Destination Report: Spooks Hill Road

[Meerkat]

This is generally the route I took today to explore Spooks Hill Road with a couple of modifications for missed roads/dead end road (trenton church road). Despite looking like a whole lot of nothing, the roads are pretty populated with houses and cars until you reach Butler Rd and Piney Grove Rd. Most of the roads are not particularly twisty...the good news is there are more passing zones than we are used to...the bad news is there's so much traffic you can't use them.

Some individual comments about the roads:

Dover Rd: Think Governor bridge just to either side of Patuxent River...a couple of curves separated by a lot of straight road and no trees...not good on a day like today.

Dark Hollow Rd: Not a very good surface. Lots of gravel washed out from driveways but it is partially shaded.

Trenton Rd: Boring

Trenton Church Rd: Dead end, despite the pretty  blue line that google draws for you.

Black Rock Rd: See Dover Rd above.

Lower Beckleysville Rd: Turns into Mt. Carmel Rd and then Gunpowder Rd. You pick this road up at a traffic circle. It has a surprising amount of traffic which fortunately turns off at Falls Rd. Most of this is like Dover though...HOT!

Beckleysville Rd: This road crosses the reservoir and is quite nice. It's wide, but has lots of bicyclists riding 2, 3, or more across. Lots of walkers and some 4 legged wildlife. The shoulders in most areas are wide to allow car/truck parking (think gravel or dirt...not so good for the bikes).

I ditched the loop through Freeland.

Spooks Hill Rd: This road has potential but appears to be regularly patrolled by . It's like Beckleysville with wide shoulders, lots of sun but more curves and some hills. The little squiggly part on the map is pretty fun (I went 3 times one way and twice the other...but not the whole road) but this road also is full of bicyclists. The road seems to have significantly less vehicle traffic than beckleysville...Still seems to have sand in some spots...don't know if this is from the winter or not, but it wouldn't surprise me. The traffic it does get seems to be fishermen in trucks with boats. Eventually turns into...

Pretty Boy Dam Rd: This road has kind of crappy surfaces. It does take you across the dam which doesn't look fun in the rain...slick looking brick surface.

Yeoho Rd: Not on the map I posted. Couple of curves with gravel all across them. Why don't we have a pucker emoticon?!? DRKWNG you're a mod; work on this for us!

Belfast Rd: I took this back to Butler Rd and headed home. Pretty boring road with more traffic than I expected.

Just my 2 cents.

[Artful]

Just saw this post. This is kinda my stomping grounds and for the most part agree with your post. Spooks Hill could be pretty amazing if they repave it, but as is it's pretty abysmal. If you get up to this area again check out Grier's Nursery Rd.\, Manor Rd on it's northern section, Phoenix Rd, Sparks Rd, and Lower Glencoe Rd.

There are a lot of good roads in the area, but traffic can be heavy and the road surfaces leave a bit to be desired.

[Meerkat]

Man, you are digging way back in the CAM!! Thanks for the road suggestions. I do hope to get up that way again sometime. My buddy Ed, lives in Bel Air and I owe him and his wife a visit.