Plowed Bike Paths

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  • January 26, 2013 at 12:55 am #960938
    Dirt
    Participant

    As of this morning the W&OD was plowed from the Arlington County Line at Lee Highway in Falls Church all the way to Mile 0 near Shirlington. The 4Mile Run connector was plowed from Shirlington all the way to the MVT.

    Snow on the way home left close to an inch of fresh snow on all of the above, so we’ll see what happens.

    Pete

    January 26, 2013 at 12:59 am #960939
    Rod Smith
    Participant

    Awesome! Honestly, I’ve never seen a plowed MUP before yesterday.

    January 26, 2013 at 1:01 am #960940
    KayakCyndi
    Participant

    Really? I know where I’ll be tomorrow afternoon. If anyone has a Custis/W&OD report from tomorrow morning please post!

    January 26, 2013 at 1:03 am #960941
    Dirt
    Participant

    @Rod Smith 41725 wrote:

    Awesome! Honestly, I’ve never seen a plowed MUP before yesterday.

    Arlington does a pretty good job when they can. When the snow is really bad, they’re concentrating completely on the roads. The W&OD was plowed yesterday during the day, then again last night. That kind of blew me away that they hit it twice.

    The plowing didn’t help much for the morning commute, but I’m sure it helped stuff clear off before the snow started again early this afternoon. Conditions were really good for the ride home. Once I got to the W&OD I was in the big ring all the way home.

    January 26, 2013 at 1:17 am #960942
    Greenbelt
    Participant

    The NE Branch trail and the NW branch between 38th and route 1 are in pretty good shape — they were all dry this morning, except for a couple small and easy to navigate patches. The snow from the other day is mostly gone — just a few remaining crusty patches, especially near the underpasses at East-West and Paint Branch Parkway — and the new snow from this afternoon was just a coating and was nice and grippy when I went through. There’s one really nasty spot on the Paint Branch trail on the east (lake) side of the CSX/Metro underpass. That’s a true black ice hidden under snow issue on that one, best to go off trail there for traction.

    January 26, 2013 at 1:23 am #960943
    DismalScientist
    Participant

    I can’t tell whether plowing with this little snow leaves more ice than just leaving it snow-covered.

    January 26, 2013 at 1:36 am #960944
    Dirt
    Participant

    @DismalScientist 41729 wrote:

    I can’t tell whether plowing with this little snow leaves more ice than just leaving it snow-covered.

    I think it initially leaves more ice, but that ice burns off quicker than it would if they didn’t plow. This bit of definitive wisdom is based on 0% fact. :D

    January 26, 2013 at 1:38 am #960945
    Rod Smith
    Participant

    The MBT wasn’t plowed to surface, a layer of snow remained, but it was rapidly melting out at 10am yesterday and completely dry this morning. Refrozen boot and bike tracks makes treacherous riding.

    January 26, 2013 at 1:50 am #960947
    Mikey
    Participant

    With this amount of snow I would be satisfied with salted/treated trails, as long as they were treated early in the day and the sun could dry them out by the evening commute.

    January 26, 2013 at 1:57 am #960949
    jopamora
    Participant

    @Rod Smith 41731 wrote:

    Refrozen boot and bike tracks makes treacherous riding.

    Sounds like the Capital Crescent Trail.

    January 26, 2013 at 4:07 am #960955
    Justin Antos
    Participant

    Glad to hear the W&OD is plowed, I’m pleasantly surprised! Thinking about heading out there mid-morning – touring bike, fenders, Schwalbe Marathon tires. Am I crazy?

    Any word on conditions on W&OD west of the Arlington line?

    January 26, 2013 at 4:18 am #960956
    dcv
    Participant

    @Justin Antos 41741 wrote:

    Glad to hear the W&OD is plowed, I’m pleasantly surprised! Thinking about heading out there mid-morning – touring bike, fenders, Schwalbe Marathon tires. Am I crazy?

    Any word on conditions on W&OD west of the Arlington line?

    Rode home tonight, everything was covered with freshly fallen snow. The WOD west of East Falls Church has a base layer of packed snow from Thursday, it hadn’t melted yet. There are some icy patches under the new snow, but it was an easy ride on studded tires. Quite nice actually.

    January 26, 2013 at 10:52 am #960957
    Dirt
    Participant

    @Justin Antos 41741 wrote:

    Glad to hear the W&OD is plowed, I’m pleasantly surprised! Thinking about heading out there mid-morning – touring bike, fenders, Schwalbe Marathon tires. Am I crazy?

    Any word on conditions on W&OD west of the Arlington line?

    Just keep in mind that just because it is plowed, does NOT mean that it isn’t icy! The plowing clears off the top layer so that the ice that is stuck to the trail can melt off quicker. West of the Arlington line the trail his hardpacked and icy.

    The snow stopped around 6pm last night and there was 3/4″ of new snow on most stuff in Arlington and 1″ of new in Falls Church and further west. It will likely be snow covered until Tuesday when it is supposed to be 60 degrees. Even then there will be shady patches that are icy. Those could stay for weeks.

    Be careful out there!

    Pete

    January 26, 2013 at 11:08 am #960960
    DismalScientist
    Participant

    @Justin Antos 41741 wrote:

    Thinking about heading out there mid-morning – touring bike, fenders, Schwalbe Marathon tires. Am I crazy?

    That set up should be fine. Are you crazy? Well, team nine is putting in too many miles.

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