some. (In fact, my muscle-to-fat ratio has greatly improved!)


We started at convenient parking at Earleigh Heights (mile marker 7.0) on the B&A. When we came to the coffee shop at mile marker 5.5 we decided to keep on going a while longer. The day was absolutely gorgeous and it just felt so great to be outside in warm, sunny weather. We continued another mile or two further along the trail, turning around at a maintenance station, and heading back to the coffee shop for what we thought was a well-earned cookie and a skim latte.

So my worries about being able to keep up with my friend were for naught, although I suspect she probably went slower than her norm. The trail for the most part is dead flat -- the inclines are slight at their worst, so a good trail to start biking on.


When we returned to the parking lot I was no where near as tired as I felt I should be, so we decided to continue to enjoy the day by heading back to Downs Memorial Park, also in Anne Arundel County, to bike the perimeter trail -- a good 5-mile addition to our earlier ride.

Plans for tomorrow? Hit the bike trails again, this time a more ambitious 14-mile there and back ride up to Pennsylvania on the NCR Trail.

Both the B&A Trail and the NCR Trail are former railroad rights of way. If you're interested in exploring rails to trails in the mid-Atlantic region, I recommend adding these to your library.

The first is Hiking, Cycling & Canoeing in Maryland, by Bryan MacKay (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). This family-oriented guide is divided into three parts, each concentrating on hiking and walking, biking, or canoeing (and kayaking). It provides detailed information about the length of and what to expect along the walks or rides, the difficulty, and how to get there.

The second is Rail-Trails Mid-Atlantic The Official Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Guidebook (Wilderness Press, 2007). This guide covers rail trails in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington DC, providing a short description, mileage, end points, directions to access the trails, and a "roughness index." There also are Rail-Trails Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York (2011) and
Rail-Trails Southeast: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee (2006).

I'd love to hear what works for you on your journey to fitness -- please send me an email at daytripgal@gmail.com!

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