2014 February Trail Conditions

Things were pretty easy on 26×1.5″ tires with little tread. There was pretty good dusting in some areas but nothing worse from Ballston to South Cap St Bridge. Snow seemed to get harder the further south and east I got, which is the opposite of normal. This was from 550-635 or so.

Downtown DC was totally fine on CaBi. I slid a tiny bit cornering a block from my house in the slush but that was it.

As to Arlington extending West, you have it wrong. There are two sections of the United States. Inside the Beltway, or “In Here”, and outside the Beltway, or “Out There”. I generally assume “Out There” is full of dragons and Mad Max and things like that.

Fairfax was an absolute disaster this morning. On the bike, the roads were not too bad on just CX tires, since there was enough snow and slush for traction…the real delay for me was the traffic. Westmoreland was a sheet of ice at Kirby and backed up for probably a mile…but the sidewalks were fine Then I took the back roads to get around traffic and came across this mess at Old Chesterbrook/Pimmit Run…you can’t see it in the photo, but one car had completely slid off the road, and at least two more were stuck. All the drivers were just kinda standing around chatting and unsure of what to do. I hopped up on the sidepath and rode right through without so much as a slip of the tires.

Custis was actually really fun on my cx bike. Enough snow to look pretty but no ice to cause falling. We’ll see about tonight…

MVT from CC Connector to 14th St was covered by about .5″-1″ of snow most of the way as of around 9 AM. I’m guessing at least a dozen or two sets of tire tracks from other cyclists, but I saw no one along my ride, probably because it was so late.

14th Street Bridge also had a decent coating of snow most of the way across. Patchy areas of the Mall and Tidal Basin trails have snow.

It’s supposed to go above freezing this afternoon with some sun, so I’m hoping most of this melts and drains before it gets dark and has a chance to refreeze as sheets of ice.

@TwoWheelsDC 78356 wrote:

Fairfax was an absolute disaster this morning. On the bike, the roads were not too bad on just CX tires, since there was enough snow and slush for traction…the real delay for me was the traffic. Westmoreland was a sheet of ice at Kirby and backed up for probably a mile…but the sidewalks were fine Then I took the back roads to get around traffic and came across this mess at Old Chesterbrook/Pimmit Run…you can’t see it in the photo, but one car had completely slid off the road, and at least two more were stuck. All the drivers were just kinda standing around chatting and unsure of what to do. I hopped up on the sidepath and rode right through without so much as a slip of the tires.

Did you remember to point and laugh as you rolled by?

@dasgeh 78365 wrote:

Cabbies are especially crabby today.

EVERYONE was really crabby today AFAICT. The block boxing at 17th and Constitution was off the hook, and there was quite a chorus of honking to go along with it. I couldn’t cross where I wanted to because crosswalk was blocked an entire light cycle… of course so was the entire intersection, so car traffic NB on 17th couldn’t cross either and was stuck on the Mall side. As I arrived at my office a block away, I heard a continued chorus of honks coming from that direction, so I’m sure everything was still blocked up. IOW, it was a complete cluster#$%k of crabbiness and bad behavior. Good times.

P.S.-The snow is pretty.