Thru Trail: Stepping Up 10/19

Joe, Posner and others have been rocking the Patapsco Thru Trail ride for a few years now. For whatever rediculous reasons, I've never made it to one of their rides. Nobody showed them where to go, they just figured it out.

With their help, I'm leading (yes, LEADING) a ride from Avalon to (almost) Sykesville and back on Sunday. A few fools have agreed to accompany me with the assurance that they will be no help at all and will not complain about hours of wandering around in the valley that is Patapsco State Park.

We'll be riding from Glen Artney up past CCBC through Hilton, across Thistle Rd, down to River Rd, up through Oella onto the mill race, up the hill to Rock Haven Ave, down to the river again, across the river, under Rt 40 to the railroad tracks across I70, through Daniels then onto the Thru Trail to McKeldin. After Marriotsville Rd, I have no clue where we are heading.

We should reach Marriottsville Rd/McKeldin area at around hour 3-4. I'm waiting to hear back regarding what we should be riding up that way but at least we'll get that far. If we don't make it to Sykesville, this will be an advanced scouting trip for a future November excursion.

The total not-lost mileage should be around 40. It could go above that but we'll keep it conservative this first time out.

Darren's bringing a camera, a GPS and a flare gun, I think... He said something about an EPIRB and a space blanket... If he shows up with a 50lb pack, I'll know how worried he is...

We plan on riding most of the day but here's hoping we are back for a late lunch.

If you want to check out some of the thru-trail routes that others have used, search MotionBased.com for 'Patapsco' and then look for tracks that are 40 miles or more.