20 mile Western Maryland Bike Trail

      Last week the 3 day July Fourth holiday gave us a great excuse to spend a couple of days checking out the Western Maryland Rails to Trails path in Washington County.

    This trail follows the old railroad line that once went from Baltimore to Pennsylvania.

  As you can see the blacktop trail follows a shady path most of the way which is great on a warm summer day.

At a number of places along the trail the railroad had to be cut out of rock formations.

One of the nice features of this trail is that it closely parallels the C&O Canal.  You can ride the trail one way and then ride the Canal trail on the return trip.

Riding the Canal trail gives you many views of the Potomac River.

    Along the trail a Maryland Park Ranger had set up a bear display to show us that black bears are common in this area and to watch for them crossing the trail.  He indicated that a couple of bears had been sighted near the spot he had set up his display that very morning.  His display only showed the skin and footprint of a bear.  We didn't see any bears but did see a few deer.

     We stayed in Hancock in the 1828 Trail B&B which was conveniently located at the mid point of the Trail.   This allowed us to do the entire trail in a 20 mile ride each of the 2 days we were in Hancock.  We have plans to return here in the fall when the leaves turn for another ride.

P.S.
      With the limited dining choices in Hancock we found a great restaurant in Berkeley Springs which is only a short 8 mile drive from Hancock.  Tari's   (pronounced "terry's) had the best crab cakes and cream of crab soup I have ever had.  Who knew you could go to West Virginia for great crab cakes.  The creme brulee is supposed to also be fantastic but unfortunately they were out of it the night we were there.