Mountain Biking Trails in Montgomery County, MD
The Pake family has taken up mountain biking as a hobby and form of exercise, and my wife will join in as well as soon as we can track down another bike. As a large-framed dude, biking sure is great for me as it’s far less punishing on my knees and other parts of my body than running, and both kids enjoy it too. We live in Montgomery County, MD, so are exploring trails in the area here and having a great time. All ride photos are with a handlebar mounted GoPro Hero 7 Black.
Favorite Trails
Singletracks
Our favorite singletrack trails to date are the Upper Rock Creek Trail between Needwood and Muncaster Rd, the Hoyles Mill Connector Trail, and the Ten Mile Creek Trail. These are all nice trails that aren’t overly crowded or too technically demanding. Schaeffer Farms is great also and probably the most popular trails in the area, but is way too busy, and extremely worn and very rooty, making it not a whole lot of fun to ride on in more than a few areas. If you’re a more advanced rider and especially if you have a full suspension bike (front & rear shocks), Schaefer Farms will still be great. We tend to prefer the smoother and more flowing singletracks.
Paved Trails
The best trails are the Black Hill Trail, the Rock Creek Hiker Biker Trail, and the ICC Trail. The Black Hill trail is up in Germantown, and goes around Little Seneca Lake and into Black Hill Regional Park. The Rock Creek Hiker Biker Trail starts at Lake Needwood, and you can take it all the way down into D.C. The ICC trail is nice if you just want to ride while dealing with as little traffic and other people as possible, as it tends to be deserted even during nice times of the year. It’s not that exciting, but great if you want to get a good cardio workout in. There’s also the Carl G Millenium Bike Trail that loops around Rockville, but I’m not a fan. Too many street crossings, distractions, and moron drivers.
We still have lots of trails to explore in the county, so will keep updating this page. We still need to try out Little Bennett Regional Park, and Cabin John Park among others, along with the Seneca Greenway Trail and others.
Good WEb Resources for Area Riders
Between city trails, county trails, and non-county trails maintained by private and/or non-profit groups, it can be a real chore to find everything in one place. The county trails page doesn’t have information on city trails, nor does it have information on the private trails, some of which actually serve as a link between other county maintained trails! It’s a bit frustrating, so I’m trying to gather everything here, which is half the purpose of this page!
Montgomery County Parks Trails
Singletracks.com – Germantown, Maryland Bike Trails
MTBProject.com – Gaithersburg, Germantown, Rockville
Trailforks.com – Capital Region Riding Areas
MORE-MTB.org – Maryland Trails
Also:
Cyclists of Gab - Gab.com (my not area specific Cycling Group on Gab with people from all over)
Trail Photo Albums
The Black Hill Trail is a paved surface trail that goes through Black Hills Regional Park and around Little Seneca Lake that offers some really spectacular views. It’s about 5 miles each way, and a 10 mile round trip. The trail is nice, but tends to be pretty busy and there are a few pretty steep sections.
The Hoyles Mill Connector Trail is a 6.2 mile trail that runs between Schaeffer Farms and the South Germantown Recreational Park, and Little Seneca Lake. It’s a fantastic mountain bike trail with a nice mix of terrain with hardly any roots or rocks to dodge. The best part was it was virtually empty even as the Schaeffer Farm parking lot was packed. This is definitely one of our top pick mountain bike trails.
The Inter-County Connector (MD-200) bike trail runs 6 miles end to end from Needwood Rd, across Georgia Ave, and out to Layhill Rd. It’s a fully paved trail with some nice hills to give you a workout. The section from Layhill up to Norbeck is a pretty brutal climb. The 12 mile round-trip takes about an hour.
In theory Lake Needwood sounds like a quick and fun place to go for a bike ride, but it just doesn’t flow well for bikes, tends to be very crowded, and some sections are too difficult for younger riders. If Needwood is too busy, literally right up the street you can pickup the ICC trail and ride for a bit on that too.
The Schaeffer Farm mountain biking trail network is considered one of the best in all of Maryland. We had a blast and loved it, and it wasn’t too advanced. The only issue was a lot of erosion over time leading to extremely rooted trails in various parts, making it a bit rough in some areas. The White Trail is a nice 3.8 mile loop.
If you want to do a quick loop at Schaeffer Farms, you can start on the White Trail but then cut across on the Orange Trail for about a 2 mile or so loop. However, the Orange trail isn’t as well travelled, so it’s narrower and tends to have some overgrowth. You’ll want long pants to avoid your legs getting cut up.
The Ten Mile Creek Trail in Black Hills Regional Park going around Little Seneca Lake is a fantastic singletrack that’s one of the best in Maryland, and very smooth and fast for the most part. The scenery is fantastic, and there are some nice switchbacks. It’s 6 miles from end to end, with the 12 mile round-trip taking about 2 hours.
The Upper Rock Creek Trail from Lake Needwood and Needwood Rd up to Muncaster Rd is fantastic, and definitely one of the best singletrack trails in Rockville, on par with the Hoyles Mill Connector Trail, and the Ten Mile Creek Trail up in Germantown, just shorter. The trail is smooth and flowing, there’s a lot of great scenery, climbs are manageable, and no roots to contend with. Definitely a favorite that’s suitable even for beginners.
Riding Gear
It took the better part of 2020 to fully equip the Pake fam! Who knew the pandemic would cause a huge run on bikes?! It’s been virtually impossible to find any bikes for under $1,000 for much of the year. William got his 2020 Trek Marlin 6 in Small size in April before everything got crazy, and I managed to pickup one of the last Trek Marlin 7’s in XL to be found anywhere in the area in May, and had to drive all the way to Middleton, DE to get it! As of September 2020, I finally found Katie a first of the 2021’s literally right off the truck Trek Malin 6 in M/L size, and we’re all finally riding. Yep, these Treks are great bikes! As soon as I can get the front fork repaired on Katie’s old Schwinn, Debbie will be riding that with us once in awhile.
You really can stagger 4 bikes with the front wheels removed in the back of a Suburban, but it’s definitely a pain and not so good for the frames even with large furniture blankets between them, so I finally got a bike rack. Despite being out of stock everywhere and claims of backorders, I ordered a Saris SuperClamp EX hitch-mounted 4-bike rack direct from Saris on a Tuesday and just figured it’d get there when it got there. It was at my doorstep that Friday!
Now that I have bikes for everybody, I finally got a bike rack – a Saris SuperClamp EX 4-bike hitch mounted rack. It’s rock solid and works great, and is so compact folded that it doesn’t even obstruct your rearward vision. It’s not cheap, but if you know you’re going to be hauling more than 2 bikes, it ends up being cheaper, lighter, and more compact than most of the “2+2” racks.
Comments or Suggestions?
If you’re in the area and you find this page, I’d love to hear from you. I’m aware that there’s some area Facebook cycling and mountain biking groups, but I’m not on Facebook and will never go back. I’ve realized that some of these album pages are starting to rank high in search engines, so welcome to my website, most of which is actually about my experiences as a young adult cancer survivor a number of years ago.
