Weekend MD Rt. 28 Bridge closure over the Monocacy River
 

Over the weekend I did an old favorite ride, a 52 mile loop around Sugarloaf - short writeup here.

I had been in that area hiking and seen the detour signs: on weekends, the Rt. 28 bridge over the Monocacy River is closed for maintenance. I detoured down Mouth of Monocacy Road to the Towpath, crossing the river on the Monocacy Aqueduct, then upstream to Nolands Ferry and back to Rt. 28. Nice way to go, but at 11am or so very large crowds at Monocacy.

They’ve been working in that bridge, off and on, for at least a year. Wonder when they’ll wrap it up. But a good excuse to go down to the Mouth if the Monocacy. Beautiful spot and I always get a kick out of the idea of a bridge for boats.

However, your route missed my two favorite roads around Sugarloaf: Mt. Ephram and Peters. Both gravel and wooded along streams, they offer a nice respite from Park Mills.

I have a Jamis Renegade steel bike (I guess now called a gravel bike) with wider tires that I use to do a shorter loop around Sugarloaf, using Sugarlloaf Mountain Road, Peters, and Mt. Ephraim - with an extension onto Harris Road and then Barnesville Road back to Mt. Ephraim. Over the winter (when not so crowded) park at the top to force myself to climb up at the end! Really enjoyable, tough ride.

That is definitely one I like to clockwise - the first time I did it, I went counter-clockwise and said "hey, this is great - I'm going down a short section of the Park Mill Wall instead of up!" Until I remembered I had to jam on the brakes and make a left turn just before the bottom of the hill to get on Mt. Ephraim!

I was googling "Rt28 Monocacy Bridge" and ended up back here. Weird. What is the story with that bridge? We've been out of the area for 2 1/2 years, and when we left, this work should have been finished mid-2018. Are they putting in a new bridge or just rehabbing the old one?

This is also a weird coincidence. I was interested in that bridge because we're about to buy a house in that area and actually drove past that jet on the way to look at a house around the corner. I was thinking to myself I was kind of glad to mark that one off our list because returning home up that hill did not look like a good time. Yesterday we drove past the Adamstown school and stopped at Rocky Point for ice cream--very good. Could you share your GPX file from your ride? I think I can figure out some of your route, but not all of it. Shoulders seem to be fairly non-existent in that area, but it seems like traffic is light enough that cars aren't an issue.

Paul

That bridge is open during the week, they are doing final maintenance and cleanup on weekends apparently. That bridge is no longer listed on the MD DOT projects page - I think the weekend closures are over.

The ride I do is local favorite known as Back of Sugarloaf - the Ride With GPS file is here. There are many variations.

There are very few roads with shoulders but most are low traffic and everyone is used to bicycles. Rt 28 is higher speeds, higher traffic - that is the one down side of this route, the long stretch on 28 The Monocacy to the Towpath alternative is a nice way to go if things are dry.