2014 February Trail Conditions

@KayakCyndi 77700 wrote:

Shawn’s road route into downtown from Falls Church is downright enjoyable at 7am. All clear expect for a few large snow piles in the bike lanes occasionally from where they cleared the roads. Fortunately drivers seem nicer and more willing to make some room for bikes at 7am than they do at 8am!

You’re in early today!

@jrenaut 77588 wrote:

I can not believe that the PA Ave cycletrack is completely blocked RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE WILSON BUILDING. You know, that place where the DC Council works. And it’s not even blocked due to not bothering to plow. It was actively blocked by plowing space for cars, then left that way.

Here are some photos from this morning. The only stretch of the cycletrack that was screwed was in front of the Wilson Building.

Looking east from 14th

While not as extensive as Dirt’s bike and snow bank, the Wilson Building adds a nice backdrop.

Looking west from 13 1/2 Street

The plows managed to get a couple of zebras.

@vilago 77692 wrote:

thanks everyone for these updates. keep ’em comin!
I only wish there was some sort of “trail status” page for each trail. not that i don’t like reading you fine peoples’ posts, but it would be nice if there were traffic cameras or something like that during the winter.

I vote for the W&OD/Gallows Rd crossing a.k.a. ski jump for a camera! It’s important to see the ski conditions for the area

Ride report for this a.m. from Dunn Loring to DC.

W&OD west of East Falls Church is dicey, so I took roads.

W&OD to Custis is pretty good, with just a bit of ice here and there. I road with 35 C studded tires but could’ve probably done it on skinny road tires without having to walk at all.

Custis was entirely rideable on studded tires, but folks without studs were walking bikes for some very short stretches, and a long stretch just before you reach Lee highway near Rosslyn.

I took the TR bridge. Trail to TR bridge is passable, thought there’s just a narrow 6 in. track down to the pavement over the wooden bridge.

The rain should make this all much more passable by evening I’d think.

@Greenbelt 77728 wrote:

All things considered, I think the plows did a pretty good job with PA Ave — we asked them not to remove the pylons even if it meant they couldn’t plow the cycletrack as easily, and it worked out pretty well in my opinion.

Maybe the DC plow drivers are just more skillful than the naysayers thought!

I agree with you. Now that they have been in the cleanup phase for 3-4 days, I would have expected they would have brought a bobcat in to remove the snow that they piled up. If the DC plows hadn’t touched the cycletrack it would be clean now. The problem is that they chose to push snow from the roadway into the cycletrack.

As I rode in, I saw bobcats doing cleanup to clear snow from specific locations. I think the cycletrack deserves similar treatment.

I suppose it was inevitable that a few zebras would be culled once the snow gets deep enough.

@mstone 77666 wrote:

The point of mocking the “skiers” argument isn’t that skiers have no right to be on the trail, it’s that there’s no plausible way that skiers are hopscotching across the mixed pavement, snow, and ice (and gallows road) as a pleasant recreational activity.

So now you’re telling skiers how to have fun? How about you let the skiers worry about how they cross roads.

I skied to the Metro to get to work last Friday on a trail. I managed to cross the roads fine. I’ll be happy to take you out on skis and show you how it works some time.

The trails, in the state that they are in, serve no beneficial function to any group of users.

Again, I skied on the trails and it was a beneficial function to me.

I get maybe one day a year to use my skis in this area. You can handle one day a year of not using your bike.

If NVRPA could identify a real group of skiing constituents, I’m sure they could get them together with WABA, pedestrian/jogging advocacy groups, etc., and come up with an actual plan that could serve various groups’ legitimate needs and desires. (E.g., skiing may be something useful along the unpaved W&OD sidepaths, and a strategy could be worked out to bridge gaps, maybe by reserving one lane of the paved trail in certain sections as a snow surface, or somesuch. It’s still not clear to me how you get across intersecting roads, so maybe there’s a limited number of sections of trail where this is even worth talking about?)

Now that’s reasonable. What’s not reasonable is coming here and using the exact same arguments that motorists use against cyclists to bash other trail users.

I actually think plowing the trails would help skiers. In most places, there’s room off the paved area for skis. Plowing might keep pedestrians from walking all over the place and ruining the snow for skiers, including walking in their tracks.

Thanks for asking.