Are there any Loudoun County commuters?

[Joe Chapline]

If you can get to the W&OD trail, you’d have a direct route to Rosslyn, all on off-street trails. The W&OD connects to the Custis-I-66 trail, and that goes the rest of the way. It would be a long commute, though — looks like about 30 miles. I’m guessing that would take more than two hours. It would be a nice ride to try on a weekend and see what you think.

[Chris Eatough]

W&OD to Custis Trail is one of the nicest bike commutes you could have. Trail all the way. But quite long.
One way to make it shorter would be to combine the bike trip with transit (bus or metro).
Lots of options there.
Arlington buses all have racks on the front for bikes.
Metro allows bikes to be walked onto trains as long as it is not rush hour.

[Joe Chapline]

A multi-modal possibility would be to leave the W&OD and go south on Gallows Road to the Dunn Loring Metro station. That would cut about 9 miles off the bike ride. The Metro station is less than a mile from the trail, and Gallows Road has a bike-pedestrian path alongside it. You might not need to take your bike on Metrorail, since there’s a Metro station right in Rosslyn. I don’t know what the lighting situation is on the W&OD — I’ve never ridden on it at night. If it’s not lit, this might be something you could only do in the summer.

[Hen]

Hey, thank you for the quick responses! It looks like I have more than a few options. Trying this on the weekend is a great idea. I had not thought about taking the bike on metro but that adds some flexibility. Thanks again.

[Joe Chapline]

Hen, since one of the tags on your post is “beginner,” I just wanted to make sure you knew that 30 miles is a long ride. And 60 miles round-trip is a LONG ride. So don’t overdo it when you’re checking it out. But checking it out at your leisure should be a pleasure, the W&OD trail is beautiful.

[Deb]

@Joe Chapline 102 wrote:

A multi-modal possibility would be to leave the W&OD and go south on Gallows Road to the Dunn Loring Metro station. That would cut about 9 miles off the bike ride. The Metro station is less than a mile from the trail, and Gallows Road has a bike-pedestrian path alongside it. You might not need to take your bike on Metrorail, since there’s a Metro station right in Rosslyn. I don’t know what the lighting situation is on the W&OD — I’ve never ridden on it at night. If it’s not lit, this might be something you could only do in the summer.

You wouldn’t be limited to summer, you would just need some good lights for the darker times of year. I know people who commute on the WOD and Custis trails year-round.

Some metro stations have bike lockers available for rent so you can leave your bike there for the train portion of your trip. It might be worth checking to see if Dunn Loring is one of those stations.

BTW I’ve heard that riding on Wilson Blvd is a faster alternative to the Custis trail, if you’re comfortable riding on-road. It has bike lanes.

[Author]

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