2014 February Trail Conditions

I rode several Arlington trails on the way home last night. The W&OD was clear from Shirlington Rd (mile post 0) to Benjamin Banneker Park (actually to van Buren St) just past mile post 5. At mile post zero, the trail is plowed to the curb cut on the lateral 4 Mile Run Dr rather than to the intersection with the stoplight. When I headed east at 5:30 the Wilson Blvd underpass was just starting to flood. There were one or two icy spots, mostly as I came out from under bridges heading west. The trail over to the East Falls Church Metro was cleared at the basketball court in East Falls Church Park. Heading west from East Falls Church the W&OD was still snow covered. The main problems with the Arlington stretch of the W&OD are intersections and access trails. At the east side of the Columbia Pike crosswalk, the curb cut is blocked. It did not appear that any of the access trails were cleared. Someone had shoveled a narrow path at the Ohio St access, but did not cut through the berm at N 4 Mile Run Dr.

While the Custis Trail had been plowed (on Thursday?), it did not appear to have been retreated after the Thursday night snow/ice event. There were lots of slushy stretches and some areas behind sound walls and out of the sun were still ice. I could not ride up the second half of the second of the two sisters because of the thick slush.

The Bluemont Trail was clear and its only problem was at the southwest corner of Wilson and George Mason where there was an icy stretch and then the curb cut wasn’t clear. It didn’t help that a motor scooter rider had total blocked the clear area to have a conversation on his cell phone.

The 4MRT was mostly plowed from the Rte 1 access to Bluemont Park. The section under the bridges leading to the MVT was not cleared (there’s a picture a couple of posts up). Then right before Mt Vernon there is a snow berm where the plow cleared the access trail across the 4MRT. The next issue is at Shirlington Rd where the curb cut for the cross walk wasn’t fully cleared and there was a snow berm in the middle of the road. I could go a few yards up and make a u-turn. There was a narrow cleared path on the bridge over 4 Mile Run, but I stayed on the road. When I turned on to Arlington Mill Dr I discovered that none of the curb cuts were cleared so I continued on the road up to Walter Reed. Again the curb cut to get on the 4MRT heading west there wasn’t cleared, but I dismounted so I could continue my test run. The section through Barcroft Park was mostly clear with a few slush patches. At the west end the sidepath bridge along George Mason had not been cleared so I went right and then through the apartment parking lot. There were large snow mounds blocking the trail along the run from where the parking lot had been cleared. At the west end the trail was again cleared up the hill by the tennis court and then down under Columbia Pike. The slab ford there was starting to flood, and the next two crossings had at least six inches of fast moving water (plus the last 15 feet down to the crossing weren’t cleared. I walked the bike up the slope to the new community center and took Arlington Mill around the crossings. The next crossing up is more raised and was clear. When I got to the Glencarlyn, none of the access trails to the W&OD had been cleared and the playground crossing was at least a foot under water. I again pushed the bike up the packed snow to the clear W&OD. Once past the Arlington Blvd underpass, the second W&OD/4MRT intersection was cleared and I rode the 4MRT through Bluemont Park to the the Bluemont Trail. The parking lot by the Bluemont playground is also being used as a snow dump and was most covered by ten foot high mounds of snow.