September 13, 2020
We drove from Renick, WV to Cumberland, Maryland yesterday. Still have some miles to finish in WV and will catch those on our way headed home. Our trip north to Cumberland was on winding, sometimes steep and sometimes narrow roads. No freeways headed in this direction.
Today we road the Western Maryland Rail Trail starting at the western end at the Little Orleans trailhead. This was the nicest trailhead parking area we have seen in all our travels. There were nice big RV parking spaces. No squeezing between cars and parking half on the grass here. Hoping rest of Maryland is as accommodating.
The rail trail parallels the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath. The unpaved towpath runs 185 miles from Cumberland, Maryland to Georgetown in Washington, D.C. There are 9 connections to crossover between the towpath and the railtrail.
We rode a few miles on the towpath to connect a gap in the rail trail. The rail trail was asphalt and so nice to ride. It had been awhile since we’ve ridden on asphalt – what a welcome change.
We could see people canoeing on the Potomic River through the trees. After the leaves fall the views of the river should be beautiful.
We road out 15 miles and when it began to rain we headed back. It wasn’t a downpour like we experienced in WV but we were wet! There were lots of wet bikers today.
Tomorrow we finish the WMRT starting from the eastern end. We are spending the night in Hagerstown only about 20 minutes from the trailhead.
