Backbone Mountain & Kitzmiller

The high country of Garrett County: from Oakland the route rides US-219 south to Red House and US-50 to Gorman, comes back north on MD-560 to Mountain Lake Park, takes MD-135 through Deer Park and Altamont along Backbone Mountain, and drops down MD-38 to Kitzmiller and back, before returning to Oakland. It's 57 miles. MD-38 is a steep, twisting 2-mile hill with logging trucks, and MD-135 over Backbone Mountain is known for its hard descents, so use low gears. The turnaround is on the Maryland side in Kitzmiller: the river bridge leads into West Virginia.

From Oakland the route rides US-219 south to Red House and takes US-50 east to Gorman, leaving it before the bridge to Gormania, which is in West Virginia. MD-560 brings it back north to Mountain Lake Park, and from there MD-135 runs east through Deer Park and Altamont along Backbone Mountain. MD-135 is known for its eastbound descent off Backbone Mountain, with grades up to 9 percent and brake checks for trucks; the route turns off at MD-38 before the steepest part, but the high stretch is demanding too. Fog sits on the ridge often.

MD-38 drops about 2 steep, curvy miles to Kitzmiller, on the North Branch of the Potomac, with logging trucks and a mandatory brake-check stop for trucks at the top. At the bottom, the Kitzmiller Bridge crosses the river into West Virginia, where the road becomes WV-42: the route turns around in town, on the Maryland side, climbs back up the same hill and returns on MD-135 to Oakland. Ride the descent in a low gear and keep space between bikes.