Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Trail
Past the substation, the trail shares the WB&A's right-of-way with the power line and a local street, named Railroad Avenue.
Beyond Hillmeade Road, the trail right-of-way is abutted by suburban development, with the BG&E power line a constant companion.
Continuing northeast, the trail meets a pair of driveways just to the north of milepost 3 before once sharing the right-of-way with a local street, Mockingbird Lane.
Near the point where the first driveway merges with the trail (close to milepost 4), the BG&E transmission line quickly descends to ground level and turns due north, following two more transmission lines north to BG&E's Jericho Park substation.
The trail itself passes to the northwest of the Bowie Golf and Country Club before meeting several other driveways and Normal School Road, a former alignment of MD 197; interspersed with these junctions are two more crossings of the Horsepen Branch.
Protected by a low sound barrier, this portion of the trail is again screened from nearby neighborhoods by undeveloped land.
Past the side trail, the main trail continues northeast for an eighth of a mile, crossing a tributary of the Horsepen Branch just west of its junction with the Patuxent, before terminating at a turnaround near the Prince George's County bank of the Patuxent River.
Beyond Strawberry Lake Way, the BG&E 33kV distribution line is in active use again; several transformers can be seen to the side of the trail, next to an artificial drainage pond.
Past the pond, the trail runs through the heart of Piney Orchard, although it continues to be screened by a buffer of undeveloped land.
[2] Recently, new signage advertising a bike route to Odenton station on the Northeast Corridor has appeared at the northern terminus.
From 1908 through 1935, state-of-the-art electric commuter trains ran along this route carrying passengers between Washington, DC, and Baltimore.
The right-of-way in Prince George's county, parts of which were owned by Amtrak, the state of Maryland and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission was purchased in 1995, clearing the way for construction.
In Anne Arundel County, a dispute over the ownership of the section near the Patuxent River began to emerge as trail construction became imminent.
[12][13] The WB&A railroad ran alongside a plot of land belonging to Buz Meyer, a local conservationist, outdoors enthusiast and trail opponent.
[16] Despite thinking they had bought the railroad, the county withdrew the lawsuit in late June 2001 after a letter writing campaign by other hunters.
[17] The first section of the trail, in Prince George's County, a 5.6-mile (9.0 km) long stretch from MD 450 in Glenn Dale to Race Track Road in Bowie, opened on November 8, 2000.
[19] Phase I started with a 2.3-mile (3.7 km) long section, in Anne Arundel County through Odenton which opened in 2004, linking Waugh Chapel Road to Strawberry Lake Way, both located in Piney Orchard.
Phase II extended the trail 1.3 miles from Strawberry Lake Way to Conway Road and opened in November 2007.
[21] Part of Phase IV, which is not built on the rail right-of-way but as a sidepath along Strawberry Lake Way, was completed by June 2008, the rest to Annapolis Road will be constructed in the future.
Phase III took the trail 1.7 miles farther south from Conway Road to the shores of the Patuxent River was completed in 2016 and opened on June 2, 2016.
In June 2022, ground was broken on Phase V of the project, a new bridge to connect the two counties and two disconnected sections of the trail.
