The Mason-Dixon trail is a side-trail of the Appalachian Trail, diverging from the AT just west of the western tip of York County, PA and running eastward through Gifford Pinchot State Park above York to the Susquehanna; then down the west side of the river to Havre de Grace, MD; across the river to Elkton, MD; and north through Newark, DE, Landenberg, PA, Hockessin, DE, terminating at the US Rt. 1 bridge over the Brandywine River.  (The M-D Trail doesn't really have anything to do with the Mason-Dixon Line.)  Bob Auer dreamed up the idea of running the entire trail (in sections) end to end..  Bob and John Mackenzie ran the Delaware portion of the Mason-Dixon trail in 1999.  Stewart Dotts was familiar with the section in the Broad Creek Scout Reservation.  Being unfamiliar with the rest, we tried to purchase official trail maps from the Potomac Chapter AT Club, but they were out of print.  Our local M-D Trail rep. is Bob Bennett, a Trail Dawg regular, who is in charge of the trail between White Clay Creek State Park and Rittenhouse Park in Newark; he provided guidance on a recent re-routing of a local trail section.  Best web info about the M-D Trail is "Jim T.'s" site.  "Official" accumulated mileages listed here are taken from Mike Calabrese's M-D Trail Distance Calculator.

Although various websites caution against using road maps as trail guides, we found the M-D Trail is marked reasonably accurately on the ADC maps for Chester (PA), New Castle (DE), Cecil (MD), Harford (MD) and York (PA) counties, and we have used these maps to plan our runs.  Distance measurements made by planimeter on the ADC maps consistently underestimate the actual distances, because they omit a lot of trail turns, but most of us are long-time hashers, which means we can pick up faint trail marks pretty easily, we are quite accustomed to not knowing how long we'll be on trail, and we're very experienced at taking wrong turns and getting lost.

(1) Thursday, June 28:  Brandywine River Museum to HB DuPont Middle School (Stewart, Bob, John, Pete).  We decided to start this project on a sweltering hot afternoon.  At our 5 PM start the temp. was still 90+ with high humidity.  The M-D trail began on the south side of Rt. 1, just east of the Brandywine Creek opposite the Brandywine River Museum.  After some inauspicious bushwhacking through some overgrown trail, we crossed Stockford Creek, went through some nice old-growth woods, then skirted some fields to a creek crossing at Cossart Rd.  From here it was all hotter'n'hell pavement: 1.5 miles east on Cossart and uphill to junction with Fairville Rd.  1.25 miles to L on Spring Mill Rd., then R onto Burnt Mill Rd., over another hill to R onto Old Kennett Rd and immediate L onto Nine Gates Rd., crossing the DE line over two more hills to R on Snuff Mill Rd. and immediate R on Creek Rd. at Yorklyn.  Just for giggles, Pete and John did an extra mile on a wrong turn over the bridge down Yorklyn Rd..  The trail continued on Creek Rd. to a L on Auburn Mill Rd., up one last hill, and L onto Meetinghouse Rd. to the school parking lot.  We got our picture taken by some tennis players.  About 10 miles total, but felt longer in the heat!

(2) Thursday, July 3:  HB DuPont Middle School to the London Tract Meeting House (Bob, John, Stewart, Ryan Dotts, Sam Mackenzie, Terri, Dave McCorquodale).  4:30 PM start down Meetinghouse Rd. where we had our picture taken by a guy doing yardwork, R. on Old Wilmington Rd., L onto Valley Rd. across Rt. 41 and through Swift Park, crossing Valley Rt. to a cut-through onto Southwood Rd.  About 2 miles west to a R onto Buttonwood Rd, looping over Somerset Lake and continuing about 2 miles down Buttonwood to Broad Run Rd. and very familiar territory: past Watson's Mill to the top of London Tract Rd and WC Preserve Lot 1.  Back onto trail at last!  About 2.25 miles down trail on the west side of White Clay Creek to the 3 footbridges and Peltier trail, then up to the Preserve Office parking lot.  About 8.5 miles total (officially 20.7 miles accum.).

(3) Sunday, July 8:  London Tract Mtg. House to Downes School (Bob, John, Stewart, Hunt, Terri, Erin, Tom G., Margie, Ryan Dotts).  Well, we're getting into the groove, off pavement and in familiar territory.  7:15 AM start in the drizzle down the Peltier trail (main trail W side of WC Creek), following the creekside trail at the DE border, across Chambers Rock Rt. to the WCCSP Nature Center, across Hopkins Bridge Rd. to Creek Rd. and uphill on trail into the Carpenter Rec. Area.  The trail wound around in Carpenter, where Ryan pulled up with a sore knee.  After some slight confusion in Carpenter where the trail was recently re-routed, we followed marks crossing the inner park road and ascending parallel to Wedgewood Rd, crossing Wedgewood at the top of the hill, crossing to the SE corner of the big meadow on the south side of Wedgewood, to trail descending to Creek Rd.  Down Creek Rd. for 1 mile, then R onto trail winding W through hilly woods (where Margie got a kiss from a tree on her forehead) past the transformer station emerging onto Fremont Rd.  Up Fremont and across New London Rd (Rt. 896) into the Christina watershed to Country Club, Windsor, Delrem (re-joining the original trail), across Nottingham Rd. (Rt. 273) onto Casho Mill, R at Church Rd. and L over the Christina Creek back onto a final short creekside trail section to Downes Elementary School.  About 10 miles total--tough run!

(4) Thursday, July 19:  Downes ES to Iron Hill Museum (John, Bob, Stewart).  4:30 PM start on a warm, sunny afternoon, proceeding from the footbridge behind Downes down the W side of the Christina Creek across Barksdale Rd., under the rail line and winding through floodplain past Christina Mill Apts. across Elkton Rd., under Rt. 4 and the Amtrak line, continuing along the creek into Rittenhouse Park.  We had counted on getting water at the park building, but it was locked.  Out the park driveway and L on W Chestnut Hill Rd., R down S College Ave (Rt. 896) and R onto Welsh Tract Rd., up the hill over the I-95 overpass and L onto trail into Iron Hill Park.  (A nicer route would have been uphill through Rittenhouse Park to the top of Arbour Dr., cross W. Chestnut Hill Rd. through Cobblefield development to path around meadow perimeter to Welsh Tract Rd. just below the I-95 overpass.)  We followed trail up Iron Hill past the pavilion at the top and down alongside the park road until the trail diverged L into the woods again, past some Colonial-era quarries and down to the Iron Hill Museum parking lot where we each gulped down a quart of Bob's Gatorade.  About 8 miles total.

(5) Thursday, July 26: Iron Hill Museum to W. Meadow Park, Elkton (Bob, Stewart, John, Terri).  12:45 PM start (Bob and Terri playing hooky) in occasional warm drizzle.  We crossed Old Balt. Pike using cut-throughs to Pencader Village, onto trail on W side of Brader Elem. School, continuing S and then W along power line easement, crossing Iron Hill Run around the Pencader Corp. Ctr. to Pleasant Valley Rd.  A short jog up PV Rd. to L along power lines 0.75 miles to Rosetree Lane and the MD line, into the Elk watershed.  Trail followed a nice path across Delancy Rd. and through new development along utility road into the NW corner of Hatchery Park.  We followed trail marks around the hatchery pond complex into familiar hashing territory, following the Big Elk Creek through E Meadow Park, across Delaware Ave (Rt. 7) to W Meadow Park.  About 5.5 muddy miles total.

(6) Friday Auguest 10: W Meadow Park, Elkton to Huminski Rd. entrance to Elk Neck State Forest (John, Bob, Stewart).  4 PM start in pouring rain.  We proceeded pluckily through W Meadow Park along the Elk River to Bridge St, L on Main St. and L on Landing Lane across Pulaski Hwy (Rt. 40) past Road 1 and Cow Lane, turning R at the sewage plant driveway onto Oldfield Point Rd., crossing the Little Elk in torrential rain and lightning.  We frolicked along the roadway, dodging cars, turned R on Jones Chapel Rd. through some typical Elkton suburbs, greeted by boisterous dogs and eliciting interested stares from citizens with more truck axles than teeth.  The lightning never got closer than 100 feet.  R on Old Elk Neck Rd. for 0.25 miles, then L on Huminski Rd. to the entrance gate to Elk Neck State Forest.  About 4 miles total, mostly pavement, but the rain provided a welcome break from the heat.  (Officially 44.7 miles accum.)

(7) Sunday, August 12: Elk Neck State Forest to Belvidere Rd  (John, Bob, Stewart).  Emboldened by our survival so far, we planned a 13-miler on Sunday which turned out to be 18 miles because we mis-measured a little on the map.  Starting at 7:45 AM, overcast with occasional rain, mid-70's.  .  The trails through Elk Neck Forest are narrow, winding, beautiful.  Stewart got up close and personal with the cutest  raccoon!  We carried branches as we ran to collect the spider webs across the trail; they looked sort of like cotton candy after a while, only they didn't taste as good.  The long trail through the Forest loops S to Plum Creek, then up past Plum Creek Pond to the NW spur below Rt. 7, finally emerging in Northeast at Cemetery Rd.  We followed the road N across Rt. 7 onto Mechanics Valley Rd, missed a trail mark and continued too far north, returned and found the turn onto Mill Rd., over the bridge over Northeast Creek and up the W side of the creek under a rail line, following sparse marks through a swampy area, crossing under Rt. 40 along the creek, leaving the creek ~0.25 mile later and heading uphill through the Timberbrook development to North East Rd. (Rt. 272), crossing into the Nazarene Camp.  We felt ready to quit at this point, but finished off the water we were carrying and pressed onward like the dudes we are.  We followed Nazarene Rd to trailhead opposite Baron Rd. intersection, going S briefly, then then W along a lo-o-o-ong utility road crossing Red Toad Rd. and continuing through undisturbed woods another 3 miles over moderately hilly terrain to Belvidere Rd.  Very nice trail!  About 16 miles total (offically 59.7 miles accum.)

(8) Friday August 17: Belvidere Rd.  to the Susquehanna!  (Bob, Stewart, John, Hunt, Terri).  Starting at 4:30 on a beautiful Friday afternoon, we took a left off Belvidere Rd onto the completely overgrown service road parallelling the freight rail line, floundered in the heavy brush for a while, then ran the rail line itself straight to Perryville, finding occasional blazes along the line, then clambered up a bridge embankment to Perryville Rd. (Rt. 222), downhill and R on Rt. 40 to the tollbooth.  The Rt. 40 bridge has no walkway at all, so we queried a tollbooth cop regarding modes of crossing the Susquehanna.  We are now debating a swim-run-swim event (over Garrett Island and through the barge traffic), commandeering a DOT dumptruck and jogging in the truck bed while they drive us across, or just getting out there and running like hell at 4AM.  Only about 4 miles total (officially 63.2 miles accum.)

Well, we felt we were stuck at  the bridge, and we had a hiatus for fall marathons and other stupid stuff, and didn't get back to the M-D project until we finally decided to skip the river crossing for now and get back on trail:

(9) Tuesday, January 1, 2002.  Lock house Museum, Havre de Grace to Conowingo Dam (Stewart, John, Hunt).  Well, we opted to postpone the swim across the Susquehanna until spring.  Bob couldn't make this one, so it's not really an official M-D Trail run, but we did it anyway.  Another mis-measurement on the map, looked like 11 miles, but turned out to be more like 16 miles.  Starting 10AM in low 20's temps. at the Lockhouse Museum off Erie St., we proceeded north, for a half-mile or so, then climbed hand-over-hand up an embankment to River Dr. and a long hill-climb around Meadowvale ES, getting a great view of the upper bay from the Mt. Erin cemetery.  We ran Bern Dr. W to Level Rd. (not!), aka Rt. 155, a long uphill.  Approaching I-95, we turned R on Lapidum Rd at about 470 ft. elevation, looping downhill to an I-95 overpass and then another long downhill along Herring Run to the south entrance of Susquehanna State Park.  The trailhead sign in the park told bikers to dismount and hikers not to shortcut the switchbacks, so we knew we were in for some steep hills.  We climbed 300 ft. fast, running along the edges of some steep drop-offs, checked out a beautiful meadow in the sunlight at the top of the hill.  (Hunt is re-evaluating plans to run the HAT 50K on these hills in March.)  We descended to river level and stopped to check out the Rock Run Mill (operational when we were born), smoked a little pottle, then some short road and another uphill trail, to 260 ft., then descending to our water stash behind the outhouse on Stafford Rd.  From there we looped southward to a footbridge over the old canal section (outlet of Deer Creek), then had beautiful wooded single-track along the river straight up to the Conowingo Dam.  Only downside was the brutal headwind coming from the north off the river; we ran this stretch hard just trying to stay warm.  The north end trailhead was cordoned off with tape, and this section of  the park is closed "until further notice" to protect the hydro plant from terrorist attack.  The fat moron at the gate got upset when we came through, and looked dumb enough to try arresting us, so we skipped the final short trail section and ran a final unplanned hill detour up Shure's Landing Rd. (300 ft. elev.) and down Shuresville Rd. to the park visitor center (great river view!) above the dam.  Felt like 16 miles total--great run!  Official accum. 75.4 miles.

(9A) Sunday, July 14, 2002.  Lock house Museum, Havre de Grace to Susquehanna SP (Stewart, John, Bob, Hunt, Terri, John Matthews, Carl, Margie, Frank).  Well, since Bob missed out on the New Year's Day run, we decided to re-do this section in two stages.  We started at the Lockhouse Museum in Havre de Grace again, headed up the old railbed, clambered up the embankment and uphill to Rt. 155, then R onto Lapidum Rd. and down into Susquehanna SP.  We went past Rock Run Mill again, followed the next trail loop past the high meadow and back down to river level, returning south to my van, parked at the footbridge over the south end of the canal.  After the run Stewart led a search for pancakes westward on Rt. 40, but we couldn't get served, so we returned to Newark.

(9B) Thursday, July 18, 2002.  Susquehanna SP to Conowingo (Bob, Stewart, Terri and John).  On New Year's Day, running into a bitter cold headwind off the river at the end of a long run, this stretch seemed really long.  After some winding trail on the island between the canal and river, the trial returns to the shore and follows what was probably an old rail line straight up to the Conowingo hydro plant.  This time, starting at the footbridge over the south end of the canal at 5:30 PM, we were surprised to be arrive at the dam so quickly.  The weather was hot and humid as usual.  This was where the fat security guy accosted us on New Year's Day.  This time it was a skinny moron, thankful for the 9/11 attack that got him his swell security job.  Same story: with the finish in plain sight at the top of the hill, we had to take a mile-and-a-half detour up Shure's Landing Rd. and down Shuresville Rd. to get to the pool parking lot.

(10) Saturday, July 20, 2002.  Conowingo to Cooper/Orchard Rd. intersection (Bob, Stewart, Hunt, John, Sam).  You would think we would know better by now.  We generously estimated this to be 10 miles, and that's what the "official" mileage count is, but it was really about 12.5 miles.  We met at the Conowingo pool parking lot at 8:30AM, headed north on some winding little-used trail past a huge warning sign to boaters, through some beautiful pasture with curious horses galloping after us, stopped several times to eat handfuls of perfectly ripe raspberries and blackberries.  We descended to Glen Cove, then wound uphill again past the Indian Lake Christian Camp, then onto a utility line through lots more raspberries, finally reaching Broad Creek Rd., crossing a high plank over a tributary to Flintville Rd and over the Broad Creek bridge, then left onto the trail through the Broad Creek Scout reservation, where the blue M-D blazes were commingled with lots of other blazes.  The trail rejoined Flintville Rd, then turned R onto Tabernacle Rd., joining Cooper Rd. at the MD-PA line.  We continued an extra mile and a half along Michael's Run, finishing at my van at Orchard Rd. after almost 3 hours.  The next section takes us right by the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant, so we have another negotiation with security guys ahead.