Brighton Dam rides
These rides begin and end at Brighton Dam which can be reached by traveling north from the Beltway on New Hampshire Avenue. While the terrain is very hilly and challenging, the roads generally do not have a lot of automobile traffic. Scenery is varied ranging from relatively new housing developments to farms to woods with streams, rivers and reservoirs. You will ride along ridge tops and dive into (and climb out of) deep ravines. Virtually every five mile segment of the route has at least one, and often more than one notable climb. We often see other cyclists on these roads on the weekends but we rarely see cyclists using Brighton Dam as a starting point. Rest stops tend to be few and far between; camelbacks are a good idea for longer rides in this area especially on hot days.
Much, but by no means all, of the good riding on these routes is in Carroll County. Unfortunately, there are a lot of gravel roads in Carroll County that are indistinguishable from paved roads on the map. We have done several rides in this area but have very few established routes because we will generally abandon our planned route and try and find another way when we come upon a gravel road.
Here are the gravel roads we have come across thus far. The map we use is ADC’s Carroll County street map.
Sams Creek Road heading west from Ridge Road (27) turns to gravel before the Y with Doctor Stitely Road and returns to pavement shortly before Buffalo Road.
Davis Road turns to gravel shortly after the junction with Gillis Road.
John Pickett Road turns to gravel shortly after the junction with Gillis Falls Road.
Dorsey Lane connecting Old Washington Road (97) and Hoods Mill Road is a private road that is as often rutted dirt as gravel and is not really designed for through traffic.
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