[Chat] Gwynns Falls bike trail article from Sunday New York Times

[WeinsteinM at aol.com]

Guilford Avenue's Halle Van der Gaag appears in this article about the Gwynns 
Falls Trail from the Travel section in Sunday's New York Times.
-Matthew

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/travel/02biking.html?8td=&emc=td&
pagewanted=all

Biking
More on Biking

DAY OUT
Biking 14 Miles' Worth of Baltimore's Gentle Backroads and Mean Streets

Marty Katz for The New York Times
The Gwynns Falls Trail passes through Waterview Park in the Cherry Hill 
section of Baltimore.

By JAMES DAO
Published: October 2, 2005
THERE is a patch of the Gwynns Falls Trail in downtown Baltimore where a 
cyclist can feel dislodged from time and place. After winding past gas stations, 
parking lots and truck-clogged streets, the trail swerves into a waterfront 
oasis where tall grass and thick trees obscure a tangle of elevated highways to 
the east and a Greyhound bus station to the west. The sensation is like 
stepping off sun-baked pavement into an air-conditioned room: all is suddenly cool, 
quiet and calm.


Forum: Travel in the News


Marty Katz for The New York Times
A mural marks the trail.

Marty Katz for The New York Times
Biking near Harbor Medical Center.
There are many such moments along the recently completed 14-mile trail. 
Grandly ambitious, if sometimes imperfectly realized, the trail links eight city 
parks in 30 neighborhoods as it follows the Gwynns Falls stream along paved 
trail, dirt paths and city streets, starting from Leakin Park in western Baltimore 
to the tourist-packed Inner Harbor and ending along the Middle Branch of the 
Patapsco River.
Along the way, it wends through just about every urban vista imaginable: 
silent woods and chattering streets, shut factories and clanking auto body shops, 
historic mansions and gritty row houses, Little League fields and M & T Bank 
Stadium, where the Baltimore Ravens play football.
For Baltimore lovers and urban trekkers, it has proved a delight. "I can't 
believe it's so close to my home," said Dan Andersen, 26, a graduate student at 
the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, exploring the trail with a 
friend for the first time last June. "We've been looking for neighborhoods to bike 
in, and then we found this."
But for casual bikers or newcomers to Baltimore, the trail can be 
confounding. Though it is clearly marked along its bucolic western stretches, first-time 
riders may have trouble finding trail blazes at some intersections. And when 
the trail moves completely onto city streets near the waterfront, trail signs 
and white bike-lane lines intermittently disappear.
"People who don't know the city can feel insecure when they don't see those 
lines," said Penny Troutner, owner of Light Street Cycles and a member of a 
volunteer council that promotes the city-owned trail.
The concept of a greenway linking Baltimore's parks to its harbor dates back 
at least to a 1904 report prepared by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and his 
brother John Charles, sons of the landscape architect who designed Central Park. 
They wrote that Gwynns Falls Valley was an ideal greenway route because it 
offered sylvan scenery "seldom possible to retain so near a great city."
Indeed, development encroached on many of those pastoral neighborhoods, and 
the Olmsteds' idea faded from memory. Until, that is, Christopher Rogers, a 
graduate student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 
rediscovered the plan in 1991. Inspired by the concept, a coalition of nonprofit 
groups began raising money from foundations, the federal government and the state 
of Maryland to acquire land, build bridges and pave the path. Fourteen years 
and $14 million later, the completed trail was unveiled in June.
The biggest challenge was acquiring 12 properties and easements, said Halle 
Van der Gaag, a former project manager with one of those groups, the Trust for 
Public Land. Many acquisitions entailed lengthy negotiations with multiple 
owners. In one case, a bankruptcy proceeding was involved; in another, a driveway 
easement took 14 months to negotiate. And talks with CSX, the railroad 
company, dragged on for years before it allowed construction of several 
metal-and-wood bridges over its tracks.
When I explored the trail this summer, I began my ride from the Winans Meadow 
trail head, the western endpoint. (The city plans to extend the trail a mile 
to the park-and-ride lot at Interstate 70 by 2006.) Easily reached from I-70, 
Winans Meadow - the former estate of Thomas Winans, a railroad magnate whose 
stone mansion is a short walk from the parking lot - has ample parking, a 
restroom and a covered picnic area adjacent to a spacious field.
The trail here weaves through thick, silent forest. Only the distant sound of 
a trombone player pierced the quiet; a finch darted across my path. After a 
brief interlude on a public street, the trail turned onto a one-mile gravel and 
dirt path along what was once was a millrace that carried water to local 
factories. This section has been the source of controversy: road bikers and 
in-line skaters want it paved, while historic preservationists have demanded that it 
remain dirt. I navigated it on a racing bike with narrow tires, but in wet 
weather it might have been treacherous. Those needing pavement can divert onto 
Franklintown Road, which runs adjacent to the trail and is closed to traffic. 
Light Street Cycles, (410) 685-2234, can offer specifics.
Returning to pavement, the trail eclectically circles around Leon Day Park, 
under an industrial-era bridge and past an elegant white office building that 
was once a Montgomery Ward warehouse. After skirting Carroll Park, it follows 
city streets into an industrial area, through stadium parking lots and past the 
bistros of Federal Hill before reaching the Inner Harbor.
Another good starting point is the trails' eastern terminus at Cherry Hill 
Park. Stop along a boardwalk that juts through thick vines to a cliffside perch 
for a marvelous view of downtown. From there, the trail quickly turns urban, 
passing an imposing closed-up glass factory where developers hope to build 
luxury housing.
On two rides - on a beautiful weekday evening and a balmy Saturday afternoon 
- I encountered perhaps a dozen riders, walkers and joggers. Though such 
solitude might be pure joy to some, it is clearly disconcerting to others because 
the trail passes through some high-crime neighborhoods.
The Baltimore police say they have a seven-person unit that patrols the trail 
from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. daily using all-terrain vehicles and bikes. I saw 
only one officer - in a car at Winans Meadow - during my two rides. But there 
have been no reports of violent crimes along it this year, and only one report 
of a stolen, unlocked, bicycle.
•

A View of Baltimore Over the Handlebars
The best place to start exploring Gwynns Falls Trail is on its Web site, 
www.gwynnsfallstrail.org. Begin by downloading a map, which will guide you through 
the downtown sections where markers and bike lanes are not always abundant.
The site also provides good directions to Winans Meadow, the western 
terminus, as well as eight other trailheads, all of which have parking. (The park and 
ride trailhead on Interstate 70 shown on the map will not be open until next 
year.)
For those starting from downtown, the staff at Light Street Cycles at 1015 
Light Street in Federal Hill, (410) 685-2234, can provide advice about the trail 
and points of interest. The shop also rents bicycles.
At Winans Meadow, the grounds of Thomas Winans's former estate are open to 
the public. Nearby is the Carrie Murray Nature Center, open every day except 
Sunday, which is ideal for children. Carroll Park has the Mount Clare Mansion 
and, a short ride away, the B & O Railroad Museum on Pratt Street.
At the inescapable Inner Harbor, there are not only shops and restaurants but 
also the Maryland Science Center. (The city is still working, however, on 
installing bike racks at the harbor, where riding is restricted close to the 
water.)
There are some restaurants, mainly fast-food and takeout places, adjacent to 
the trail at various places. And the Federal Hill portion of the trail is 
lined with bistros and coffee houses. But travelers intending to spend a few hours 
on the trail should consider taking their own food and water; there are many 
idyllic picnic spots but few notable restaurants along the way.
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