9/4/19 – 4.56 miles
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“Country roads take me gnome.”
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It is my birthtoday so I am treating myself with NCR. It’s always a good idea! Mostly empty – especially in the mornings and on the weekdays – and such an easy walk. No elevation changes and the trail is a crushed stone and dirt so it barely gets muddy. Except when there is torrential downpour and Gunpowder Falls floods the surrounding areas.
Continuing our quest to map the total length of NCR we are picking up where we left off about 10 days ago. We park “Piroska” at the White Hall parking – little – lot and start walking north.
I like to take pics of the historic looking road signs along the trail. Gives me a better feel for direction or whereabouts when I am writing the post.
There are still a lot of critters and flowers to discover in the fall so I always keep my eyes extra open!
Leaving the parking lot and walking about 500 feet we have to cross Wiseburg road….be very careful! I have noticed that cars go much faster than the speed limit and lot of times do not slow down at the crosswalk.
Pretty quickly we reach the first mile marker from our starting point. Mile 11.
Here are some of the critters we’ve laid eyes on. Identifying them is hard and I ended up giving up on it.
20 minutes later we are at Graystone rd. which is much easier to cross being more like a side road. The time we have spent walking up here is only realistic if you have a dog (especially Mag) with you.
There is also a bridge at this crossing and Mag longingly looks at the water. I tell him a little bit farther up we’ll go in.
Few minutes later we cross yet another bridge where the old railroad tracks are nicely preserved and visible.
After passing the hairpin curve of Graystone road there is a cute surprise waiting for us. Gnomeland!
There are lots of funny remarks and signs here, take your time to read them all.
Most of today’s walk is thankfully lonely.
Its easier to deal with Mag since he especially loves other dogs but likes to say hi to people too. Even though I always have chicken with me to distract him, it doesn’t always work. It all depends on his attraction to the other object.
Like mine to wildflowers 🙂.
Along the path at one point there is some thick, motor oil looking mud and I make a mistake to photograph flowers instead of watching what is Mag doing….he ends up with mud boots. Looking deeply in remorse….but don’t let him fool you!
Accept the free mud boots the walk is pretty uneventful and we reach mile 12 in an hour.
Even though there are plenty of opportunities to be an arm length from the water there are not a lot trails leading down to it. At this covered picnic table we can finally descend, very close to a natural, small cascade.
“Little falls” – official name of river before it flows into Gunpowder Falls – is pretty deep and stony so I don’t let Mag off the leash here.
About 70 feet away from here there is an overlook to the “waterfall” along with this cautionary sign. 😵
Now we are being more careful where we walk and I keep looking everywhere for copperheads….jeeeez!
At least the trail is arrow straight for like a mile.
We find some less dangerous animals hanging out on pretty plants and one of the mile markers.
It took us about an hour forty minutes but we made it to Frederick road, the location of the next parking lot.
Since I cannot find an actual street sign I just took a pic of my mile counter.
We walk over the bridge, all the way to the parked cars then turn around and head back.
On the way back to White Hall we stop again at another section of the river to cool off and to make Mag happy. This portion is more dog friendly and I let him off the leash to run free.
We spot this awesome house after passing the gnomes and I cannot control myself to not to take a pic.
Mag as always, makes friends with a little toad. I think it’s a Fowler’s toad.
Back at White Hall I would like to point out to everyone the antique store and the conveniently located Post Office.
So yet again my ResQwalk shows 4.56 miles vs. AllTrails 5.2 miles. The only thing both agrees on is the time….two and a half hours.
This was a very fun walk with a few lovely extra curriculum activities. Loved it as usual! Hope you get out here too to enjoy what NCR has to offer!
See you next time!
The Longest Route 
Very nice blog. I live off the trail.
Do you have and photos of the rail line as it was around dairy road?
Looking specifically for the side rails just south of dairy. Appears there was 2-4 side rails
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Hi there! I only have recent photos around the 2019 August timeline and not any particular about the rails. We try to hike a different trail almost every time. Only a few thousand to go….
Thank you for visiting though! Have a wonderful week!
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