LONG DESCRIPTION OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY PARKS "EPIC" ROUTE:

- Begin at Schaeffer Farm. Exit the parking lot and go straight across Schaeffer Road to pick up the Hoyles Mill Connector trail (look for sign). The trail bears right thru a field, crosses a small tree line, then bends to the left and follows the tree line.

- At the end of the tree line, the trail turns right and turns to crushed gravel path, ending at a paved bike/walking path. Turn left on the bike path, cross a paved park road (watch for cars), and stay on the paved bike path. The trail passes two soccer fields and a golf driving range, then takes a hard right. In about 150 yards, look for a trail marker and turn left on the grassy singletrack toward the woods.

- Continue on the marked trail until you reach Hoyles Mill Road. Turn left on Hoyles Mill Road, which begins as a paved road but soon turns to gravel.

- Continue on Hoyles Mill Road. Cross a concrete bridge over a small creek, then a wooden bridge over Seneca Creek. You will eventually pass a couple houses on the left with some baseball fields behind them. Just before the intersection with White Ground road (where Hoyles Mill Road ends), look for a trail marker on the right and turn right onto the singletrack trail toward the woods.

- Continue on the marked trail. Cross a small bridge and a small rock garden, followed by a couple more small wooden bridges. The trail will soon enter an open field, with a cemetery on your left. At the cemetery, the trail takes a hard right then a hard left, following the edge of the field. Continue along the field until you reach the intersection of Clopper Road, White Ground Road and Clarksburg Road.

- Go straight under the railroad bridge onto Clarksburg Road. Continue straight, crossing a bridge over Little Seneca Lake. After the bridge, go another 150 yards and look for a trail marker on the right. Turn right and follow the singletrack into the woods. Follow the trail until hit hits a small parking lot.

- Bear right thru the lot and ride along Clarksburg Road for 50 yards to pick up the trail again. Follow the trail as it winds thru the open field and back into the woods. Continue until the trail ends at a crushed gravel road, and turn right. Follow the gravel road up the hill, and it will take a hard left. Continue up the hill, with fenced horse fields and barns/buildings on the right. The road becomes paved and bears right, going downhill toward the boat ramp parking lot.

- Slow down at the bottom of the hill and turn hard left onto a grassy uphill, just before the gravel parking lot on the left. At the top of the grassy hill, stay right to go onto a stretch of straight grassy singletrack (Cabin Branch Trail in Black Hill Regional Park). The trail will soon head downhill, crossing a small creek at the bottom (wooden bridge can be slippery). About 20 yards after you cross the bridge, turn right onto the singletrack trail into the woods. Follow the trail, crossing another bridge or two and a series of small whoops. Shortly after the whoops you will cross another bridge, and the trail will go uphill and then merge into the Hamilton Trail.

- You have any choices here (refer to the Black Hill Trail Map: http://www.montgomeryparks.org/PPSD/...hills2copy.pdf) and you can ride as much or as little of Black Hill park as you want, but you will eventually want to get to the main park entrance on West Old Baltimore Road. The fastest route is to go left on Hamilton and then turn right at the end of the trail. This leads you up to the park road (Lake Ridge Drive), where you can turn left on the park road and continue to West Old Baltimore Road.

- Turn right onto West Old Baltimore Road. Cross under I-270, then turn left onto Comsat Drive. Take the first left, which will take you thru a parking lot. Stay left thru the lot and continue onto Shawnee Lane, which runs between I-270 and the main Comcast Building.

- Take the first left onto Gateway Center Drive, then continue to the intersection with Clarksburg Road and turn right.

- As you cross Route 355, Clarksburg Road becomes Stringtown Road. Cross over Stringtown Road to get on the bike path.

- Continue on the bike path, and take the first left onto Overlook Park Drive. This is a gravel construction road that is NOT PAVED OR SIGNED. Continue to the first "intersection" at Clarksburg Square Road (another unsigned gravel construction road) and turn right. Continue to Burnt Hill Road (paved) and turn left. Continue on Burnt Hill Road, passing a school on the left, and then crossing over Piedmont Road.

- You will have a long sweeping downhill ride on Burnt Hill Road, and at the bottom you will come to Kingsley Road. Kingsley is paved to the right, but on the left there is just a gravel parking lot, which is also the trail head for the Froggy Hollow Trail in Little Bennett Regional Park.

- You have many choices here (refer to a Little Bennett Trail Map, http://www.montgomeryparks.org/PPSD/...ett_trails.pdf) and you can ride as much or as little of Little Bennett as you want, but you will eventually want to get to the North end of the Purdum Trail, near the Burnt Hill Parking area. The fastest route is to take the Froggy Hollow trail to the foot bridge, where you will go right across the bridge and stay right to pick up the Purdum Trail (steep, semi-paved). Follow Purdum to the end.

- The end of the Purdum Trail will run into a wide gravel road. Turn right on this and it will soon intersect with Burnt Hill Road.

- Turn right on Burnt Hill Road

- Turn left on Kingstead Road

- Turn right on Kings Valley Road.

- Continue on Kings Valley Road until you reach the intersection with Route 27 (Ridge Road). Cross over Route 27 with caution and continue straight on Kings Valley Road until you see Damascus Recreational Park on the left. Turn left into the main park entrance. Continue straight, with parking lots on the left and a baseball field on the right. As the park road bends left, there is a bike path running along the right side of the road.

- If you need water, go right on the bike path and follow it past the tennis courts to another parking lot. Stay left thru the lot and there will be another baseball field ahead of you. Near the bleachers along the third base line is a water fountain/spigot.

- If you do not need water, go left on the bike path and follow along the paved park road. The bike path will cross the park road (there is a parking lot to the left here) and continue between two soccer fields. Stay on the bike path as it heads downhill into the woods. Near the bottom of the hill and just past a park bench on the left, you will see a trail marker and make a right hand turn onto a single track dirt trail (Magruder Branch side trail).

- From here, just follow the blue blazes (around 10 miles, mostly along the creek) all the way to Route 355. It is pretty hard to get lost, but there are a few side trails here and there that could trip you up. Along the way, you will cross over Log House Road, Watkins Road, Huntmaster Road, Brink Road, and Watkins Mill Road. If you want a more detailed description of this section, check out: http://senecacreektrailrace.com/coursedescription.htm . This is the website for a trail race that uses the same section of trail as the "Epic" ride does, between Damascus Recreational Park and Route 355.

- At the Route 355 parking lot, turn left onto Route 355 (Frederick Road) and cross over the creek. At the first intersection, turn right onto Game Preserve Road. Follow Game Preserve Road as it goes under I-270, and continue on until you reach the railroad bridge. Here you have two options:

o OPTION 1: Continue on Game Preserve Road until you reach Clopper Road (careful, this is a busy road). Turn right onto Clopper Road, then take your first left into Seneca Creek State park. OR o OPTION 2: After you go under the railroad bridge you can do a 50 yard bushwhack to the South East (to your left) to access the end of Longdraft Road. Continue on Longdraft, crossing over Clopper Road, then passing Pheasant Run Drive and Golden Post Lane. Continue until you come to a bridge, with Clopper Lake on your right. Just before you cross the bridge, you can drop down onto the Lakeshore Trail in Seneca Creek State Park.

- You have many trail choices in Seneca Creek State park (I do not know of a trail map online), but the fastest route is to take OPTION 1 ABOVE to access the park from Clopper Road. Enter the park, continue along the park road, go past the guard/gate house, then take the first right onto Scene Creek Road. Continue until the second possible right turn, and at the far right corner of the road intersection, pick up the Long Draught Trail (if you reach the lake you have gone too far).

- Continue on Long Draught Trail, which will cross under Great Seneca Highway and eventually dump you onto a gravel road that will lead out to Riffleford Road.

- Turn right onto Riffleford Road and take it to Route 118.

- Turn left onto Route 118, then take the first right onto Germantown Park Drive. Continue to the traffic circle, then turn left onto Schaeffer Road and follow back to Schaeffer Farm.

- You can either end your ride at the Schaeffer parking lot…or if you still have any energy left and you want to complete the "full" MoCo Epic ride, head into Schaeffer and ride either the white loop, yellow loop, or both!