We entertained some horses just outside of Monkton, MD, after leaving the beautiful Torrey Brown Trail. June 4, 2018 Today was a long (68 miles) but fun day of riding, offering the full range of scenery from urban to suburban, trail, and rural. We left Baltimore early, the morning cloudy and chilly. Very quickly the Greenway took us through Druid Hill Park on the Jones Falls Trail, a huge urban park and a pretty way to leave the city. From the park the streets morphed from working class urban to suburban. Traffic was busy with school dropoffs but we usually had a bike lane or wide shoulder, nothing I take for granted these days. Speaking of suburbia, I was studying the Greenway map last night and nearly gasped. There, just a mile or so from our route north of Baltimore, was the Lutherville neighborhood where I lived for junior high and a year of high school. So Dee indulged me and we added a few miles to go see it. Amazingly, after 44 years the houses still looked the same. Someone added a screened porch to the back of our Clearfield Circle house, otherwise it looked just the same. Standard split-level in a standard late 60s development plopped down on a former horse farm. The best thing: the gravel bike path I remembered behind our house, the former carriage lane to the old farmhouse, is still there. It’s paved now, a proper greenway. In those awkward junior high years, my bike was my escape and that path was my escape route. It’s funny to think of it as my first greenway. The bike path behind my old house in Lutherville We rode on still north, then turned east and came to our favorite segment of the day: the Torrey C. Brown Trail, a gorgeous stone-dust path on the former Northern Central Railroad line. The Greenway follows seven miles of the nearly 20-mile trail, much of it following the Big Gunpowder Falls river. We didn’t want to leave; the riding was peaceful and the sun was starting to break though clouds and the tree canopy above us. Dee at mile one of Torrey Brown Trail The rest of our afternoon was mostly rural and rolling as we headed east to Havre de Grace. The horse farms and fields were some of the prettiest we have seen. We appreciated whenever the sun broke though the clouds to warm us a bit, although climbing a few of those rolling hills also served to warm us.
We have ended our day on the outskirts of town at a Super 8. I felt quite sure a Subway would be close at hand for dinner, for Dee, and it was, plus Dunkin Donuts for decaf latte afterwards. So someone’s a happy camper tonight!
7 Comments
Poyee Oster
6/4/2018 05:08:48 pm
What a nice treat after a tough ride yesterday. I hope we have two happy campers tonight. Sweet dreams 💜
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Lisa
6/4/2018 05:15:22 pm
Thanks Poyee! Yes, a much happier ride today!
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Richard Owen Britton
6/4/2018 06:58:33 pm
Lisa and Dee, I so enjoy reading your daily blog entries. I feel I am with you on your special journey. And you are getting closer to New England every day. I do hope we can have a breakfast together as you leave Salem MA a "few" days down the road. My treat. Blessings on you both for making this journey! Rick
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Lisa
6/7/2018 02:45:17 am
Thank you! Breakfast in Salem sounds great!
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Mary Beth Powell
6/4/2018 07:06:15 pm
Cool! Did you knock on the door and talk with the current owners? Love seeing these posts. Keep ‘em coming! Ride on!
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Lisa
6/7/2018 02:44:20 am
No one was home, which made me feel free to sit on the front steps. So wild.
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Charlie Finnegan
6/4/2018 07:37:43 pm
Great pics! I also feel like I’m part of the journey thru the Blog/FB posts, especially since I’m cycling daily to train for the MS ride this Saturday. So I was also caught in a rainstorm 20 miles from home 2 days ago. Lutherville looks like a nice suburb, must have been an interesting transition to Swellesley, where you also happened to have the only bike path in your new backyard-and a new 🚴🏿♂️ if my memory serves me well... 🧐 After that, your career path was determined.
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