POOLESVILLE, MARYLAND
All the years I’ve been riding and I’ve never been to Sugarloaf Mountain – Maryland. I’ve seen group rides in Montgomery Co. (Md.) organized for Sugarloaf and decided it would make a nice ride. And it was so nice I would do it thrice.
I mapped out a ride and downloaded it to my Wahoo bike computer. I prefer “loop” rides to “out-and-back” so I made this a loop that would begin and end from Poolesville although from Poolesville to Leesburg would have to be out and back because there’s no other way.
Every ride needs a ferry. It’s so relaxing to cross the Potomac River at White’s Ferry. Bikes are last off the boat and one advantage is you know for the next 10-15 minutes there will be no cars behind you.
On June 16th I parked in Leesburg and headed for White’s Ferry. After the climb out of the valley, I turned on Wasche Road. It is a country road with very little traffic. It connected with Martinsburg Road which is this cool one-lane looking road in a canopy of trees.
Rte 28 to Dickerson is not so good (traffic) but it’s only a mile and a quarter. Once on Mt. Ephraim Road one can see this hill (mountain) that pops up out of nowhere. On my first attempt, I was going to ride in a clockwise direction but discovered that was the wrong way. So I reversed course and went counterclockwise.
The road itself is not good pavement and it is completely wooded until one reaches the overlook. There is a small picnic area here as well.
On my first trip down I turned right on Comus Road. Gravel. Then it was a left on Mt. Ephraim Road which was also gravel. It became W. Harris Road which was also gravel. I took that to Barnesville where I picked up pave. Beallsville Road was lightly traveled but no shoulders and some blind corners – I was not comfortable and would not recommend it.
Just 10 days later I invited Tim Casebere to ride with me. We went to the mountain the way I had gone before but this time came back on pave. At Martinsburg Road, we stayed on the road which gave us a really nice descent followed by a nice climb. Wasche Road is a better choice if your legs are hurting. But Martinsburg Road was very lightly traveled. And we saw a wild canine – thinking it may have been in coyote as it was too large to be a fox. Pretty cool.
Finally, on July 19, Eryn was visiting from New York and she joined Tim and me to see what the deal was with this ride. It was very hot with temperatures in the mid-90s. We altered our route slightly first going into Poolesville then taking a busier road to Beallsville. But here we caught a break because there was a detour on Rte 28 because of a bridge out at the Monocacy River so we had Rte 28 to ourselves.
,We had planned, and stopped, on the way back at the Dickerson Market for water. but before I went in I spotted a cold gallon of water (partial) on the porch. I know this was purchased by a cyclist, used to fill water bottles, then left on the porch for the next cyclist to use. I’ve been on both ends myself – sometimes I bought a gallon and left it behind, today I used it. Thanks, cyclist!
The entire time you are in Maryland you can’t quite believe you are in Montgomery County, the same county with Bethesda, Gaithersburg, and Rockville. This section is rural, and while the mountain is not that much of a mountain, it feels more like you are in Frederick County. But what a nice ride.
