Columbia Pike to Holmes Run in Fairfax

[lordofthemark]

Had a couple of hours for a ride, so went up Columbia Pike to the entrance to Holmes Run Valley right near Lake Barcroft, and then down the trail in the park as far as Chambliss, and back.

1. Lots of water crossings in the park. Signs say to dismount cause its steep, but its not steeper than on quite a few trails and paths.

2. Columbia Pike – well – traffic is pretty fast, but at least there are two lanes in each direction. I rode on the road in the main travel lanes a couple of times when I was at a spot with no even semi-decent other choice, but wasn’t really comfortable. Mostly I used a combination of sidewalks, paths and service lanes. At least here there no driveways onto the Pike, as well as no pedestrians, so some major sidewalk hazards are avoided.

3. There is a newly paved stretch of sidewalk – I don’t recall if there was sidewalk here before – I guess not?

4. The crossing from sidewalk to service lane near the Harris Teeter shopping center is awkward – but riding the travel lanes is not particularly enticing at that spot

Topic

[bobco85]

Sounds like a good trip. Do you have a map of the route? Whenever I’m in that area, I tend to be heading east on Columbia Pike (I go north from Old Columbia Pike to Columbia Pike until getting on the south-side service road at the Braddock Road intersection, then using the path until crossing at Blair Rd and going through that neighborhood via Lake St), so I’m interested to see good routes west from there (I usually take Sleepy Hollow Rd from around Seven Corners to get to Columbia Pike). Looking at the map near the Harris Teeter there, it looks like you could take the service road on the north side of Columbia Pike and use Maplewood Dr to get to the next service road, but you’d need to first cross Columbia Pike at the Aqua Terrace light.

I’ve only been on the northern section of the Holmes Run trail once (my road bike does not like to “ford the river”), as I usually take the southern section (it starts on the eastern side of Holmes Run at the end of N Chambliss St and runs all the way to Eisenhower Ave).

[lordofthemark]

@bobco85 34053 wrote:

Sounds like a good trip. Do you have a map of the route? Whenever I’m in that area, I tend to be heading east on Columbia Pike (I go north from Old Columbia Pike to Columbia Pike until getting on the south-side service road at the Braddock Road intersection, then using the path until crossing at Blair Rd and going through that neighborhood via Lake St), so I’m interested to see good routes west from there (I usually take Sleepy Hollow Rd from around Seven Corners to get to Columbia Pike). Looking at the map near the Harris Teeter there, it looks like you could take the service road on the north side of Columbia Pike and use Maplewood Dr to get to the next service road, but you’d need to first cross Columbia Pike at the Aqua Terrace light.

I’ve only been on the northern section of the Holmes Run trail once (my road bike does not like to “ford the river”), as I usually take the southern section (it starts on the eastern side of Holmes Run at the end of N Chambliss St and runs all the way to Eisenhower Ave).

going east I was on the south side of the Pike and stayed there – and rode in the travel lanes where I needed to. On the way back west, I considered crossing but was not sure if Maplewood went through so I stayed on the south side till near the Mason district park, and crossed there and stayed on the north side till the Episcopal church (too bad they don’t provide a back way around like their Methodist friends on the south side of the Pike) I did not like the look of the west bound travel lanes there, so I crossed back to the south side (patiently and carefully, there being no traffic light).

I currently ride a beat old mountain bike, which makes riding in the road more challenging, but does make the water crossings a breeze.

[Author]

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