Woodbine to the Mt. Airy Tunnel

Today I hiked from Woodbine, actually the Morgan Road crossing on the approach to Woodbine, to the Mt. Airy tunnel, a seven mile walk. I saw two trains. At the start an eastbound train headed for Baltimore at the Woodbine tunnel. At the finish a westbound car carrier train headed into the Mt. Airy tunnel. The only living wildlife I saw were birds and the first and biggest of them was an injured turkey buzzard, which literally fell down the hillside on the approach to the Woodbine tunnel. I think we scared each other. The big bird appeared to have an injured wing, rendering it unable to fly, though it was able to walk.

The other wild animals I saw, at least a half dozen, were all road kill between the tracks, including the box turtle in my previous post today. Not a happy day for wildlife viewing. Also strange was that the Mt. Airy tunnel was the only tunnel I have encountered on the Old Main Line that does not have its name built into the masonry of the tunnel's portal. You can see more photos here.

On the Road Again - Sykesville to Woodbine

On the rail road that is. Picking up where I left off in June on my quest to hike the B&O Old Main Line, I hiked from Sykesville to Woodbine, or at least to Morgan Road, about a mile from Woodbine. Four and a half mile each way. Nine miles in four hours with time to stop and smell the creosote and snap a few pictures. It was a perfect day for hiking; cool and partly cloudy, temperature in the mid 60's. Beautiful! Saw lots of wildlife:  at least a half dozen deer, hawks, geese, a blue heron, cattle, horses, bright colored song birds and even a box turtle trying to figure out how to get over a rail to cross the tracks. After a train passed over him, he turned back the way he came. Here is a view of the old Sykesville yard looking back toward the east.

I parked beside Baldwin Station in a lot on the old Sykesville freight yard, which has some old rail cars. It also serves as a staging area for Maintenance of Way vehicles for CSX. The 29 mile marker is about a quarter mile from Baldwin Station just around a bend heading west. The short Sykesville tunnel is another quarter mile down the tracks. It has two bridges over the Patapsco River, one on each approach. The river makes a sharp bend to the north around the ridge that the tunnel goes through. So, between the two bridges the track is in Howard County for a few hundred yards, then back into Carroll County. After the tunnel there are four at grade road crossings in the next four miles: Gaither Rd., Hoods Mill Rd., Rt 97 and Morgan Rd. about a quarter mile past the 33 mile marker on the approach to Woodbine. I encountered two eastbound trains during my hike and heard the whistle of a third train, headed west, as I drove out of Sykesville at the end of my hike.

I have posted more photos of today's hike at this link, but the pair of geese below, cruising the Patapsco, were too beautiful not to include here.