Tour De Patapsco - Day 2 - Avalon, Glen Artney, Hilton, Orange Grove

Avalon, Glen Artney, Hillton, Orange Grove

This ride really incorporates most of the “Catonsville” side of Avalon (i.e. Avalon, Glen Artney, and Hilton). It also hits some trails we had not hit in ride one in the Orange Grove area. This one has a couple of pretty gnarly down hills in Soapstone, drugs, and bike buster, but all 3 also have easier ways down around them which can be taken. Expect to go up and down a lot this 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. We will meet at Patapsco Bikes in Elkridge for this ride.

What’s the Terrain? This ride will have some of the bigger hill climbs in “Avalon” on it so be prepared for those. Like all of Patapsco, those climbs do repay with some fun downs. Also, this route has rock gardens, pretty steep / technical downhill sections, as well as a bunch of flow. Due to the terrain and hills, I’d say this an intermediate ride for both skills and fitness, and ask that you ride at your own pace. This one, I feel like the front of the pack will be ripping through the tech sections and down hills but I will also be able to provide alternatives to the more technical downs.

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 two will be 17.6 miles and 2,122’ feet of climbing. Similar mileage to day one, but much more elevation. Due to the terrain, the front of the pack will be moving pretty good on this ride (i.e. 8 to 9 mph). 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? It’s fun. We have about a one mile flat road ride to the main part of the park and head toward the lost lake via gunned, then head up vineyard, and then down soapstone, then up starstruck all the way up to the park and ride. We then head down allstars, and head over to bike buster where we will have a little hike a bike up, and then we are on Santee, but head over to CCBC for the newly built trails, and then head all the way to Sawmill, then down drugs, heading back the other side via bloede, and then down Bike Buster, then finishing with ridge and captain john back.

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/3309658309067415798

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.