Find the top rated mountain biking trails in Maryland, whether you're looking for an easy short mountain biking trail or a long mountain biking trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a mountain biking trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
_195617_st.jpg)
Just got done this trail 10/9. Gap trail is a wonderful easy ride. Places we stayed were awesome! Bright Morning B&B, Ohiopyle suites. We stayed in the Karly. It was great! Right off the trail!! Coffee shop is great too. They also have a laundromat. We then traveled to Meyersdale where we stayed in the hotel airstream! Gotta stay here! It was great! Know that if you need to take the train back to Pittsburgh like we had too, it can run late. 5hrs for us. We met so many nice people along the way. That’s what I think of when I think of this trail!
Parked at Carroll Park to get on the trail and I’ll never do that again. Credit to the numerous homeless people gathered around and the guy actively infecting drugs into his arm for not breaking into my car for the 90 minutes I was on the trail. Graffiti everywhere and quite a bit of trash. Once you get to Leakin Park it’s actually pretty nice. I’m pretty new to Baltimore and I’m really hoping it has better bike trails to offer than this.
I decided to park in Cumberland on my way home from a trip to WV and ride down the C&O towpath to ride this trail.
I was disappointed in the state of the trail. It appears as if no one is maintaining this trail.
The path on the Maryland side is now almost covered with encroaching weeds.
The bridge is in good enough shape to permit you to ride across to West Virginia for the time being but it looks a little iffy. If no one is taking care of this trail the wooden planks may need replacing. At some point it may become a dangerous crossing when these planks start rotting.
The tunnel is blocked off so you can go no further than the WV side of the bridge.
I would recommend that riders skip this trail until such time as it is maintained.
We started this path from the Conowingo dam parking lot. We had to move through a group of turkey vultures to get to the trailhead. It was a beautiful fall day and the trail was clear of most debris. There are quarter mile markers. While we were out, several bikers were also on the trail. We took several side trails to the river to see other wildlife and to get some sun. The deep canopy of the trail blocks much of the sun making this an easy stroll in 80 degree weather.
We just finished the GAP trail & C&O towpath 9/20 from Pittsburgh to DC. We took 8 days and our days ranged between 32 miles to 63 miles. Highly recommend this trail. Well maintained, accessible and clean port a John’s, always had plenty of toilet paper and were frequent enough to remove any anxiety about not being able to relieve yourself in privacy. Potable water was available along the trail which we still used a filter just to be safe. Beautiful trail, friendly riders and towns to visit. We rented a full sized SUV in DC and dropped it off at the Budget on Stanwix St just two blocks from fountain starting point. Worked perfectly to get going on our ride without delay.
This is probably the most I could handle on a bike ride. We rode the GAP and C&O back to back like many do in 8 days. It was great fun but the C&O is noticeably rougher, fewer port-a-Johns and very scarce potable water sources. On our 7th day from Williamsport to Brunswick we ran out of water midway and rode the remaining 25 miles without water. Fortunately the shade offered by the beautiful canopy of trees made it bearable. We made sure to load up on extra water on our final day. The mix of loose sand that caught us by surprise & the larger stones on the trail made for a more challenging ride than expected. On the one rainy day we had from Cumberland to Little Orleans, some of the puddles we encountered offered a new sense of “oh dear” as we didn’t know how deep the hole we were riding thru when there was no room to go around the puddle.
My first time on this trail today and I was not disappointed! Each trail has a personality and I would say that the WB&A is the back country cousin of the the more metro B&A trail over by Annapolis. Lots of tunnels and bridges make this interesting, and the steep, serpentine descent on pristine new blacktop going south to the new bridge was exhilarating and frightening at the same time. A super ride out and back. I parked at the Electric Ave Lot at mile 1. The map shows a restroom (Jiffy John), but I didn't see any on my trip today. The closest one starting at the southern end was at the parking lot at 8609 Race Track Rd, Bowie, MD. The splash park did not have an external restroom that I could find.
I just completed the entire GAP. It was well worth it. The trail was in good shape and there was not too much traffic. I’d like to do it again.
Biked from Hancock to Little Orleans and return on August 30, 2025. Distance: 34.5 miles. Stopped for lunch at Bill's Place in Little Orleans and got good food and friendly service. The paved portion of the trail is in excellent condition -- thanks to the Maryland Park Service for recently repaving the trail. The only negative is the 3-mile detour on the C & O Canal towpath around the abandoned Indigo tunnel. The towpath detour is unpaved and has a rougher surface than the trail. The nearly one-mile long tunnel was closed in 2010 to protect a handful of bats allegedly living inside. The tunnel is an engineering marvel that should be seen and experienced by humans. Opening it to trail users would help the economically depressed Western Maryland area. For example, the equally-long Blue Ridge Tunnel in Afton, Virginia, draws about 50,000 visitors annually since it was reopened in 2020.
This is a great trail. Shaded and flat. It could use some more signage, though, to help identify right and lefts.
We started at Lake Needwood which had great parking. The trail is not well maintained. It is bumpy most of the way south. It looks like there has been some attempt to patch the asphalt but the transitions were not smoothed out so many jarring bumps. Also tree roots have pushed up the trail which is not unusual but given all the other bumps it was annoying. Also be aware that from Lake Needwood - it is downhill so if you are returning to the same spot, you will have an uphill climb which is not too bad.
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (a non-profit) and we need your support!
Map Search
