Gwynns Falls Trail

T5 section is a BUST. Nothing but a path of garbage. The website claims the trail leads you to a falls that is Baltimore Niagara Falls, but all I saw was moving water that was polluted (the posted sign told me so).
I’d try this trail again, just not this section. Don’t do this section.

So reading the existing review tells me this is clearly a case of separate but NOT equal. It is apparently a haves and have not’s. If you start this trail at TH9 (MedStar Hospital, Hanover St.) you will have a totally different point of view. From that end of the trail you come to this conclusion.
It is a «usable/​livable «trail» in the same way that SouthWesternUbranaIllionoisTechCommunityCollege is a University like University of Maryland at College Park. I can only say-​yikes-​.
You start out behind the hospital, on a thin strip of badly maintained asphalt, badly maintained, bone shaking, gear stripping asphalt. You pass dismal folks fishing (with visible rats in the water) –I don’t think I would do that. I get it, I have a Biology B.S. I know they share the habitat-​but to actually see them swim by your bobber?
You then parallel the stench of Middle Branch, past a train station and an urban setting that screams out post apocalyptic movie set or thrash rock video. I turned around and rode back quickly to my car, lest some toxic zombie from the old Troma movies leap out of one of the scary blind turns I had to navigate.
Maybe there is a middle stretch through the «tonier» neighborhoods the website (and City Paper) gush about… but from an overall standpoint the part I saw is scary. I say that as a big, strong, combat veteran black guy.
I guess your point of view depends on where you sit and what you see.
Hooray– Brown v. Board of Education

So since last I wrote, I have discovered that, on this trail in Gwynns Falls Leakin Park, there exists this old mansion estate whose railroad tycoon Rebel owners built a fake fort, complete with wooden canon, to deter Union soldiers from taking an interest during the Civil War. Undeterred, the Union army used the orchard for firewood.
Now, this whole space is occupied by the regional Outward Bound Office, and so right off the trail, you can take a hike up a hill past the ruins of the fort (which you can sort of wander into) to see these historic buildings (one of which contains a small museum which, alas, was not open on MLK Day) and find yourself at a small museum, a picnic area, a playground, and even the home of the Chesapeake & Allegheny Live Steamers, where a bunch of tiny steam-​powered trains will give the public rides in nice weather. It’s a really wonderful and weird mix of stuff to stumble upon and explore.
There were also trail branches to a ravine and a meadow, but I haven’t followed them all yet.
There’s just a bunch of really amazing stuff to find off this trail. Highly recommended.