Arlington’s toughest hills list

[Brcire]

Have a buddy from Belgium visiting who is doing the Amateur Tour of Flanders this year. Gotta help him stay hill-ified during his week. I’m looking for a mix of the short steep climbs to the long, grinds.

Have a few hills to do, but what others have you found in Arlington? And if you could give it a description (long climb, steep, grade – if possible, other info), and how you get there.

So far I’ve collected:

• Monroe Street – short and steep, enter from Lorcom Lane
• 24th Street N. to Upton – Off Taylor Street, across from Woodlawn, long and very steep out of the saddle grind.
• 41st Street – Under GW Parkway
• Military Road – good hills with a nice reward of two descents
• N. Glebe from under GW Parkway – not steep but long
• 31st St/26th – enter from Military. 1st climb is steep, 2nd long with a slight kick at the start of the 2nd part. Awesome descent when entering from Old Dominion
• Lorraine Ave – enter from Kirby. Short steep climb, then some good narrow road riding, minimum traffic
• Williamsburg – from Westmoreland. Long false flat, the up somewhat steep.

Appreciate what you can add.

Eric

Topic

[Dirt]

Here’s a partial loop of it. We ran out of time and didn’t complete it.

Not sure if my tags nested correctly. If not I’ll fix it in a moment.

I did that ride at least 2 other times last year. I just didn’t upload them to Garmin Connect and I’m not on the computer with all the rides on it.

Partial loop with a bit of an intro ride came out to around 5700 feet of climbing according to my Garmin 705.

Mark and Sean love the hills.

CVS chick wants to squish my head in her hand.

Yes. I’m a bit of a camera dork.

[consularrider]

The “Kill Bill” route looks challenging. I regularly ride several portions of it, but not having a Garmin, in several places it’s hard to tell what order you take several of the loops. Tim, how can I get a copy of the cue sheet?

[Dirt]

HERE is the link from PPTC’s web site.

[consularrider]

Thanks, I’ll try this on Sunday.

[Dirt]

Look forward to hearing how it goes for you. I’m gonna do an abbreviated version at 0600 Saturday. No time for a long ride this weekend, so I’m doing two shorter ones.

[consularrider]

I did the Kill Bill route today plus riding to and from the EFC Metro gave me a full 100 km. It certainly is challenging and doesn’t repeat too many hills. I’m pooped since it was pretty hot and muggy today. One place was a problem, there was one street sign missing in McLean, otherwise it was pretty easy to follow the cue sheet, but it did make for a slightly slower ride since I had keep checking my directions.

[Dirt]

Nice ride!!! I love that loop and will be back there soon. There are so many turns that it is hard to keep track of the cue sheet. It is a little easier with a Garmin 705, but not that much. It could be “improved” a little by a trip down to chain bridge and up 41st street.

Glad you had a good day of it. Keep up the good work!

[Mark Blacknell]

And to think I nearly missed the pictures . . .

[Brcire]

@Mark Blacknell 445 wrote:

(And yes, that’s on the Kill Bill Loop. Hit a hill near George Mason Dr. with Pat the other day that he thinks is tougher than 41st, but I didn’t experience my usual ohthankgodthatisover 41st St. feeling at the top, so I’m not sure I agree . . .)

Details on the location of this hill?

[Mark Blacknell]

South Oxford Street & S. Four Mile Run Drive. Access via S. Oakland St. Probably best to take a look at Google maps to see how to get there. I’d like to be helpful like Pete and paint a picture, but I’m not so good at that.

[Brcire]

@Mark Blacknell 494 wrote:

South Oxford Street & S. Four Mile Run Drive. Access via S. Oakland St. Probably best to take a look at Google maps to see how to get there. I’d like to be helpful like Pete and paint a picture, but I’m not so good at that.

That was good enough! Looks like you can easily incorporate it into the triangle. Thanks! I can’t wait to feel the burn!

[Mark Blacknell]

Yep, went up George Mason, right on S. Oakland around to S. Four Mile Run Dr., and then back up on South Oxford. You know, because we didn’t have anything better to do

[Brcire]

@Mark Blacknell 498 wrote:

Yep, went up George Mason, right on S. Oakland around to S. Four Mile Run Dr., and then back up on South Oxford. You know, because we didn’t have anything better to do

Oh yeah, I found it and rode it. Actually got a little lost so I rode up 25th Street which was a short steep one, then ended up going down Oxford first so I could turn around and ride up it! Thanks for sharing. The triangle route has taken on a new dimension!

So for the BikeArlington leaders – how about going out and doing some GPS mapping of these climbs, then put a sign at the bottom giving the distance and grade. I am sure you already have this on your top 10 priorities to making Arlington more bike friendly! Right?😉

[mikoglaces]

@consularrider 293 wrote:

Climbing S Walter Reed Dr from S 4 Mile Run Dr near Shirlington is 115 feet of elevation gain in 1160 feet of distance. That compares with climbing 203 ft in 1280 feet from Chain Bridge.

Taking Wilson Blvd from N Lynn St to Queen St is a half mile with a good climb at the start, leveling off, then climbing again from Rhodes.

Actually, if you just go wandering around the hills between Military and N Glebe by Marymount, or in the Dominion Hills/Madison Manor neighborhoods you’ll get lots of short, steep hill repeats in.

Consularrider – how do you know the elevation from Chain Bridge? Is that up 41st Street? I am asking because I am considering a very hilly out of state ride (some 15% grades) and i am trying to compare to some reference point I am familiar with, like 41st Street.

[Dirt]

I miss this thread. I thought I’d use it to share a quest that I’ve been on for the last few weeks. While tweaking a few things on the Kill Bill loop to incorporate a few lovely little hills identified by Tim for Version 4 of this ride, My friend Sean made the sarcastic comment that I should plot a century ride with 10,000 feet of climbing that doesn’t leave the beltway. My quick response was, “What do you think I’ve been working on for the last year????”

We’re getting close. The most recent version of the Kill Bill loop (without the West Arlington/Falls Church Extension) is a hair under 60 miles with roughly 6200 feet of climbing. When doing that ride a few weeks ago, I realized that I had to also ride into work and get my laptop that afternoon. That alone got me dang close to the 100 mile/10k ft goal. Since then I’ve been working on perfecting the West Arlington/Falls Church Extra Credit lap. My first iteration was rough. The hills were great, but there was too much flat between. In doing that ride I also found additional hills that need to go in. Brcire made some awesome suggestions for stuff around Lake Barcroft too. I have been scouting ways to link that in and found some tasty hills between Bluemont and Barcroft.

My rough estimate of where I am in the process is about 85 miles in length and close to 8500 feet of climbing. Finding fun, interesting mileage isn’t a problem. There are not a lot of additional hills to be added in. I have two areas that I need to tap into.

1) S. Walter Reed Dr. and the roads around it are great, but connecting it in makes for a lot of flat areas;
2) 14th/15th Rd. in Rosslyn above Arlington BLVD is good and can be added in pretty easily to the loop. (Thanks Tim); and
3) Brcire also suggested 8th, near Columbia Pike. I need to explore that.

Including those will get us to 100 miles and over 9000 feet of climbing. The 5-700 feet of climbing can be picked up by looping back for parallel streets that go up nasty climbs. I avoided that in many places, but some hills are sooooo lovely that they need to be included.

Some links:
Original Kill Bill loop from Potomac Pedalers:http://www.bikepptc.org/node/3731
West Arlington/Falls Church Extra Credit lap: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/30554466
Kill Bill V5: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/29839008

One basic comment about MapMyRide.com. Their elevation estimates are useless.

Trying to navigate these loops by cue sheet is almost impossible. It is extremely difficult to navigate them with GPS. The route includes many hundreds of turns and some come very quickly.

Once I get a route that I’m happy with, I’ll share it with the world.

Pete

[Author]

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