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The South segment of the Ma and Pa Heritage Trail runs about four and a half miles from the North Avenue Trailhead in Bel Air to Edgeley Grove Park near Fallston. It follows the old MA & PA Railroad corridor through Harford County. Downtown Bel Air comes first. Then the trail winds through the forested Heavenly Waters Park, crossing branches of the creek on several bridges and passing through a tunnel under Route 24. Farther south it crosses Winters Run on the way to Edgeley Grove. The surface changes along the way, with paved stretches, short boardwalks, and both fine and coarser gravel. Beyond North Avenue, the corridor continues toward the North segment at Blake's Venture Park.
MA & PA Heritage Trail: South
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the MA & PA Heritage Trail: South has about 112 to 160 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, running, birding, biking, and walking, with April, May, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the MA & PA Heritage Trail: South!
In half of past years, color along the MA & PA Heritage Trail: South peaks October 30 to November 9, typically around November 4. The trail has 38% deciduous coverage, with the majority being yellow-poplar, red maple, white oak, and chestnut oak.
The Ma and Pa began in 1881 as the Baltimore and Delta Railway, a three-foot narrow-gauge road. It reached Bel Air on June 21, 1883, and pushed north through Forest Hill. In time the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad ran from North Avenue in Baltimore to Market Street in York, Pennsylvania. Trains hauled mail, slate, marble, coal, lumber, furniture, and farm goods. They also carried the stone that built Baltimore's Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. Harford County's canneries, quarries, and mines depended on the line. Then buses, trucks, and cars on Route 1 took its traffic. On August 31, 1954, the last passenger train left Bel Air Station. Within a few years the railroad folded, and the tracks in Maryland were pulled up. In 1998, part of the Harford County grade became a rail trail. A Fallston link to Edgeley Grove was dedicated on June 7, 2008. County officials worked for 25 years to join the Fallston and Forest Hill sections. In 2016 they acquired a key parcel from the family of the late state Senator J. Robert Hooper. A 1.2-mile Bel Air section opened in April 2022. This segment holds the southern half of the corridor, from North Avenue through downtown Bel Air and the woods of Heavenly Waters Park to the crossing of Winters Run at Edgeley Grove.
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