DAY TRIPPER: Sugarloaf Mountain

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sugarloaf Mountain, Md., is the subject of a Trail Blazes hiking guide, available by clicking here.

We often get caught up hyping the waterfalls and mountain vistas a hiker can see along the trails we describe.

But what about the stuff you can see inbetween? Take Sugarloaf Mountain in southern Maryland, for instance. During the 5.7-mile hike described below, a day hiker can discover fields of unusually-colored boulders covered in lichen, a fungus that covers these rocks like a blanket. They’re the color of pea soup, and while these boulders might not tickle the aperture like a backcountry waterfall, coming across these stones with their green color is pretty cool, nonetheless.

And then there’s the mountain itself. Sugarloaf is a monadnock that’s 14 million years old. Time and weather eroded the bucolic piedmont around Sugarloaf, but like a defiant fist Sugarloaf resisted erosion.

Oh, and no worries. You’re going to get camera-ready vistas at several points during this hike.

DIRECTIONS: From I-270, take the exit for Maryland Route 109. Follow Maryland 109 in a southwestern direction for three miles to Maryland Route 95. Route 95 also is known as Comus Road. Turn right onto Comus Road, which will take you to Sugarloaf’s entrance after a little more than 2 miles. Turn right and follow the winding road up the shoulder of the mountain. Follow signs to the West View parking lot. Park closes one hour before sunset.

HIKE ON: Hook up with the green-blazed A.M. Thomas Trail as it leads about a quarter of a mile uphill to the 1,282-foot summit and a trail junction. Check out the views from the rocks straight head of the Potomac River, then follow the red-blazed Monadnock Trail downhill. Stay left at a junction with an orange-blazed trail, then at 0.6 miles arrive at a junction with the blue-blazed Northern Peaks Trail. A vista can be found at the rocks straight ahead, looking northward to the Appalachian Mountains. Back at the junction, with your back to the red-blazed trail, turn right onto the Northern Peaks Trail.

The Northern Peaks Trail runs the ridge on a generally level path. After hiking a tenth of a mile on the blue-blazed trail, a white-blazed trail enters from the right. Stay left and follow the dual white and blue blazes. The white-blazed trail leaves shortly afterward, and continue following the blue blazes as you cross an old road, lichen-covered stones and mountain laurel patches. At 2.36 miles, the trail descends about 100 feet to a wagon-wheeled junction with trails coming in from all directions. Go straight with the blue blazes for just over a mile as the trail leads uphill about 200 feet, then descends for 200 feet to White Rocks Vista. Check out the farms and mountain ridges to the north and west.

Back on the North Peaks Trail, the blue blazes lead downhill for 300 feet over a little less than a mile to Mount Ephraim Road. Turn left onto the road, following the blue blazes passed where the yellow-blazed Saddleback Horse Trail comes in from the left. After about a tenth of a mile, the Northern Peaks Trail branches off to the left, leading up the mountain. Pass through tulip poplars and oak trees through the heart of Sugarloaf’s park. After 400 feet of uphill climb over one mile, go right at a junction with the white-blazed Mountain Loop Trail. Follow that path half a mile until arriving at another junction, where you go left with the blue blazes, leading you in a few minutes back to the parking lot and your car.

Compass Points TV featured Sugarloaf Mountain in a 2010 episode:

Tagged as: A.M. Thomas Trail, Appalachian Mountains, Hike, Hiking, lichen, Maryland, monadnock, Monadnock Trail, Mountain Loop Trail, Northern Peaks Trail, Oaks, Potomac River, Saddleback Horse Trail, Sugarloaf Mountain, Trees, Tulip Poplar, White Rocks Vista