After years of hiking in the Baltimore/Washington area, I thought I knew about all the parks, even if I hadn’t tramped each and every trail in them. My friend Joe kept mentioning Cromwell Valley Park though, and every time he did I’d ask where exactly it was, making a mental note to try it out. I’d drive down Cromwell Valley Road, just outside Baltimore’s congested and constantly-under-construction beltway and never find the entrance that Joe professed was there. Then I’d forget about it until Joe brought it up again, and we’d repeat the process. Finally, I found the park.

I’d been missing the entrance because the sign looked very much like all the signs that mark scores of private farms in northern Baltimore County. Many of these are on Cromwell Valley Road. Also, I apparently cannot read. The main sign does say “Cromwell Valley Park”. In my defense, it…