Baltimore tips?

[withm]

I will be in Baltimore in the Inner Harbor area this coming week, and will have some time in the early evening to ride a couple days. Any suggestions on a 15-30 mile route(s) that I might try? I am possibly free after 5 on Wed, and after 1 on Friday. I can drive to a ride start, or start from the Inner Harbor area. Since I don't know Baltimore hardly at all, I'm thinking to get out of the city as fast as possible, and of course want to ride through safe neighborhoods...

One thought I had was to preview the "She Got Bike" route that I plan to do on Sunday.

Any ideas?

[Zen]

Maybe look at the Baltimore Bike Club site and see if they have any cue sheets?

[Kalidurga]

If you do rail-trails, the Northern Central (http://bikewashington.org/trails/ncr/ncr.htm) is an excellent one. It can be very crowded at the southern end, so it's worthwhile if you can drive to one of the parking areas further up. I usually go to either Monkton or all the way up to Freeland and ride across the border into PA.

The only other riding I've done in the B'more area is Tour du Port (http://www.onelesscar.org/TDP/2007/theride.php), which went through a great variety of neighborhoods last year, but I don't know if you want to be on the city roads during weekday traffic.

[withm]

If you do rail-trails, the Northern Central (http://bikewashington.org/trails/ncr/ncr.htm) is an excellent one. It can be very crowded at the southern end, so it's worthwhile if you can drive to one of the parking areas further up. I usually go to either Monkton or all the way up to Freeland and ride across the border into PA.

This sounds good... my bike has 700x28 - do you think those tires would be ok on the crushed stone surface?

Thanks,
Martha

[Kalidurga]

I've never ridden anything as narrow as a 28, so I couldn't say for sure. Are your tires totally slick? I assume it'd be ok, the stone is definitely more crushed than chunky. It's much smoother than any of the gravel sections of the C & O towpath. It's more like the Great Allegheny Passage trail, if you've ever ridden any of that.

[7rider]

FWIW, the last ride I did on the C&O was on 28's and it was fine.
Of course, I've never been on the Baltimore trail, so I don't know what it's like.

[aicabsolut]

I've ridden some gravel on my race tires, which I hated doing, but I survived with only a bit of fishtailing. I have heard good things about the crushed stone on that trail, but I haven't seen it in person.

B'more streets are crappy (at least when I've driven there!). I'm not sure about routes, but I'd look for ways to get out of town as soon as possible. Aren't there some good roads to ride over near BWI? Where did I see that....?

[aicabsolut]

maybe i'm thinking of this: http://bikewashington.org/routes/bwi/index.htm

[withm]

A friend in the Balt Bike club sent me this one - it looks perfect for a quick ride and I don't even have to drive anywhere which makes it even better. And it's paved - woo hoo!

http://www.gwynnsfallstrail.org/map.cfm

It goes right by the Inner Harbor area. :)

Now he did not say how crowded it might get, but I'll try it and report back next week.

[Kalidurga]

I've been curious about the Gwynns Falls trail, so I'll look forward to hearing about your ride.

[Kalidurga]

So, withm, did you ride in/around B'more? If so, which route and how was it? Enquiring minds wanna know :D

[withm]

So, withm, did you ride in/around B'more? If so, which route and how was it? Enquiring minds wanna know :D

Sigh. Well I only had 2 opportunities to ride. Wednesday evening I went out on foot to FIND the trail but got distracted... I did eventually find where I could pick it up but was too intimidated to try it at 6pm on a weeknight. The traffic in that area was frightful. The bike path in the Inner Harbor area is separate from the main road, but has 2 narrow lanes for two-way bike traffic. Then on side streets it changes to just riding on the streets. I did not have a printed copy of the route, or all the turns so I thought Friday I would venture out at noontime and really ride it after stopping at the visitor center for some last minute words of wisdom.

Well Friday came, I was free to ride. But it was raining. Oh well. It was a light rain, but I decided to save that outing for another (sunnier) day. I was really disappointed because I had figured with no time limitations I would attempt to ride the entire length of the trail from one end to the other, and back. Well you know what they say about the best laid plans.

Maybe I can schedule an outing to do this ride in the middle of a weekday so won't have rush hour traffic to deal with, and then go to dinner at Sotto Sopra (sp?) on opera night. That would be my idea of a perfect day.

The trail looks like it would make for a nice ride - at least what parts I found anyway.

[Kalidurga]

Ah, shame you didn't have the chance to give it a go.