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Fall Bikeride to Sugarloaf Mountain

[On weekends, I usually end up being a bicycle widow. After the ritual filling of water bottles and stashing of power beans, my husband pulls his "trusty steed" out of the garage and heads for points north or west, usually with one or more riding buddies. The Saturday before last, he headed out with a camera and promised to deliver pictures and an XML file from the Garmin Edge attached to his handlebars for me to play with. Below is the result: his description of the ride, for other biking enthusiasts, and a link to an interactive map with pictures, for other GPS/map enthusiasts]

Click to see interactive route map with photos

Rockville can be the starting point for many scenic and challenging rides around the DC Metro Area. I'll write one up and hope to post some more in coming weeks. This ride is a 60 mile loop in Western Montgomery County that covers some beautiful country roads, features one major climb up Sugarloaf Mountain, and is particularly beautiful in the fall. A common feature of these rides is figuring out how to get out of Rockville and onto less travelled country roads in the quickest and safest manner. The route chosen this week was to head north on Great Seneca Highway, which features a good road surface but has a fair amount of fast traffic on it at certain times on the weekend. Portions of the ride out Great Seneca towards Boyds can be done on a large-sized sidewalk on the right side of the highway heading north. Once the ride veers onto Richter Farm Road, the traffic eases and better shoulders are evident in places. Heading towards Boyds one has to climb a steep short hill on 117 and then go under the train tracks and up Barnesville Road into Boyds. The Boyds Country Store provides an excellent rest stop before you launch towards higher ground, so stock up on Power Bars and Gatorade.

Barnesville Road's rolling hills will take you up to Slidell Road, which is very lightly vehicle and which, after another steep and short climb, will wind its way through fields and a stretch of cozy forest before issuing onto Comus Road. A left turn here and you are headed straight for the base of Sugarloaf! Again, the traffic on this road is fairly light, but be careful at four way stop intersections as some large metal boxes may ignore the signs. The section on Comus up to the Sugarloaf base is one of the most scenic on this ride, and takes you by the Sugarloaf Valley Winery.

The climb up Sugarloaf is not too hard, with a series of switchbacks, some patches of bad road, and not much room for cars to pass. The view from the top east is excellent. The descent is quite technical, with lots of sharp switchbacks and some gravel in the road, so be careful, and don't get stuck behind a vehicle on the way down. A beautiful pond awaits you at the bottom, with seasonal birds gracing the quiet waters. Heading out from Sugarloaf down Mt. Ephraim Road will take you past endless fields as you come down into Dickerson. At this point, you could take Route 28 straight back into Rockville, but to avoid the traffic, we recommend you take Big Woods Road out to Beallsville Road. This is another scenic stretch with little traffic. A left on Beallsville, some rolling hills, and then a right onto Sellman will take you back to Peach Tree. A right turn here will lead back to 28, so a nice way is to take Peach Tree back to Barnesville, navigate a couple of longer rolling hills, then turn right at 117. The section on 117 to 28 is quite scenic with few cars. The section of 28 from 117 into Rockville has excellent shoulders for most of the way, except for a couple of sections. There are any number of other ways to get back to Rockville while avoiding 28, and we will explore those on future rides.

A smoothie is always a good way to end a ride, and is particularly good after a harder ride to speed recovery.

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