Note that when hiking in areas with high grass, there is a good chance of chiggers being present. If you do not use permethrin on your clothing, decent protection is possible with DEET. Be sure to put it under the part of your sox that is above your footwear.

Directions to Various Portions of the Trail:

From I-95, take Maryland Route 272 south through North East for all. Generally you will follow the lighthouse icons to find your way along the trail. Some have been shot up, but many have not. There is also a portion of the trail inside the State Park where all the lighthouse icons have been replaced with white rectangles where it is the park's Whitre Trail. 

• Irishtown Road; Main entrance. Turn left at the entrance to the State Forest and keep on driving until you get to a road on the right that says Tulip Poplar Path. This will be 2.6 miles. Turn down it and it ends at what is called the Beaver Pond. 

There is room to park at the pond. There is also are picnic tables, one on this side of the pond and another on the other side.  

 

This is where where the Elk Neck trail intersects with the Mason-Dixon Trail. Going on that one far enough west will take you to the Appalachian Trail. You will note the blue and white blazes. They are a solid blue everywhere else but in the state forest, because there a blue blaze means keep out. 

 

The dam is breached so it is best to walk along the shore to cross. When you hike across the base of the pond, there is a side trail off to the left where you can head down and see evidence of active beavers. Otherwise, you would head onward toward Irishtown Road.

• Irishtown Road; residence. We have permission for hikers to park on the grass closest to the road at 986 Irishtown Rd. Pull into the driveway just a bit and park to the left. From here you can hike to the lighthouse with some interruptions where you would be walking carefully on a busy road. Note that if you are looking for a short, but pleasant walk, crossing the road and heading north to the beaver pond is a good one. 

• McKinneytown Road.  For a pleasant 1 1/2 mile or so or around 3 miles round trip walk, go to this road and turn left. You will go three tenths of a mile and will see a green gate to your right.  There is room to park, but  do not block the gate. This segment of the trail ends where the Rodney Boy Scout Camp will not allow passage through. We are working on an alternative. For those continuing on, take to the road. until Boy Scout Road, where you turn right and hike to its end. 

If you drive to this portion of the trail on McKinneytown Rd. and you get to the ranger station, you will have gone just a little bit too far.  If you like, click here for a map to help understand the location. A portion of this segment follows along a small road that goes to the ranger tower. If you wanted to see it from below,  that is not a long detour.

 

• Boy Scout Road. Turn to the right onto this small lane and at the end you will see several places to park without blocking one of the gates. The official trail toward the south is blocked by three large fallen trees from the last big storm. Immediately before the gate at the far end of the road and at the left, you will see the Elk Neck Icon. There is another trail that goes off to the left on the other side of the gate at the end of Boy Scout Road, but we do not have official permission to be on it.  You might make a copy of the instructions for scouts  hiking down that path in case you find going around the several large fallen trees you encounter on this segment of the trail to be too difficult. These trees are so large that we need to reroute around them, but we have not done so yet. 

• The North Bay Center. This section needs to be rerouted due to construction. We now have permission to do so. This is to the right off  Rt. 272. Turn and go to where you see little white icons on the road itself. This is where the trail crosses. Go just a bit further to the first parking lot and walk back. Both ways involve walking through mowed portions of a field. In the summer both ways are normally mowed.  

Going to the north involves what is close to a mile and a half walk on the road to Boy Scout Road. Negotiations are underway to continue this northward to extend it to meet the McKinneytown segment. Going to the south is a much shorter walk to the state park beach area. 

 

Unfortunately, construction work in this area precludes 

hiking through the trail here for the time being. The Beach road probably provides the best location for a hike currently.

• Beach Area road. At the road to the beach,  you turn right off 272.  If you drive, you will have to pay a $4 entry fee per car during the summer season.  If you walked it south turn right onto the road and walk just past the pavilion on the left.  Turn left at the very next road. This goes up into a parking lot, from which you will see a road heading up to an oval paved area. At the very end of the oval you will find a lighthouse icon pointing the way onward into the woods again. 

           When you cross the highway at one point, cross over and walk a bit toward the south and turn there.  Look to see the trail heading off not so obviously soon and to the right. Here the trail goes along that of the park's White Trail. When you come to the asphalt boat landing road, the White Trail goes to the left and our trail crosses in front of the guard house and continues on in the woods across the the road. 

• The boat kanding Road. This is easy to find. Look for the boat landing sign on the left as you are driving south and turn left. Go to the guard house on that road. To go northward on the trail, look to your left immediately before the building. To go south, look to your right right after it. The icons are reasonably visible. Going south, this leads toward the Chesapeake Isles community, where it follows a road toward the Elk Neck Lighthouse.

• Lighthouse Parking Lot. You can do a rather short, but still pleasant, hike to the Lighthouse. Just keep driving to where route 272 ends and park. If you don't come early on a summer weekend it may be impossible to find a place to leave the car.  This segment is also known as the Blue Trail. It is about 3/4 of a mile up. There is also an interesting trail along the way that is off to the right that will take you down to the water, where you can hike around Turkey Point and back. 

Note that the Lighthouse is open on weekends during the summer and volunteers for the organization that runs and is working to renovate it sells souvenirs and soft drinks.  

See Directions for Boy Scout Troops wanting 

to hike from Camp Rodney to the Light House.