Rail-Trails Mid-Atlantic: The Definitive Guide to Multiuse Trails in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia

By Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

• Popular, proven format: the previous edition (9780899977959) sold about 17,000 copies, strong numbers for a region-specific title


• Official guide from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy


• 57 of the best rail-trails and multiuse pathways across Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia


• New edition fully updated in full color, with plenty of photographs


• Detailed maps for each trail, plus driving directions to trailheads


• Icons indicating the activities each trail can accommodate


• Succinct descriptions written by rail-trail experts

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilderness Press
• Release date: Jun 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781643590868

Book preview

Delaware

New Castle’s Battery Park Trail traces the Delaware River shoreline.

Joe LaCroix

1 Battery Park Trail

County

New Castle

Endpoints

Battery Park at Delaware St., 300 feet south of The Strand (New Castle); 0.5 mile southwest of Deemers Beach (New Castle)

Mileage

1.7

Type

Greenway/Non-Rail-Trail

Roughness Index

1

Surface

Asphalt

A 19th-century railroad ticket office sits near the entrance to Battery Park.

Joe LaCroix

New Castle’s Battery Park Trail begins in its eponymous park and extends 1.7 miles along the Delaware River. Battery Park is adjacent to Historic New Castle, a charming downtown area with parks, amenities, shops, and restaurants. The trail is also part of the larger East Coast Greenway, a growing network of multiuse trails connecting 15 states and 450 cities and towns on a 3,000-mile route between Maine and Florida.

The popular park, a draw for residents and visitors alike, gets its name from the cannons once situated there to protect the city from coastal invasion. Another remnant of New Castle’s history is the small 19th-century railroad ticket office near the park’s entrance. Surrounded by a white picket fence, it was first constructed to serve the short-lived New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad and was restored in the 1950s. You may even catch a glimpse of the Kalmar Nyckel, a full-scale replica of a 17th-century Swedish ship (but built by the Dutch) that famously brought Swedish settlers to North America in 1638; it periodically docks at Battery Park as it travels along the Atlantic Seaboard.

On the park’s green, you can claim a bench, a picnic table, or a spot on the grass with friends to enjoy the sights and sounds of the river. The paved hike-and-bike path begins on the edge of the green and heads southwest on a levee sandwiched between reedy marsh and the river. At the edge of the park are several short spurs of the trail that connect to a nearby neighborhood, offering immediate trail access to locals.

The Gambacorta Marsh Dike, atop which you’ll travel, was constructed to carry a singletrack railroad that led from the park’s current location to the Tasker Iron Works plant, which no longer exists. The trail continues past Dobbinsville Park and Deemers Beach, then crosses Army Creek onto another dike before dead-ending. The entire trip is 3.4 miles out-and-back, but if you are interested in extending your run or ride, there is access to the 5.5-mile Jack A. Markell Trail just north of Battery Park; to reach it, take South Street 0.4 mile to Young Street Park.

CONTACT: delawaregreenways.org/trail/battery-park-trail

PARKING

The parking areas below are all within New Castle and are listed from east to west. *Indicates that at least one accessible parking space is available.

Battery Park*: At the end of Delaware St., 300 feet south of The Strand (39.65801, -75.5620).

Battery Park*: 199 W. Third St. (39.6568, -75.5684).

Deemers Beach River Access: W. Seventh St., 0.2 mile southwest of Clymer St. (39.6533, -75.5825).

2 Cape Henlopen State Park Bike Loop

County

Sussex

Endpoints

Loop trail from Seaside Nature Center on Cape Henlopen Dr. at the Cape Henlopen State Park entrance (Lewes)

Mileage

3.3

Type

Greenway/Non-Rail-Trail

Roughness Index

1

Surface

Asphalt, Concrete

The paved bike loop offers views of maritime forest and sand dunes.

TrailLink user James McGinnis

Cape Henlopen State Park, on Delaware’s Atlantic coastline, is one of the state’s must-see destinations. William Penn (founder of Pennsylvania) once owned much of the land that’s now the park, but in 1682, through local resident Edmund Warner, he gave the community free rein to use it for recreation and fishing. After his death, it remained open for public use, officially becoming a state park in 1964.

A trail loop through the state park offers 3.3 miles of paved riding with views of maritime forest, sand dunes, and other picturesque natural settings. In the spring, the Cape is also a stopping point for thousands of migrating birds, and horseshoe crabs lay their eggs on the bayside beaches, providing a food source for the birds. The trail is relatively level, except for two steep sections: one on the approach to the Fort Miles Historic Area on the southeast section of the loop, and the other just west of the campground.

Begin your Cape Henlopen State Park Bike Loop adventure at the Seaside Nature Center, where you’ll find parking, restrooms, and displays on the area’s fascinating wildlife. Heading east from the nature center, you’ll cross a park road in 0.5 mile and see a sign for the bathhouse. Here, you’ll have access to a coastal swimming beach, a food concession, and restrooms.

In another 0.5 mile, you’ll enter the Fort Miles Historic Area and see the remnants of a military base hastily constructed in the early days of World War II to help protect the East Coast from the potential invasion of German forces. The grounds include an orientation building, several barracks, and a fire-control tower that would have located enemy ships and coordinated attacks against them. That history is recounted in a refurbished gun battery that now serves as a museum.

Just west of the Fort Miles parking lot, you’ll cross Dune Road and see the observation tower, where visitors can climb a spiral staircase for panoramic views of Delaware’s Cape Region. Rounding out the bottom of the loop, you’ll travel through a pleasantly wooded section and, in 0.6 mile, reach the historical Fire Control Tower 12. Continuing the route north, you’ll largely parallel Engineer Road up to Cape Henlopen Drive, the entrance road to the park, which you can follow east back to the nature center.

If you have more time to explore the park, there are a handful of unpaved nature trails to enjoy, along with two rail-trails: The Junction & Breakwater Trail sits on the western edge of the park, connecting the towns of Lewes and Rehoboth Beach, while the growing Georgetown-Lewes Trail begins in the park along Cape Henlopen Drive and extends nearly 9 miles southwest toward its eventual end in Georgetown.

CONTACT: destateparks.com/beaches/capehenlopen

PARKING

Parking areas are located within Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes and are listed clockwise from north to south. The parking fee is $5 for in-state vehicles and $10 for out-of-state vehicles. (If you enter the park on foot or bike, there is no fee.) *Indicates that at least one accessible parking space is available.

Seaside Nature Center: 15099 Cape Henlopen Dr. (38.7840, -75.0979).

McBride Bathhouse*: Cape Henlopen Dr. and Post Road (38.7857, -75.0897).

Fort Miles Historic Area: Dune Road, 0.7 mile south of Cape Henlopen Dr. (38.7771, -75.0919).

3 Georgetown-Lewes Trail

County

Sussex

Endpoints

Ingramtown Road and S. King St. (Georgetown); Airport Road, 0.4 mile southeast of Lewes Georgetown Hwy. (Georgetown); Cool Spring Road and Lewes Georgetown Hwy. (Milton); the Cape Henlopen State Park entrance at Cape Henlopen Dr. and E. Cape Shores Dr. (Lewes)

Mileage

9.6

Type

Rail-Trail/Rail-with-Trail

Roughness Index

1

Surface

Asphalt

Whimsical art delights visitors along the Lewes end of the trail.

Heather Irish

The Georgetown-Lewes Trail is popular for its relatively flat route that runs through tree-lined countryside into the coastal town of Lewes before ending in an oceanside state park. The trail is part of a developing 17-mile trail network that, when completed, will link Georgetown and Lewes to each other and to Cape Henlopen State Park, as well as to Rehoboth Beach by way of a connection to the Junction & Breakwater Trail.

Beginning from its western end, a disconnected segment of the trail spanning 0.9 mile runs from Ingramtown Road and South King Street to Airport Road. Opened in late 2021, this section is mere blocks from downtown Georgetown and provides trail access to residents of an adjacent apartment complex and connections to the Georgetown Little League Complex, the Sussex Academy of Arts and Science, and the future Sussex County Park. It’s also the first section of rail-with-trail in the corridor as it was built along an active freight line, the Delmarva Central