Tour De Patapsco - Day 4 - McKeldin / Marriotsville

This ride is a bit interesting, as we will hit some trails most don’t normally. The less traveled are more used by horses than hikers / MTBers, and then we'll also have some machine built adaptive trail also. For this ride expect some long downs but also some long ups, and some punchy stuff also. Only a few technical areas, but most is not technical. This should be a fun day!

Waiver: Mountain biking is a risky sport, By signing up for this meetup you are agreeing to our MVD Mountain Bikers waiver located here: Link to MVD Waiver, as well as you will need to sign the standard MORE waiver (link to follow).

What’s the schedule? I will give a brief overview of the ride around 9:00 / 9:15, with the plan to roll at 9:15.

What’s the Terrain? This one will have a little bit of everything, but mostly large climbs, flow, and some technical sections thrown in for fun. Nothing too aggressive, but will require intermediate fitness, and we will be in intermediate terrain mainly due to the long, and punchy hills.

Also, keep in mind, I will be stopping a lot, as there are multiple turns on this route and want to keep everyone together. Just be forewarned.

Mileage / Speed? Day four will only be 12.2 miles but 1,350’ feet of climbing. Due to the terrain, the front of the pack will be moving at a moderate pace on this ride (i.e. 8 to 8.5 mph average, but expect fast on the down hills). Don’t be scared of the pace, as we will stop a lot, give people a chance to breathe, and keep this super casual.

So, what’s the route? We’ll e starting at the Woodstock Inn, and then head out Woodmar and then make a left and start climbing up and old horse trail to the horse farm. Once in the farm we will be in a few fields with grass paths, and then back down hill to the last part of Woodmar. We’ll cross the river on marriottsville road, then turn into the McKeldin part fo the park and head up the switch back trail to the national trail day trail, and then down the plantation trail. We’ll peddle falt along the river, and then climb up the plantation trail and then down the new adaptive trail and then head back wood mar back to the Inn.

Here is the Strava Route. There is a button under the title to “Export GPX” for those who want to pull this down for their mapping devices: https://www.strava.com/routes/3309722397723577856

Tour De Patapsco Overview
What is the Tour De Patapsco?
It is 8 days worth of rides throughout just about every part of the Patapsco Valley State Park trail system, where we have minimized trail overlap in an effort to showcase the entire park. We have made the routes available for you to do on your own, or if a group setting is what you are looking for, Craig will be leading a ride just about every Saturday from 4/19/25 to 6/28/25. The only saturdays we will not ride will be trail days and the 6 hours at Woodstock weekend. If you do all 8 days you will get around 116 miles and 13,485’ of climbing.

Could this all be done in one day? Sure, but we wanted this to be more accessible to everyone, so each day will be between 10.5 and 18 miles and will have between 1350’ and 2150’ feet of climbing, but for the crazies, we even have a 93 mile route posted.

It’s just Patapsco. Won’t it all be the same? That’s a big nope! Some may be familiar, some new to you, but each ride will definitely have it’s own feel, as the different parts of the park have different terrain, and trails are definitely built differently in each part of the park. Most people don’t realize that we have a little of everything here, from fast and flowing, to some decent hills, and definitely some more technical stuff.

Okay. What parts of the park are we hitting and when? Well, we will be hitting Avalon, Orange Grove, Glen Artney, HIlton, Rockhaven, Pickall, Hollofield, Alberton, Daniels, Woodstock, and McKeldin, so just about every area where we have rideable terrain. Also throwing in Banneker Park into the mix.

Are the start / finish in the same spot? Each ride will loop us back to our start spot, but we will be starting in many different locations throughout the 8 days. For the most part the routes take us in big loops, where I tried to minimize hitting the same trail twice. In some areas this is harder to do then others, but in most cases when we do double up it will be in opposite directions giving you a different feel of the trail

Will the courses be marked? That’s a no. Again, the logistics of marking 116 miles of trails, and making sure they stay in place over the duration of the tour would be impossible. Instead we have posted these as strava routes and group rides. There will be a lead, a sweep, and probably some people in the middle that will know the route, and help guide / take care of any on trail issues. Not sure how big each ride will be, but if we get too big, we may need to split into groups, and the rides could be extremely slow, so stay patient.

Can we go ride by ourselves? Absolutely. This event is all about exploring the park.

Are the routes available for download (i.e. GPX files)? Yup. I’ve created them all in Strava as routes, and the GPX file can be pulled down from there. I have created separate rides for each day to describe the mileages / terrain, and will have a link to the strava route for that day there.

What happens if it rains? Well, we don’t ride if it’s muddy, so stay tuned to our MVD Facebook, and Meetup events, which is where I will post if I need to cancel a day or two.