Find the top rated horseback riding trails in Aberdeen, whether you're looking for an easy short horseback riding trail or a long horseback riding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a horseback riding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
_146833_st.jpg)
Yesterday was my first time biking the Michael N. Castle C&D Canal Trail.
What a beautiful trail with lots of great scenery. I started late, so I only went from Delaware City to Bear. I will definitely go back. There are a couple watering holes along the trail too if you feel the urge to rehydrate.
We started at the Brillhart parking lot and rode about 3 miles north. Then turned around and rode to New Freedom. Had a very nice lunch at the Seven Sports Bar & Grille -- just a half block off the trail. Vortex brewing is just across the street. New Freedom is a cute small town. Rode down to Mason Dixon line and back. Trail is in great shape, most of it under the cover of trees and sites and historical signs all along the way. And many murals to see also. Definitely recommend the trail!
Great trail. New parking lot off Rt 116 and connecting bridge is under construction. Trail is easy to walk and is well maintained !!
This trail is a few blocks from my house. I have enjoyed riding and exploring this trail since starting to ride a couple months ago.
First time on this trail and it's beautiful!
This is a top tier rail trail for my riding area. I love riding this trail with my wife on our e-bikes all year round unless we get snow or it’s too cold. Plenty of bathrooms.
I have been looking to ride this trail for a long time. My wife and I live about 40 miles west and come over to ride the nearby B&A several times a year. This trail, however, rarely gets reviewed and gets some negative comments, usually about road or bridge closures. I recently noticed several postings saying the trail was open, so we decided to try it, starting in Odenton and riding to Bowie.
Welp, it is nice and we will put it into our rotation, but there are several issues with it and the reviews are somewhat misleading.
First, parking. There isn't any parking at either terminus. Nothing in Odenton and while there is a shopping center at the Bowie end, it's across a major highway (Rt 450). We didn't need to cross since we parked in Odenton, so I can't comment on how easy/hard the Bowie situation is.
We wound up parking at the GORC (Gambrils-Odenton Recreation Center), as directed in the TrailLink app. Before we got there, we saw the northern most trailhead on Piney Orchard Pkwy. The trail runs along it for about 0.75 miles and then disappears. So, we continued on to the GORC and parked looking for signs directing you to the Trail or Trail Parking. We figured that the Trail must run through the Park. So, we looked for cars with bike racks indicating we were in the right place. Nada. So does it follow the road through the park or is it the path running along the road in front of the Park (Strawberry Lake Way) like it does along Piney Orchard? Who knows? We then saw somebody riding on the path in front of the park, so we decided to take that, thinking that was the Trail.
Well . . . that path was a shared multi-use path descending about 0.6 miles to the Trail. It was a difficult ride since the downward slope was about 3-6% and there were people walking their dogs, pushing strollers, meandering with their toddlers and intersections with subdivisions. Trying to keep the bike under control on a 5% downhill to avoid all of that was not easy and a little nerve-wracking. We should have ridden on the road, but we actually thought that was the bike path.
Once we got to the path, we weren't sure which way was Bowie and which was Odenton. My wife and I disagreed so we took her suggestion. :) She was correct, you take the left and soon come to a 2.5 milepost. We did not know if that was marking the distance from the Odenton Trail Head, or the River but we soon came to a 3.0 mile marker and decided we must be going toward the River.
Terrain. Many posts mention that it is a mostly flat trail. It isn't. I would estimate that less than 4.5 of the 13 miles is flat (<0.5% slope). The "flat" parts generally run from 0.5-2.0 slope. Nothing really hard, but my Strava app congratulated me for my longest uphill climb of 0.73 miles at 1.4%. It also contains a relatively steep section just north of the River in Anne Arundel County that seems to vary between 3-5%. Again, Strava congratulated me on my biggest climb of the year, 127 feet in about 0.6 miles. I should note that when we stopped on the flat portion next to the bridge before the uphill, a group of six riders -- relatively fit and in their 30s -- passed us and the leader said to the group, "Here we go!" So, this is a significant climb. But I never needed my granny gear, and we did it at around 10.4 mph.
Trail Markers. As I said there were some trail markers but in general the trail is poorly marked in many places. On the Odenton side, the trail is marked every 0.5 miles until it isn't -- at the 4.0 mile marker (maybe 3.5). That isn't too disconcerting except that sometimes the trail shares road with cars (there are signs) or intersects with side paths and it isn't always easy (especially at speed) to be sure you are going on the correct one. There is also mention that you need to take a spur to get to the bridge, but we never saw it and realized that the "spur" seems to be nothing more than the trail on the PG County side of the bridge, through a parking lot. You then veer right and up a small incline to continue on the trail.
The trail is nice, and I plan to do it again. Oh yeah, we recommend the Hideaway for after ride refreshment.
There is now a paved spur of about a mile in length that goes from the south side of the underpass of 295 to the social security building
This is a decent trail for the most part. Because of the tree roots and rough bridge boards I highly recommend a mountain bike or hybrid with shocks. The asphalt is pushed up in many (over 50) spots, some 3-4" or more. They do not grind the asphalt or paint them to warn riders. There is parking at several trail heads. The Terapin Nature trail head has clean restrooms. The trail is flat with many at grade crossing. Most are private driveways, but some are busy roads.
We rode this mostly shaded trail on a very hot day. Excellent ride with places to stop for additional water if needed. The terrain was not too hilly but there were several places where the trail intersects with traffic. Most drivers seemed used to the crossings and were very kind and courteous. Overall a great day out.
I did this with a friend on Friday 07/17/2026- 7/18/2026 . We rode from Columbia River Center to Riverfront park in E Donegal township on Friday and Saturday returned to the park and rode up to the end at Falmouth . It was an enjoyable ride with the twists and turns and the view of Schock‘s mill bridge and riding between the corn fields . Also saw a lot of cardinals .
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (a non-profit) and we need your support!
Scan the QR code to get TrailLink on your phone
Map Search
