It is one of the most prosperous parts of the USA and the residential areas are full of big, posh houses, golf clubs and Equestrian Centers (sic). What we preferred on our drive from Shady Grove to the Sugar Loaf Mountain were the country roads through the farming communities of Montgomery Co. such as Barnesville ("established 1747"). I'd found the Sugar Loaf, a "Registered National Landmark," on the map we'd bought in Washington, having noticed that lumpy green hill out of the corner of my eye as we'd flown into Gaithersburg a couple of days before, and when we felt like hiking on Saturday May 2nd, it looked like a good place for that purpose.
It was. The trails up and around the mountain were clearly marked and many of the trees were in bloom. We heard birdsong and tried not to let the warning notice about rattlesnakes put us off the steep and sandy section that requires a little scrambling if your legs are as short as mine. There was a good view from the top which with its rocks and trees reminded George and me of Alderley Edge in Cheshire, England.
At the foot of the mountain was an mansion that looked as if it should have been in the home counties of England, framed with lawns and creamy dogwood trees.
It was time for lunch at the end of our walk, so we drove on to Poolesville to find a restaurant called Bassetts, that served us good sandwiches and was decorated with images of bassett hounds. Nearby was the Potomac River at a ferry crossing, White's Ferry (1828), where during the Civil War the Army of West Virginia had waded across to invade Maryland under the direction of General Lee. On September 17th, 1862, there followed the Battle of Antietam, the "bloodiest day in American history" according to the historical notices posted there, with 23,000 casualties. Poor souls.
Further along the road, Chris spotted another historic plaque as he drove by, did a U-turn, and to George's delight gave us a closer look. Apart from the plaque there was only a field full of ploughed, red earth, like Somerset soil, but in the 1950s an antenna array had been set up here that detected radio waves from Jupiter.
Back into the 19th century again as we met the river bank for the second time, at the Great Falls further downstream, this being 50 miles downstream from the more famous Harper's Ferry. There's a $5 entrance fee per vehicle for Great Falls Park that's well worth paying: you see a well preserved 19th century tavern there, and, by the tavern locks, a barge pulled along the Chesapeake and Ohio canal by a pair of mules, the people doing the work dressed in 1880s costumes. Walk along to the Falls Lookout on Olmstead island, a short way down the canal, and your view of the wide river rushing over the rocks in parallel with the canal is superb. The island itself, in the middle of the river, is a nature reserve that you cross on a railed boardwalk, looking down at the waterfalls and flora (bright blue spiderwort—tradescantia virginiana—eastern red cedars, post oaks) and fauna (zebra swallowtail butterflies, turkey vultures, ducks, geese, herons) as you go.
George has a posted an illustrated description of this outing on his own blog, as well.
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