Do you ride the trails at night – 7:00 pm or later?

[KLizotte]

I went out for a fitness ride tonight (7:45 – 9:00 pm) along the Pentagon City – Four Mile Run – WO&D – Custis – MVT route (a.k.a. Arlington route). My observations are as follows:

Four Mile Run – quite dark and creepy in a couple of places. A few peds.

WO&D south of Columbia Pike: a few peds, 1 cyclist. Not scary due to lights, traffic, people around.

WO&D north of Columbia Pike – a fair number of walkers (all without lights/reflective gear) close to the Pike then nobody at all to Bluemont Trail. I found the WO&D to be rather creepy/scary (this was not helped by the fog) and bailed out when I reached Bluemont Trail (seemed safer since it cuts through a residential neighborhood).

Custis – always an adventure at night given the sorry state of the trail in some parts. More peds and cyclists (largely commuter) but definitely more peds than cyclists which surprised me. Still, the trail was pretty quiet.

MVT – three peds and three cyclists seen from Rosslyn to Crystal City. I know the MVT like the back of my hand so am not too bothered by it late at night but perhaps I should reconsider after the rush hour crowd has finished?

So my question is this: for all of you cyclists training for centurys, charity rides, etc this fall, where and when do you train at this time of the year when it is getting dark so early? Do you rely solely on your long commutes and the gym or do you still head out like usual to the streets/trails (with a full supply of lights of course)?

I like to bike home from work, eat dinner, then head out again but don’t want to put myself in danger either (from either cars or crazy people along the trails). I have Exposure lights so can see the road well enough.

Given the relatively nice weather at night in the fall, I expected to see more cyclists out at night.

Any suggestions for night time fitness rides in the Pentagon City area?

Kathy

Topic

[PrintError]

@KLizotte 8435 wrote:

Any more news on how your case is progressing against the laptop thief? Just curious (nosy is more like it).

You must be confused, no one has stolen my laptop.

[KLizotte]

@PrintError 8452 wrote:

You must be confused, no one has stolen my laptop.

Opps! Wrong person. Sorry about that.

[consularrider]

@PrintError 8430 wrote:

I’m on the trail every workday, year round, including the frozen wet stuff. Everytime I dare say “I’ve seen it all”, I see something new. The ninjas at night in the winter are the WORST. In the summer, the in-the-dark runners all wear bright colors, in the winter when it’s EVEN DARKER, they wear ALL BLACK! Really!? WHY?!

One guy even cussed at me for telling him every day for about two months that I couldn’t see him. He wore all black, jogging in the Reston area, in the dark. No lights. I knew he was there only because I expected him to be there. Miracle he never got clobbered.

How easy is it to find bight colored, reasonably priced athletic clothing for men? Target had lots of bright great C9 stuff for women, but you go over to the men’s area and it’s all black, navy, gray, red (which is fine only by day), dark green, etc. When I look on Sierra Trading post, again the bright stuff is all for the ladies and the dark stuff is for the guys. :confused:

[KLizotte]

@consularrider 8475 wrote:

How easy is it to find bight colored, reasonably priced athletic clothing for men? Target had lots of bright great C9 stuff for women, but you go over to the men’s area and it’s all black, navy, gray, red (which is fine only by day), dark green, etc. When I look on Sierra Trading post, again the bright stuff is all for the ladies and the dark stuff is for the guys. :confused:

Try http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/mens/apparel/

You can pick your chosen colors from the left toolbar.

[theakston]

@consularrider 8475 wrote:

How easy is it to find bight colored, reasonably priced athletic clothing for men? Target had lots of bright great C9 stuff for women, but you go over to the men’s area and it’s all black, navy, gray, red (which is fine only by day), dark green, etc. When I look on Sierra Trading post, again the bright stuff is all for the ladies and the dark stuff is for the guys. :confused:

I think that is part of the problem…I’ve never seen tights that aren’t black grey or navy. Fortunately some have a strip of reflective material as do pretty much all running shoes (except for some of these new minimalist things). The other thing is that as a cyclist we are very aware of the need to be seen as we probaby do some of the trip in traffic lanes. Joggers/ runners are on a trail and don’t necessarily think of the need to be seen by bikes – or assume that the onus is on the bikes (as the peds generally have right of way).

[Joe Chapline]

@KLizotte 8483 wrote:

Try http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/mens/apparel/

You can pick your chosen colors from the left toolbar.

Under Armour is based in Baltimore and provides a lot of jobs here.

[LilBit]

I’ve been working late for the past couple of weeks and haven’t been riding at all because of that. I have lights but I am more concerned being mugged or having an accident. I ride from the Pentagon to Alexandria (just to the south side of Old Town)…through part of Crystal City, then MVT for a good ways until I hit Old Town, then through Old Town. Once I reach the WW Bridge, I cross over to reach Hwy 1 then it’s on home from there. Has anyone had any problems in that area? I miss being out there and really need/want to ride again (commute). Certainly puts me in a MUCH better mood.

Thanks
Lizzie

[Arlingtonrider]

Lizzie,

I ride from DC to Shirlington on the trails, and frequently work late too, although rarely past 6:45 or so. I’ve found the trails on my part of your commute to be ok so far this season, even though it’s starting to get pretty dark by the time I get close to home. There are usually quite a few other commuters out around that time. I just hope everyone keeps riding for at least a couple more months (for the fair weather riders among us!)

– Kathy

[vvill]

I found myself on the W&OD til 8pm tonight and wow. There are a lot of people with zero lighting and zero reflective material. What the?!

I also had to slow down for a deer at one point and had to brake to allow a squirrel to cross. Eventful evening.

[KLizotte]

@vvill 8687 wrote:

I found myself on the W&OD til 8pm tonight and wow. I also had to slow down for a deer at one point and had to brake to allow a squirrel to cross. Eventful evening.

At 8:00 pm last night on Hain’s Pt I saw a fox. It wasn’t at all bothered by my light. I also saw a rat heading to the port-o-potties on the MVT by Gravelly Pt about 9:00 pm.

[Dirt]

There are a ton of lights out on the W&OD and Custis…. which doesn’t help.

[Tim Kelley]

@Dirt 8694 wrote:

There are a ton of lights out on the W&OD and Custis…. which doesn’t help.

CCrew recently reported a number of the W&OD outages West of the Custis. If you have the opportunity to get the serial numbers of the lights along the Custis, I’d be happy to pass them along to have them repaired.

Thanks!

[Greenbelt]

Last night, two graceful deer, one shy fox, many chaos bunnies, a few walkers with flashlights (thanks!), a couple joggers with reflecting shoes and white shirts (thanks!), two power walkers with reflecting armbands (thanks!), and no true ninjas.

[Dirt]

@Tim Kelley 8695 wrote:

CCrew recently reported a number of the W&OD outages West of the Custis. If you have the opportunity to get the serial numbers of the lights along the Custis, I’d be happy to pass them along to have them repaired.

Thanks!

I’ll try and do that on Monday. Thanks!

[CCrew]

Pete, ya may have to roll that pole by the bridge at the glebe/fairfax connector on it’s side to get the # :p

That one looks like it rotted out at the base.. then went boom

[Author]

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