 SR 9 heads southeast as a two-lane road, passing to the west of Purcell Knob as the highway descends Blue Ridge Mountain to the village of Mechanicsville in a valley known as Between the Hills.At the eastern edge of the narrow north–south valley, the state highway parallels the North Fork of Catoctin Creek through Hillsboro Gap, a water gap in Short Hill Mountain, into the town of Hillsboro.SR 9 continues east through the much wider Catoctin Valley, crossing the North Fork and intersecting SR 287 in the hamlet of Wheatland.