2006 Photos

Gunpowder Falls East Circuit

Last Reviewed: 02/05

Description: This is a relatively easy 7 mile circuit. There are a few steep hills and several stream crossings however, the hills are short and most of the stream crossings are narrow. This is a good winter hike or a trek when you need to stay close to home but just need to get out in the woods for a while. The highlights are the falls at Raven Rocks, a popular lunch spot, and the hardly visible ruins of the gunpowder mills on Panther Branch.

The hike starts with and ends with an unofficial trail, both shown to me by Jack Weiss of the Greater Baltimore Sierra Club many years ago, so make sure you bring the accompanying map and directions with you. The Park Service sells good topo maps of the park but they won’t show these adlib routes.

Park on either shoulder of Bunker Hill Rd near the gate for the Gunpowder Archery Club.

Google Custom Directions

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Trail Notes: Walk back to Collett Dr. and turn left onto it. Pass a few homes on the left and then walk around a barrier. Judging by the railroad ties on the side of the old road and the derelict BTC Street Car you pass on the way, I suspect this used to be the end of the line that at one time ran into the center of Baltimore. As you descend, the road will bend to the left leaving the sounds of I-83 and a nice meadow on the right. Hawks can be spotted in the surrounding trees at times as they search the meadow for their next meal.

Pass the remains of an old farm on the left. Several foundations can be seen. The most obvious is an old silo. Climb a short hill and enter a pine plantation. Faint blue blazes remain on a couple of the trees suggesting that this was once an official park trail. At the end of the pine plantation the most worn trail bears to the right (east) to join up with the Gunpowder South Trail. To walk along more of the river bear to the left here(west). The trail is pretty faint if you can find it at all. Just walk down the hill through open woods, keeping towards the center of the hill as you descend. You’ll notice that the hill is getting narrower. The old trail should soon become apparent.

Arrive at an old amphitheater with wooden seats not far from the river (1.28 miles from the start). Turn right onto white blazed Gunpowder South Trail. Watch the blazes. In a while the trail will split. The old trail will continue to follow the river. If you take this route you will be compelled to negotiate some serious blow downs and a blowout of the river bank. Instead take the right fork up the side of the hill, descending just before I-83.

Walk under I-83 and soon arrive at York Road (0.86 miles from the amphitheatre). Turn left, cross the bridge and turn right onto blue blazed Gunpowder North Trail. In about 0.8 miles reach scenic Raven Rocks, a great lunch spot. In the early spring, Star of Bethlehem flowers bloom along its edges.

Continue along Gunpowder North Trail, ascending and descending the only 2 major hills on the trip. They are steep but very short. At one mile after leaving Raven Rocks the trail ends at a gravel drive. Turn right and follow it out to Falls Road (0.33 miles from the trail end).

Turn right on Falls Road, cross the bridge and turn right again, back onto white blazed Gunpowder South Trail. In 0.54 miles reach the junction with pink (?) blazed Panther Branch Trail. There is no sign but the trail is obvious. There are 2 places where you can cross Panther Branch. There is a narrow rock hop closer to the trail junction and a wide “splash” crossing a little farther up stream. Pick one!

Continue up Panther Branch. Watch for old stonework on the hill on your right with breaks in it. Behind it used to be the millrace for the gunpowder mills. At the fork in the stream the trail and blazes goes right. From here you can look downstream and get a better view of the millrace. Where you are standing probably used to be a dammed pond.

Shortly after bearing right look for an obvious trail that crosses the right fork. Cross here, leaving Panther Branch Trail but still following Panther Branch. You’ll soon pass the ruins of an old hearth on the right. I think this was used to make charcoal which was used in the production of gun powder in the mills.

You’ll cross Panther Branch about 4 more times, most of these are easy rock hops but be careful. The most innocent little rock can be quite slippery and very quickly deposit one on his/her bottom.

After leaving the official Panther Branch Trail you want to keep an eye out on the ridge to the right. Where the top is flat and open happens to be the edge of Hereford High School’s Athletic fields. On the stream, just above this feature, you’ll make your last crossing. You should be able to pick up a trail that follows a trough up the back of the hill and very quickly deposits you onto a nice pine needle, wide road which ends at the edge of the school property. From here, turn right and follow the baseball field. At a break in the fence follow the third base line to the south side of the school. (There is fencing blocking your progress on the north side.) From there follow York Road and Bunker Hill Road back to your car.

Printable/Downloadable Map

View 3-D Map!

Zipped National Geographic. TOPO! GPS and Universal GPX Files

GPS text File for Non-TOPO! Users

Printable/Downloadable Directions and Trail Notes

Critique this outing

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Name: Matt Hike: Gunpowder Falls East
Date: 7/13/2008 Rating: 4

Critique: Headed out to the start of this hike a little late on a Sunday at about 3:30pm. I downloaded the gpx data from the hike description and loaded it onto my Garmin 60CSx. The hike up to the bridge at falls rd was sunny and humid. There were a bunch of storm clouds rolling in and just before the road it started to rain. Luckily I was sort of training with a full pack on so I grabbed the tarp to my tent and 4 of us huddled underneath it until the nasty storm passed. The bridge at falls rd is under construction, but there is a footbridge made of 2 steel i-beam girders that you can walk across. It gets a little bouncy once you get halfway, so one person at a time crossing wouldn't be a bad idea. Due to the heavy rain, the remaining trails were wet, muddy, and full of puddles. The stream crossings over Panther Branch were a little more difficult because the water level rose a couple inches due to the rain. Some spots were muddy enough to cause a couple falls. Overall it was a cool hike. I'd do it again. Here is a link to my GPS data: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6240089

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Name: Rob Hike: Gunpowder Falls East
Date: 07/23/07 Rating: 4

Critique: Just finished this hike about an hour ago. Nice hike. Parts of trail along Gunpowder North trail are becoming overgrown so more people should try this hike.

Trail notes:
1. At the end of the pine plantation when the trail apparently hooks to the right then ends, keep heading downhill as stated in trail notes keeping between the downhill slope on both sides of you. Eventually, the wooden seats will appear (at first they looked like a steel guard rail, you may even see the rooftop of a structure to your left at the bottom of the hill).
2. Immediately past the wooden seats/benches, the white blazed is on the right. DON'T go across the footbridge straight ahead. This also looks like it may have overgrown at some point as the only way I noticed it was it appeared that the area between the benches and the trail had been mowed.
3. On the white blaze just past the split where it is noted about the river blow downs, towards the top of the hill, it appears that the either continues straight uphill and/or to the left. There is a blaze at the intersection. Bear left.
4. After crossing the York Rd. bridge, there is a town sign for Wiseburg and the guardrails on both sides are open just enough to walk through on both sides. There is even a blue blazed post sign for Gunpowder trail on your left but no sign to the right. Take the right into the guardrail opening and there are some rocks (for runoff into the stream?) You'll know you're back on the trail if the bridge and the stream are on your right side. Also, the trail here for the first few yards is not quite clear but if you drop down the hill towards the stream you'll eventually see the trail ahead.
5. At this point and until you get to Falls Road, there are several short stretches of the path that have become overgrown. Just basically keep the stream on your right until you get to Falls Road.
6. After crossing Falls Rd. bridge and heading in the opposite direction on Gunpowder South trail, the Panther Branch trail is now blazed blue. Before crossing Panther, you can see blue blazes on tree just on the other side, and as you cross Panther, you will find a trail marker for Panther also showing Panther blue to the left up the hill and Gunpowder white continuing along the stream.
7. Just after heading uphill to the left on Panther Branch trail, the trail switches back in the opposite direction and continues along the Panther Branch stream on your left.
8. At one point, one of the Panther Branch crossings has two blue blazes on a tree and a tiny sign (about the size of a postcard) which states that "horse trail" goes off to the left and the hiking trail continues to the right (keeping Panther Branch stream on one's left).
9. Between this last point and up to the last Panther Branch crossing, it appears that due to several downed trees that the hiking path could be on either side of the stream. I would cross the stream at one point, see the trail starting to become overgrown and look on the other side and kind of see where a trail could have previously been. There were even two points while keeping Panther Branch stream on my left side, that the trail would veer off and up to the right following some smaller tributaries, but then the trail would cross the tributary and then head back towards the Panther Branch stream again...still keeping the stream on my left. Finally, at one point, there is a "hiker's post?" or a trail marker with the number 11 on the top (basically a tree in the ground that was cut with a saw about two feet above the ground and a piece of plastic over the 11 marking). It was at this point that I first crossed Panther Branch and now had the stream on my right side. Agai!
n this junction is confusing due to the amount of overgrowth.
10. At the last Panther Branch crossing, if the trough/trail isn't quite clear, you'll know you've gone too far if the current trail you're on starts veering uphill to the left and away from Panther Branch. Another good indicator is now you may even see through the trees the top of the baseball fence which is lined with yellow plastic along the top edge of the fence (I had missed the trough heading up towards the pine needle road and saw the yellow topped fence from across the way halfway up the hill on the opposite side.

Sorry for the lengthy-ness. Edit if you wish.

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