Sunday Ride Around BWI

Today was another beautiful day, so Kathleen & I went to the BWI Trail, and had found a route through Map My Ride to get to Patapsco State Park. We started about 9:30 and it was already pretty hot, parts of the trail are shady, parts not so much. Despite some technical difficulties (my phone was not behaving, so the map was an issue) we managed to find our way to Patapsco and ride some nice little roads on the way there.
Nice finger in the picture here by yours truly.
But eventually we reached the end of the paved, and then the end of the unpaved trail, and turned around to head back.
On the way back, I was going to shoot a picturesque picture of the river, but my camera was on movie, so all I got once I sorted that out was this.
The park was bustling with activity, lots of families picnicing, and playing in the river, lots of hikers and mountain bikers, and more than a few road cyclists as well doing the same loop we were doing through the valley floor. Right at the edge of the park was this cool old school stone rail bridge, the road is pretty narrow through there, I guess back in the day as long as two buggies could get through it it was wide enough.

After that it was back through the backroads over to BWI to rejoin the trail. On the way there we passed the Elkride Furnace Inn, which was originally built after the Civil War as a gift from a local judge, to act as a community meeting place where people could get together and heal the wounds of the war. Maryland is actually south of the Mason Dixon Line, but sided with the North. This wasn't universally popular in the MD area, as a result Elkridge was occupied by a Union contingent to protect the railroad viaduct in the area from saboteurs. Hence the gift of the Inn. It is now a B & B with a restaurant and catering services.
Then we refound the trail (the route was much better marked on the way back) and continued around BWI back to the car and home. A super hot day at times, but a very nice ride.