I rode the Western Maryland Rail Trail on 21 April, 2011 exactly one year after being intentionally hit by a car on an empty two lane road in Pa. This rail trail is absolutely fantastic and NO CARS! The temperature was in the low 50's, very sunny and being a Thursday, there were a lot of people out on it along the entire 22 mile distance. I saw a lot of turtles sunning themselves on logs in the C & O Canal and the paved trail itself!! I started at the Western end and rode to the Ft. Frederick terminus. Very little litter and the trail surface is smoooooth black top!! I really enjoyed the day. This trail is a gem!! Then I visited the Ft. Frederick visitor center. Bought some WMRT souvenirs--pins an patches!! Bud Halpin-- Montour Trail Volunteer

We did this trail in 2 parts over this weekend. We started in Hancock, which is central on the trail, rode the western 1/2 on Saturday and the eastern 1/2 on Sunday. This is a really beautiful trail. It's flat, so be prepared to pedal non-stop the entire distance. It is all asphalt, meticulously maintained and clean. It runs parallel to the C&O Canal Historic Towpath and there are many points where you can transition from one to the other if you wish. You'll see historical remnants all along the way. It was uncrowded and everyone we encountered was courteous and friendly. We enjoyed it immensely.
The town of Hancock is all about this trail and the cyclists that come to ride it. As a waitress in one of the diners where we ate told me, sadly, "it's all we have left". Hancock is a lovely little town with great charm and nice people, but has seen an economic downturn in recent years, losing their industry and their apple orchards, so they are very happy to have the business that cyclists bring to the area, and treat them accordingly.
We stayed on Saturday night at the America's Best Value Inn. We were disappointed in a lot of respects. It was run down, not very clean, there were many things in the room that were broken, no blankets, and for what it was we felt it was very overpriced. The sign outside says "rooms starting at $45" but we paid $78 for a basic room with 1 bed. The only thing I will say to recommend it is that they are extremely friendly to cyclists and don't seem to bat an eye if you want to take your bikes into the room with you. As a matter of a fact, most of the occupants seemed to be cyclists from the towpath. The pulled in in droves around dinner time.
The Park and Dine is a nice place for breakfast, extremely reasonable and they filled all our water bottles with ice cold water.
We plan to go back again before the season is over and do it again, all of it in a day this time. Well worth the drive.

We rode this trail on 9/6/10. We started at the Hancock Station and rode to the northern end of the WMRT, then came back on the C&O canal trail up to Fort Frederick, returning to Hancock on the WMRT. WMRT was nice smooth asphalt and there were a lot of people on it (maybe because it was Labor Day). Not a real scenic ride. C&O Canal was crushed limestone/hard packed dirt, but pretty big stones in some places. Not much traffic on the C&O compared to the WMRT. Very scenic ride--snakes, turtles, deer, river, big and little ponds--and much more shade than the WMRT. Lots of places to camp along the C&O for people wanting to do a longer trip. We opted to spend the night in Hancock. Stayed at the Super 8. Nothing fancy and a pretty old hotel, but very biker friendly. Decent breakfast. Inexpensive. Weaver's Restaurant has a variety of really good food and awesome baked goods! C&O Bike Shop was very accommodating and friendly (even open until 6 on Labor Day!).