Sugarloaf Mountain and Flying Dog Tour

March 20, 2013

A month back I was at my uncle's bar in Rehoboth, and the first beer he hands me is a Flying Dog Pearl Necklace, and in conversation mentions that they're located out in Frederick, MD. Also had a Southern Tier Chocokolat, but they're up in New York. Back at work on Tuesday (Monday was President's Day), I hatched an idea, since I remembered driving out to Freredick in December to go to one of the Christmas Craft Fairs with my wife and seeing Sugarloaf Mountain there off to the south. I convinced my formwer coworker Jourdan to do the ride with me, so I wouldn't be all alone. We got out of town and got to the Brewery by 10am. We changed in the parking lot, which was full of some of the nasty smells that come out of a brewery with fermenting wort and all. We had made sure that we would be able park at the Brewery as I emailed them and was given the response that it would be ok. Of course, this was my first ride on the clips, so I had to fall in the parking lot. Once on my right, which wasn't so bad, but not as embarassing as what would come. We rode up some nice rollers but the "mountain" was always on our left, not really getting any closer, until we made the turn up the long steady climb to the base. The climb was hard, but within my ability, at some point I got into a cadence, and regulating my breathing. 11 minutes and a couple of hairpins, we were up the 435 feet to the first parking lot. Stopped there for a bio break (it was around mile 20 at that time, and took in the vew to the east. Then we made it up to the top of the second parking lot, which we peaked at 999 feet.

Right before taking this picture, I fell because I forgot to unclip before stopping, on my left side, put down my left hand, and bruised my big thumb abductor muscle, which made the rest of the ride painful. As long as Sugarloaf was, there were some other steep rollers that we came up on the ride back to the brewery that were steeper than Sugarloaf. Nasty nasty things those are. Back to the Brewery, and we went on the tour. $5 gets you a handy glass, and 5 samples (about 4-6 oz per). Sad thing is you can't actually buy any beer on tap there. You can buy bottles of beer, but not for consumption on premesis.