Biking the BWI Trail

The BWI Trail is a circular route around the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. We felt up to the challenge of bike the route. Our first task was getting all the bikes onto the back of the car on our new bike holder. We managed fairly well. Our daughter's bike is a bit small for the rack. We've ordered her a new bike that will probably fit better (if it ever comes in).

Bikes on!

The bikes and the family made it safely to the Observation Area south of the airport.

Ready to ride the loop

We went clockwise around the loop which meant we spent a lot of time seeing gates into the airport and following beside the perimeter roads.

Can't go there

Crossing an entrance road

The route is almost entirely paved. Occasional wooden bridges give a little variety. The route is well-marked, too!

Easy-to-follow signs

Definitely going around the airport

One of the sights on the route is a Northrop Grumman office complex.

A business on the other side of the road

Not every bridge is wooden. Plenty of the overpasses are concrete.

A bridge along the road

A bridge over the road

About half-way around the airport (i.e. at the north end), we left the trail briefly for a snack and bathroom break. A McDonalds is not far away and provided some welcome slushies and munchies.

The view from McD's

One hill has a nice view of the airport just below.

Looks farther than it was

The airport closer up

A train came by!

The trail winds past a horse farm. The horses were out. Signs warned visitors not to feed the animals. We saw a couple of horses but didn't get any pictures.

Horse barn

A little further on is an art installation following the aviation theme. We didn't stop to read the sign and the internet has failed me when I searched for the name of the work! I found some other pictures but no identifiers.

Art!

The Benson-Hammond House is just outside the airport property. It was built in the 1800s and is available to tour. We may give it a visit this summer if we can work out a time.

Benson-Hammond House

The second half of the trail felt more isolated from the road, more rural. We liked that a lot. Especially the shade.

A woody part of the trail

The whole trip was a little over ten miles and took us between two and three hours. We liked it a lot and are looking forward to other places to go biking in our area.

Back at the parking lot

The only thing we didn't get to do was take a picture of a plane taking off or landing. Every time one went overhead, my phone was in my pocket and it took too long to get out and unlocked for the photo.