WB&A reaches Patuxent

This may be old news to those who use the PG County section of the WB&A trail frequently but it was news to me since I haven't been to the Race Track Road trailhead in a while. A small 0.2 mile trail has been built along the WB&A right of way from the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission plant NE of the trail head to the Patuxent River. According to Wikipedia this happened in 2005. I took a photo with my cell phone, but haven't gotten around to downloading it yet. It's odd, because there is nothing at the WB&A parking lot to let one know that there's more trail. In addition the gate is closed and I had to ride around it (that may be trespassing) so it was unclear to me if this was officially part of the trail or part of something else. If it's part of the trail something needs to be done to improve the connection between the two. Going off the driveway to get around the gate and riding over two rough pieces of RR track still left in the road
is not very appealing. And a sign or two would be nice.

This new section, combined with new/soon to open(September of 2007?) SW expansion of the AA County section from Strawberry Lake Road to Conway Road shortens the gap between the two to 1.4 miles. Riding down the new section one can see across the Patuxent to the open right of way on the other sign and it's both enticing and frustrating.

In addition I noticed the Race Track Spur, part of the Fran Uhler Natural Area, seemed more cleared since the last time I saw it. I rode down this for a bit, but I really needed a mountain bike for it, as rundc writes "The trail on the spur is not yet maintained. Running shoes and bicycle tires tend to sink in the loose gravel making it tough to run or ride through. Most of the old railroad ties have been removed but some remain," and I already had a loose spoke. I'm also not really qualified to rate a mountain bike trail but luckily others are. Here's a map of the trail. There are plans (though no money as of March 2006) - according to the 2005 Bowie and Vicinity Master Plan - to improve this (as the WB&A Spur Trail), but being in a delicate natural area it will remain a natural surface trail. It could also include side trails to the adjacent Bowie State University.

Comments

[Purple Eagle]

I just discovered the next section of the WB&A earlier this week. Had a similar experience - parked at Race Track Rd and just happened to go north to see what it looked like - and was surprised to find that the trail goes to the river. There was no closed gate there on Wed. morning, but there were some maintainance activities going on inside the WSSC facility.

I took a drive down Patuxent Rd later, and found where the corridor crosses. An interesting set of signs can be seen if one looks to the north at that point - one identifies the land as A.A. County Park land, and another identifies it as private property. The two signs are right next to each other.

[bike friday]

Here's an ACME Mapper map of the AA segment of the WB&A trail as of 2008-august

http://tinyurl.com/63vxyt

The south-most segment is gravel, and I did not see any "no trespassing" signs until I got to the gravel mining pit across the street from the lowest point.

All of the points on the map have comments, just click on them.