Sugerloaf Mtn Dh
- Thread starter matt2991
- Start date
Good question. I don't think so. Just XC type trails as far as I know. Also, I think that you can only ride there on weekdays and it is closed entirely for certain months of the year. I know I'm not too helpful am I? Hopefully somebody else will give you a better answer.
Unfortunately, jdschall is right on the money. There is only one trail open to bikes, it's an XC trail and it's only about half singletrack. It used to be a lot better but they have dozed a lot of it for whatever reason. So now about half the trail is gravel road -- grrr.
The trail in question (saddleback -- yellow blaze) is only open weekdays from Memorial Day to Labor Day. (It used to be open weekdays 6/1 - 10/31)
The trail in question (saddleback -- yellow blaze) is only open weekdays from Memorial Day to Labor Day. (It used to be open weekdays 6/1 - 10/31)
You can thank your fellow riders for fvcking up a good thing at Sugarloaf as with Whitetail. As usual, litigious pricks who refuse to accept responsibility for their own stupidity sued the owner, won a hollow settlement and promptly got the place shut down for the rest of us. Private nature conservatories, like small EastCoast ski resorts, simply do not earn margins large enough to absorb judgements foolishly awarded to torte-happy tools and their ambulance-chasing vampires-for-hire.
Although the "cloak of secrecy" thing that surrounds the watershed is quite humorous and lampoonable at times, it is not without reason that people who have grown to love riding here are secretive and cautious about local trails and directions. The person who will get injured riding, sue the City of Frederick and ultimately get the place closed down for all is likely only a chance alignment of circumstances away from doing so.
Although the "cloak of secrecy" thing that surrounds the watershed is quite humorous and lampoonable at times, it is not without reason that people who have grown to love riding here are secretive and cautious about local trails and directions. The person who will get injured riding, sue the City of Frederick and ultimately get the place closed down for all is likely only a chance alignment of circumstances away from doing so.
Whitetail- rider sued resort after getting injured on mountain, resulting in closure when combined with modest MTB program profitability and complaints about some rider behavior on race weekends.
Sugarloaf- rider sued the private wildlife conservatory that owns the mountain after straying off marked trails and spending a night lost up there. Once upon a time, you could bike the trails ON the slopes of the mountain rather than just the one near its base.
I don't have a link to a newspaper page or anything, but I once worked with someone who was on the management/governing board for the Sugarloaf conservatory and talk/ride with people who seek to reopen Whitetail for weekend riding. I guess that makes my information heresay.
From what I was told, the rider(s) were following a now-off-limits marked blaze trail, somehow got off track and then got turned around as night fell. The lawsuit argued poorly marked and maintained trails(imagine such a thing at a small, private, not-for-profit nature area
) caused the rider to get lost and suffer psychological trauma from having to bed down there through the night with all the creepy crawlies. 
