The Trolley Trail Beckons After Unplanned Time Off

Sadly, three weeks after I moved to Catonsville, I developed what I think was a stress fracture in my foot, or at least that was my Internet diagnosis.

A 30-minute run around downtown Catonsville on Sept. 18 lead to excruciating pain for the rest of the weekend. I don't think it helped matters when I spent the following day at Great Falls, VA, rock climbing with friends. By the time I got back to Catonsville Sunday night, I was hobbling around.

As a result, my running and climbing have been non-existent for the past two weeks in an attempt to heal whatever this is. I decided to take this approach before I waste time and money, see a doctor and get an MRI that will tell me what I already know.

But before I injured my foot, I had been doing a lot of running around Catonsville. I have run in Patapsco State Park for years, so I'm pleased to just live 10 minutes closer to all of the different entrance points (more on these in a future column).

One place I had never been--or even heard of--was the Trolley Line No. 9 between the western edge of Catonsville and downtown Ellicott City. Credit goes to a fellow Patch editor who told me about it. I live on the other end of Edmondson Avenue closer to the Beltway, so I was suspicious when he told me to go all the way to Edmondson Avenue until it dead ends. Well, he was right. I saw the signs for the trailhead and parked.

The signage was good, although I went back recently and noticed some graffitti on the sign. I'll have to look into whose responsibility it is to remove it.

On a Monday afternoon, the trail was full of runners, bikers and walkers. I was surprised at the large number of people on the 1.5-mile trail. There are benches at some points along with a spur trail up to Benjamin Banneker Park. I didn't take it because at the time I didn't know the length of the trolley trail and I only wanted to do three-ish miles.

Well, after doing what I discovered was a mile-and-a-half of downhill, I ended up on the edge of downtown Ellicott City.

From there, you can run around Ellicott City to get a little more distance or a change in scenery. There is also parking at this end, at Frederick Road and Westchester Avenue.

Another drawback of this inaugural run is it was mostly uphill on the way back. I noticed most of the runners were starting in Ellicott City and running northeast to Catonsville, which made more sense. But it's not a long trail so I didn't mind the push at the end. I tend to be lazy about hills after doing so many long runs along the flat piers around Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

I'll probably start using this trail as a shorter training run--for time and speed--as soon as my foot gets better.

Links to the trail: http://www.traillink.com/trail/trolley-line-9.aspx
http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/recreation/countyparks/cntyparkslist.html

Directions: in Catonsville, take Edmondson Avenue west from Rolling Road until it dead ends at Stonewall Road and Chalfonte Drive.

Distance: Slightly less than 1.5 miles one way. Distance markers are along the trail

Surface: Paved

Most interesting feature: The rock gorge that the trail cuts through just before it ends at Ellicott City.