170 Miles of Trails

No one knows Patapsco Valley State Park’s trails as well as Tom and Carol Rabenhorst, who personally walked all 170 miles of the park’s trails two or three times during the last three years. Thanks to their efforts, park users can take up this same challenge, due to a beautiful, new, complete trail map that covers the park from end to end, 35 miles of river valley from Sykesville to Lansdowne. The map also features high quality photography of points of interest that are referenced by numbers on the map. Carol did most of the photography and Tom did the G.P.S. work. While Tom creates many types of maps for his work at UMBC, recreational mapping is his favorite. He enjoyed the serendipity of seeing the many faces of the trails through different seasons, which allowed him to stumble across wildlife and other park features he wouldn’t normally see. Tom challenges park users to hike every trail on the map.The full-color, weather-resistant topographic maps sell for $6.00 each and are available at all park offices, contact stations and visitor centers.




This was printed in the Patapsco Tributary vol.1, issue 3 fall/winter 2002. Article by Naturalist Anne Kernan-Edited by Klause Von Kuhn