Lake Artemisia ride moved to SATURDAY 3/18

The weather is not with us for riding to Lake Artemesia on Friday. I’m hearing about ice on the trails. I want to give it one more day for trails to clear up so I’m moving the ride to Saturday.*The forecast is for high of 53 and partly sunny.*Everything else is the same. I realize this means some folks who told me they were in can’t do it now and I apologize. Please RSVP again.*mathtree@icloud.com (Lynn)

Here are the details followed by the original post:

Ride start:*Bluemont (parking lot by tennis courts just off Wilson Blvd: http://babesonbikes.org/bluemont/)

Start time: 9 AM
Mileage: ~53 miles
Ride link:*https://ridewithgps.com/routes/19372598* (When you look at the map, it’s kind of an Inner Bikeway.)

Average pace: 10 – 12 mph (given breaks)
Estimated return time: 3 – 5 PM*

It’s a long ride, over 53 miles from Bluemont, and has 2000 feet of elevation. Honestly, it did not feel like a climber. It was more of a twisty turny ride, and a big mix of roads and trails. Nadine and I were constantly looking at the cue sheet plus I had the route in my Garmin plus I had 12 pages of 8 1/2 X 11 maps with me for the parts I wasn’t familiar with, but now that I’ve done it in two pieces, I think I can take some of the halting figure-it-out time out of the ride. Still, please allow all day for this. If you can only do part, there are several places where you could Metro home between 10 AM and 4 PM with your bike. (College Park and Silver Spring metro stops come to mind.)

The cue sheet is four pages long in small print, but the big picture gets lost in the minutia. Here’s the gist.

Ride to the*CapitolCatch the Metropolitan Branch trail and ride through*NE DCPick up the Anacostia Tributary Trail all the way to*Lake Artemesia. Ride around the lake. Restrooms and snack there.Paint Branch Trail from the Lake to the*U of Maryland*campus.Ride through U of MD campus and then a bunch of cues (not too difficult) to get to the*Northwest Branch Trail. At the start of the NW Branch Trail, there’s a cute duck pond that we will loop around once for fun. Snack #2.From Northwest Branch Trail, we turn right onto the*Sligo Creek Trail*at the sign.*Sligo Creek Trail takes us to the outskirts of Silver Spring where we’ll follow some cues into Silver Spring.Then we ride through*Silver Spring*and follow some cues to Rosemary Hills Park. This is where Nadine and I got lost the most and did an alternate route, but I’ll carry a map to make sure we get through the park according to the route that will take us to*Rock Creek Trail.We’ll follow cues through*Chevy Chase*and work our way into*Bethesda. Snack #3 and bathrooms at Barnes and Noble.Capital Crescent Trail, cross the river, and head back to*Bluemont.

I’ve heard about the Ten Trails to Lake Artemesia ride for a long time. I heard tales about folks getting lost on it, so decided to explore when I had ample time. I did the first part of the ride to the lake with my friend, Kathleen, who was visiting from Columbus, on one of those warm February days. We took Metro back. Then Nadine was game to explore the rest of the route with me so we took Metro to College Park and picked up the route from there. Between the two exploratory rides, I think I’ve got the route figured out. No guarantees of no wrong turns, but much more confident of being able to lead it. Still, it won’t be a fast ride b/c of all the twists and turns.

Let me know if you’re interested. Will try to remember to check here, but email is better:

mathtree@icloud.com (Lynn)

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