Best way to access multi use trails from Mayflower Renaissance/Connecticut Avenue

[jrenaut]

There are a couple ways to get to the Custis. Super early in the morning, I like to use M Street, which is convenient to your hotel. It’s a total mess once there’s traffic, though. Follow M until you pass 34th, then turn left. You can take a lane on the bridge if you like insane drivers, or you can take the sidewalk, which is wide but can be full of people. Once you cross the bridge, you get to go through The Intersection of Doom. Assume everyone at the intersection is trying to kill you and you should be fine. Turn right past the hotel and that sidewalk is the Custis. It gets nicer as it goes on.

I prefer getting on at the 14th St Bridge, but that’s out of your way. If you want to do that, I’d recommend going up 18th, turning right on Q, right on 14th, left on New York, then left on 15th. Continue on 15th past where the cycletrack ends. Turn left when you hit the water then an immediate right. When you get to the Capital Bikeshare station by the memorial, you’ll see the 14th St Bridge access path.

[cvcalhoun]

The Capital Crescent Trail is easy; it’s basically where K Street ends. You can go south on Connecticut two blocks to K Street and turn right. Then you just keep following K Street until you reach the Capital Crescent Trail. Some more specifics:

• Just after you pass 22nd Street, K Street splits, with the left part going under a tunnel and the right going up to a traffic circle. Stay right to go to the traffic circle.
• Take the traffic circle around until you can exit onto K Street.
• At the first traffic light after you exit from the traffic circle onto K Street, you’ll need to jog left and immediately right to stay on K Street.
• At the next traffic light after that, K Street splits, with the left part going under a tunnel and the right going up onto the Whitehurst Freeway. Stay left to go into the tunnel.
• K Street will turn into Water Street. If you even notice this, don’t worry about it; just keep going.
• Water Street will end in a sign that says something like “No motorized vehicles beyond this point.” That’s the start of the Capital Crescent Trail.

[DismalScientist]

To the Custis, take M as above and left on the Key Bridge (I take the right (West) sidewalk). The Custis is the north sidewalk on Lee Highway at the second light. This does not go through the Intersection of Doom, which is Lee and Lynn.

To the Cap Crescent trail, take M west, passing over Rock Creek and enter Georgetown. Turn left at Wisconsin or earlier down to K street. Turn Right on K, which is under the Whitehurst Freeway. Continue to the dead end, which is under the Key Bridge and the trail will be there.

Returning from the Cap Crescent, reverse directions. As M is one way westbound east of Georgetown, on M continue on Pennsylvania across Rock Creek and bear left on L street, taking the cycletrack (on the left side) down L.
Returning from the Custis, you can reverse the directions above and take L as well or … you can go straight across the Intersection of Doom (Lee and Lynn) at the end of the Custis. This becomes the Mount Vernon trail and goes over the GW parkway and past Teddy Roosevelt Island. Past the parking for the island and on the boardwalk, go straight where the trail jogs left. This is the sidewalk on the Teddy Roosevelt bridge. Once past the Kennedy Center, take the street, which is New Hampshire. Go straight across the funky half traffic circle at Pennsylvania to continue on New Hampshire. New Hampshire has one block closed for construction: take the right sidewalk, which puts you at Washington Circle. Go around the circle and take New Hampshire for one more block. Turn right at L street and take the cycletrack.

–On the Key Bridge, I would try to take the west sidewalk both ways since it should have fewer pedestrians.–

[jrenaut]

@DismalScientist 80632 wrote:

To the Custis, take M as above and left on the Key Bridge (I take the left sidewalk). The Custis is the north sidewalk on Lee Highway at the second light. This does not go through the Intersection of Doom, which is Lee and Lynn.

Sorry, I don’t go through here that often and consider everything between the river and Rosslyn to be The Intersection of Doom.

Also, the L St Cycletrack sucks.

[DismalScientist]

@jrenaut 80636 wrote:

Also, the L St Cycletrack sucks.

Yes. Just wait for the crazy M St. cycletrack, judging from all the zig-zagging lines they have painted.

[jrenaut]

@DismalScientist 80638 wrote:

Yes. Just wait for the crazy M St. cycletrack, judging from all the zig-zagging lines they have painted.

I am eagerly awaiting the M St cycletrack so that I can complain in both directions.

[baiskeli]

While writing my reply, a bunch of you faster riders, I mean writers, jumped in first. I hope you called your passes! In any event, here’s mine:

I’ll give this a shot.

If you’re okay with riding in city traffic, this is a simple route. Go up Conn. and turn left on M St. Cross Rock Creek and you’ll be in Georgetown at the intersection of M and Pennsylvania Ave. You’ll be on the main drag of Georgetown, which is interesting but choked with traffic. A left turn on any of the next four streets–29th, Jefferson (going the wrong way), 31st or Wisconsin–will take you down a hill. You’ll cross the C&O Canal, which is a neat spot to see. Continue downhill to K St., which runs under a raised highway, and turn right on K. That takes you to the beginning of the Capital Crescent Trail. (I see on Google Maps that it shows the little path running next to K St. in the new park on the river labeled as the Capital Crescent trail, but don’t worry, the real trail starts at the end of K St.)

To get across the Potomac to the Custis and other trails, you can take the Key Bridge. You could get there by staying on M St. or on the C&O Canal towpath by riding on the side nearest M St. and then taking the steps up before you go under the bridge. Take the pedestrian lane on the near side rather than riding in traffic. On the other end, the Custis starts when you turn right on Lee Highway at the first light. Careful – this is a hazardous intersection known to us as the “Intersection of Doom.” Watch for people turning right on red without seeing you.

Going left takes you to the Mt. Vernon Trail, which runs along the Potomac and is very scenic. The Custis is less interesting, but 4-5 miles out it ends at the W&OD trail, which goes way out to farm country if you turn right. Turn left and it will take you (with a few confusing turns) to connect to the Mt. Vernon Trail, with another left to get you back to downtown DC.

You could also cross to the Mt. Vernon Trail south of the Key Bridge via the 14th St. Bridge, which is a bit safer and easier to find, and takes you past monuments. Take L St. east to 15th St. and turn right (there’s a cycletrack part of the way, but watch for sudden changes in traffic patterns). That will take you right past the Washington Monument to the Jefferson Monument and the pedestrian part of the bridge that starts behind it.

Here’s a page full of maps: http://www.waba.org/resources/maps.php

Have fun and let us know if you need more advice.

[princeofhills_nj]

Thanks to everyone who responded, the information has really helped! I’ve been studying Google Maps the past few days trying to line up the directions in everyone’s replies to what I see on the map. One of the reasons I registered to this forum was I was very concerned with having to deal with traffic going west towards Rock Creek & Georgetown on M Street from my hotel. Since I’m not sure how early I’m going to be up on Saturday morning (a busy evening of socializing with family and friends is planned for Friday), I want to try and avoid “traffic shock” as much as I can during my ride, even if I have to take an indirect route.

I might as well give you some background about my skills as a rider, I’m experienced: been with BTCNJ for 20 years, top level of the ride categories, raced for two years, also a ride leader, but I don’t go into the city that much. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve ridden in Manhattan NYC – all group rides and at least two of them were on Thanksgiving Day morning where there was virtually no traffic. But yeah I hate dealing with traffic, even in the North Jersey suburbs (and it seems to get worse every year)! I avoid centers of busy towns when you know it’s going to be heavy traffic.

One of the items on my “to do” list for this DC trip is to obtain a commerical printed copy of the Washington DC Bike Map -I found the links to the PDF file at WABA’s site, and the DC DOT site – but printing a legible version of the file without using multiple pages is impossible! I decided to call the DC DOT telephone # at the website to see if I could get a copy mailed to my house, the CSR was friendly and said I could use a SASE but I didn’t want to cut it that close to my trip using snail mail. He told me if I take the DC Metro to the Navy Yard stop on the Green Line, they are on the 4th floor and I can take the elevator upstairs and grab as many copies as I want during business hours. Does anybody have any suggestions where I can get one of these maps without having to go too far from my hotel? Do bike shops have them, and are there any good shops near where I’m staying?

If anyone would like to meet me Saturday AM and show me around, at least for a 35-40 mile route, the company would be appreciated!

Thanks much!

-Ray M. (PrinceOfHills)

[DismalScientist]

M Street outside of Georgetown is only really bad –and it’s not that bad– during afternoon rush. L Street is only bad during weekday morning rush. What constitutes traffic around here is cars standing still and bicycles riding around them. I don’t think weekend traffic should give you much concern.

(Perhaps the mix of bicycles and pedestrians on the local trails on the weekend should be given some concern.)

[princeofhills_nj]

Doing my homework on a rainy morning up here! Found a good photo of “The Intersection of Doom” here: http://bikewashington.org/trails/wad/custis.htm
It must have been taken early in the morning as it looks like there’s no cars around…

Can anyone give some current trail conditions on the Rock Creek Trail, especially the northern section up in the park? I may be using a cue sheet from bikewashington.org. How would you rate the cue sheets at that website?

[jrenaut]

The Rock Creek Trail kind of sucks. It’s narrow and bumpy. However, on weekends it continues onto Beach Drive, which is mostly closed to cars and is a nice ride. If you click here it should take you to a map of the start of the closed part of Beach. And you can look at this Strava route, which is my out-and-back. There are awesome hills if you keep following Beach past the Mormon Temple.

[princeofhills_nj]

Jon R.: just to clarify, the section of Beach Drive that is closed to autos on weekends, is that south of the coordinate pin on the link to Google Maps you posted in your previous reply or north of it?

[jrenaut]

North.

You can get there following the Rock Park Trail from near your hotel, and it’s fine, it’s just not the greatest trail to ride a bike on.

[consularrider]

Well, if you’re lucky it will be raining which will keep the crowds down.

[baiskeli]

@princeofhills_nj 80828 wrote:

Thanks to everyone who responded, the information has really helped! I’ve been studying Google Maps the past few days trying to line up the directions in everyone’s replies to what I see on the map. One of the reasons I registered to this forum was I was very concerned with having to deal with traffic going west towards Rock Creek & Georgetown on M Street from my hotel. Since I’m not sure how early I’m going to be up on Saturday morning (a busy evening of socializing with family and friends is planned for Friday), I want to try and avoid “traffic shock” as much as I can during my ride, even if I have to take an indirect route.

You probably won’t have a problem with traffic west of your hotel on a Saturday, until you get to Georgetown.

One of the items on my “to do” list for this DC trip is to obtain a commerical printed copy of the Washington DC Bike Map -I found the links to the PDF file at WABA’s site, and the DC DOT site – but printing a legible version of the file without using multiple pages is impossible! I decided to call the DC DOT telephone # at the website to see if I could get a copy mailed to my house, the CSR was friendly and said I could use a SASE but I didn’t want to cut it that close to my trip using snail mail. He told me if I take the DC Metro to the Navy Yard stop on the Green Line, they are on the 4th floor and I can take the elevator upstairs and grab as many copies as I want during business hours. Does anybody have any suggestions where I can get one of these maps without having to go too far from my hotel? Do bike shops have them, and are there any good shops near where I’m staying?

Most bike shops should have them. There are three shops in Georgetown, and District Hardware has a bike shop. Map: https://www.google.com/maps/search/bike+shops/@38.9018963,-77.0547448,15z

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