Biking: the NCR Trail
The Northern Central Railway (NCR) Trail is an old railroad bed that has been converted to a recreational trail from Ashland, just north of Baltimore, to the Pennsylvania line. In it’s heyday, the Northern Central was a busy carrier of farm and industrial products between Sunbury, PA, and Baltimore, MD, with connections to other railroads of the Northeast. The railway also provided passenger service in its earlier days and carried President Lincoln on the way to deliver his Gettysburg Address in 1863.
The section of the railway in Maryland remained operational until 1972, when the flood of Hurricane Agnes destroyed several of the small bridges, and repair was not economically feasible. In the last few years, the NCR Trail has become one of the most popular recreation trails in Maryland. The trail is especially good for bike riding because it’s quite smooth and not very hilly, since it was built as a railroad bed.
In Maryland it follows the Gunpowder Creek, flowing lazily along, with the occassional rapids and even a few falls. One particularly picturesque spot overlooking a falls includes a warning about poisonous snakes. The surface of the trail is mostly packed sand and clay. Along the way are iron mile markers, which reckon the mileage of the original train line. Wooden mile markers reckon the Trail mileage from Ashland to Pennsylvania.
Going north, heading upstream, is a steady, but low, uphill grade. We started our ride at the Monkton station. There are a few road crossings, but the trail is mostly isolated by trees, meadows, and streams. We continued north until we crossed the Mason-Dixon Line into Pennsylvania, where the trail became the York County Heritage Rail Trail. Here the trail climbs noticeably in a long arc to the left along the railroad tracks. Just past the crest of the hill the trees give way to the open vista of the town of New Freedom, which is the highest point of the trail. After riding so many miles through forests and along meadows, the experience of suddenly arriving in a town is like a shock back to reality.
The Pennsylvania section of the trail had only recently been opened, and the surface was primarily crushed stone, which isn’t exactly the best surface for biking (over the years the crushed stone has become more crushed and well packed, making for a smoother ride).
In New Freedom, the Northern Central Railway once operated as a tourist excursion to York, PA, with dinner and theater trains. We continued north past New Freedom, where the trail runs at such a downhill grade, you can practically coast to the next town. While we were merrily flying down the hill, a train left from New Freedom. Just before it overtook us, the engineer blew the horn and nearly knocked Broken Claw off his bike! Wow, that was loud! Anyway, we were certainly grateful for the downhill glide, but we knew that eventually we would have to turn around and go uphill again, and we’d had enough of that, so we soon turned back after another mile or so. We had lunch at the restaurant in the New Freedom station, then we refilled our water bottles and headed back to Monkton. The downhill ride, however slight, was welcome relief. All told, it was a 32 mile round trip, and we were both exhausted.
On another occasion, we had a weekday off together and wanted to go for a ride. Although the weather forecast included afternoon showers, the morning was warm and sunny, so we took the bikes to the NCR. We parked at Monkton again, but this time we rode south to the end of the trail at Ashland. When we got back to Monkton, the skies were still clear. We had already ridden 15 miles, but we didn’t want to waste the opportunity to ride more. We continued north, and just kept going until we reached New Freedom.
While we were having lunch at Paesano’s Pizza in town, the clouds began to roll in. By the time we started our ride back, it was obvious that we would not be able to avoid the rain. We rode all the way back without stopping, in a record time of 1:10. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fast enough. Eight miles from Monkton, the rain hit us with vengeance. Within minutes we were soaked to the skin, with the mud from our rear tires splattering a brown stripe up our backs. Fortunately, we had left our sweatshirts in the car, so we were able to change into some dry clothes for the drive home.