My son and I did a six-mile hike with Lucy the Pit Bull up and around Sugarloaf Mountain, Frederick County, Maryland.
Sugarloaf is a 3,200 acre private park, free admission, open to all.
The mountain was bought around 1900 by Gordon Strong, a Chicago patent attorney and businessman.
Strong set up a trust fund in 1947 which maintains the trail system and other facilities. There is active deer control to preserve forest cover, but no other hunting that I know of. There are major cliffs and terrific views here, and it’s a popular near-DC hiking destination with nice well-maintained forest and lots of Mountain Laurel.
There are (supposedly) black bears and eastern timber rattlesnakes on the mountain, but the only real danger is falling. That’s a real danger at spots — some steep trails and terrifying edges are patiently waiting for the young, stupid, and clumsy.
Of note: Gordon Strong tried to integrate schools around the mountain in 1912, and though unsuccessful, he made sure the black school was better, and with a better teacher.
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