Explore the best rated trails in Cockeysville, MD, whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Olde Hickory Village Trail and Farmingdale Trail . With more than 126 trails covering 4638 miles you're bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
We started off at Mt. Vernon and the trail was easy to follow for about 3-4 miles right at the connection to Washington and Old Dominion trail. However past that, it was not easy to navigate as there are a lot of forks and parks that the trail passes, also there are some sketchy under bridge passes that are slippery and also very narrow concrete paths over streams. This makes trail fun, but you have to be cautious.
The description on TrailLink is a bit outdated, as the trail continues past Bluemont junction and past the intersection with Custis trail. Four miles runs alongside W & OD trail for a few miles, past the custis spur. It may even run further than that, but we turned around at that point to go back to Mt. Vernon. On AllTrails, this is labeled as 15 miles out and back.
Perfect first trail ride for our new bikes. We went a little further on the trail to do 2.9 miles both ways. The single hill is a nice touch for the exercise. View of the water was a nice touch as well for scenery.
The best part of the WOD is west of Leesburg, through Paeonian Springs into tunnels of trees, past farmland, ending at a fabulous barbecue place in Purcellville. Stunning in fall foliage.
The friends of the Mount Vernon trail has done a lot to improve the MVT including grinding down the trip hazard, filling potholes, replacing water fountains and more. NPS has also replaced a lot of the bridges and boardwalks, and will be widening and repaving the entire trail soon. be sure to stop in old town Alexandria for the self guided black history tour, or to get a bite to eat. Check out Mount Vernon and the distillery at the Southern end, or cut across into DC at the 14th street bridge. You can end your ride in Rosslyn for the many great attractions! The trail also goes past the new Amazon headquarters, Crystal City, the Pentagon, Arlington nationalcemetery, Teddy Roosevelt Island, and is just a bridge away from the Kennedy Center, Georgetown and the famous C&O Canal Trail.
I was in the area visiting my parents in Ellicott City and found this trail that looked like a good target for a 5 mile morning walk. I parked at the Ilchester Rd end and found the trail head. The trail seems very well kept, 2 of the bridges were new and I didn't see any litter, fallen trees or other maintenance issues. I am thinking the trail must have been recently paved as it was very smooth with no roots cracking and bending the asphalt. A lot of people using the trail and swimming in the river. Great to see so many getting out on a nice summer day. When I finished my walk and went back to the parking lot my dad's truck was not there. My first thought was why would someone steal that 20 year old truck. As I was pondering what to do next, I noticed a sign at the end of the parking lot and went over to take a look. It showed that it was private parking and patrolled by Paladin Impound and showed the address of the Impound lot. A $30 Uber ride and a $280 fine and I got my dad's truck back. I obviously should have paid closer attention to the parking but I feel it is a bit of a trap. The Private Parking sign is kind of a conspicuous location like they are hoping you don't see the sign and do park there so they can collect their bounty. I wasn't the first car parked in the lot, and someone else was parked there when I was waiting for Uber. Anyway, if you do check this trail out be very careful to make sure you are parking in the correct trailhead parking lot.
Rode from Cumberland to a parking area 23 miles outside of DC, camping at four of the campsites along the way. They have been doing a lot of work to improve the condition of this trail and it shows. Weather was perfect, but most sections seemed like they would still be pretty good even after some rain. There was one detour that was a tough push over really rocky roads for a few miles. Other than that, it was perfect.
Enjoyable trail with plenty of shade, river views, communities, points of interest, parks, and services along the way.
As someone else noted, this basically seems like a fairly well maintained access road for the company that owns the utility poles that line the entire route--on both sides of the trail for the first several miles, accompanied by chain link fencing on the river side. The trail is relatively flat, crushed limestone, wide, hot and sunny, with very little shade provided along its entire length. As a staff member at Columbia Crossing visitor center suggested, it would be a fine trial to ride at peak fall foliage time, as it runs directly along the Susquehanna and you could enjoy the colors on its opposite bank of trees for the first 10 miles or so. But to my taste, there's little reason to continue beyond that unless you're just trying to get your mileage in. Well before the Martic Forge trestle the trail diverges from the river and becomes a wide, hot, green tunnel with no towns, interests, or services until its abrupt end.
This was a ride done during the day prior to a wedding we attended in MD. We picked up the trail on rented bikes by PaperMill Road and headed north. Some of the surface was muddy from heavy rain but still passable. We had lunch at Monkton Hotel. There was a museum too that we were able to tour along the trail. Would recommend being ready for bugs but overall still a great ride.
We ( recumbent trike & e-bike) headed West from the Kiwanis park. Turned around after 9km as the surface was really tough on the trike. There’s 2 good wheel tracks for bikes, but the trike had to ride partially in the coarse trail ballast. Scenic area with farm views and a huge windmill farm in the distance.
Liked the trail very much. However, I’ve seen other maps that show this trail actually begins on the north side of Rt-50 on the westbound side and connects to the trailhead. Is that portion part of this trail? It would make for a much longer route.
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