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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.
I walked this trail after I moved here and I started out in the Fallsgrove park area which is beautiful. Too bad that after that, you permanently walk next to speeding traffic for the other 8.5 miles. I did get REALLY close to a deer which was kind of cool but scary
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.
Nice, peaceful walk for first mile. Then next to highway for about 2 tenths of a mile. Very little to no shade.
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 .
I recently learned of the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail and can't believe I've lived around an hour away from it most of my life and had never heard of it before. I walked the first 2.5 miles and will finish the trail in segments later this year. Very popular with bicyclists, walkers, dog walkers, families, seniors, you name it. Best of all, the trail passes through historic towns that most folks would never stop and visit. A true game waiting to be discovered or rediscovered.
Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful! Serene and peaceful trail with a lot of beautiful nature to see. Bring your camera.
A friend of mine and I cycled from Rock Creek to this trail today. It was really nice and a big surprise to me considering I grew up nearby but moved out of the area 25 years ago. It’s a little hilly and the boardwalks are super slick if it’s rained, but they’re awfully pretty.
2 nice bridges and lots of rest areas. There is a lot of chalk that comes up from the trail I just did it on a 100 degree day. That was a mistake. It looks like they added new parking spots. I recommend it
This is one of my favorite trails in the area, it's safe and many of the walkers are friendly.
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