5/12/23 – We’re in Pennsylvania! Glyndon, MD to York (Hallam), PA

Miles: 57.18 Today / Total 1944.5

Elevation Gain: 1814 ft. Today / 38,764 ft. Total

Today was one of my favorite days of this trip for cycling. I’m not including the elevation profile with this post, because it makes it look like we climbed a steep 850 foot mountain, when really we rode up a gentle 1% grade rail trail for 15 miles, then slowly descended the same distance, also on a rail trail with a -1% grade. The temperatures were in the 60s and low 70s, and we were riding in the shade of tall trees for the majority of the day. What more could you ask for when you’re from Arizona, and the temperatures there are hovering around 100?

After leaving Glyndon, we rode through farmland and historic little towns, like Reisterstown, Wards Chapel and Marriotsville, before taking the turn onto the North Central Railroad Trail.

For the first 3 miles of the trail, we rode alongside Big Gunpowder Falls and through Monkton, enjoying a nice cinder and assault path. The next 10 miles passed through White Hall and Freehand, before we hit the Mason Dixon line and crossed over into Pennslvania. BAM! Can you believe how fast we are moving?

In White Hall, we had a rest stop along the trail where Connor set up the popup shade with a sign offering water to other trail users, and a lot of them stopped to chat. One guy mentioned that he used to donate to one of his friend’s MS fund raisers, so I asked him if he wanted to donate to ours. After chatting a while longer, he rode away. A few minutes later he came back and handed me a $20 donation. Very Nice! Thank you for your generous donation, Mr. Sullivan!

And this is where I Segway to my brief but shameless pitch for donations.

In Maryland, the trail changed names to the York County Heritage Trail and continued for another 22 miles, passing through New Freedom, Railrock, Glen Rock, Hanover Junction, and Seven Valleys.

As we continued on to York, we passed through the Howard Tunnel, which was pitch black inside. Sorry, no photo of the inside of the tunnel.  

In York, I was craving ice cream, and there wasn’t going to be any up ahead in Hallam, so I stopped at a grocery store and they just happened to have a pint of my favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor, which had to be eaten right then and there before it melted. I called my best friend Jean and chatted with her, while I savored my New York Super Fudge Chunk, but when the ice cream was gone, we had to cut our call sort so I could finish my ride.  

We stayed at another church, where a couple of BTUSFMS alumni and a couple of their cycling friends drove about 20 miles from Lancaster, PA to feed us a wonderful spaghetti dinner, salad and desserts. This church had so many classrooms that each of us had a private room for the evening, which is always a treat.