Hollin Hills / Fort Hunt road biking options?

[snugglefestival]

I’ve lived in north Arlington on and off for a dozen years and have many favorite road rides here. There are plenty of Arlington road route options that utilize bike lanes, wide roads that are mostly residential and easy to share with cars, and/or the extensive trail network. And from North Arlington it’s easy to get to popular spots like Hains Point and MacArthur Blvd or take the W&OD all the way out to Purcellville.

However, we are now looking to buy a home and one potential area we might explore is Hollin Hills/Fort Hunt (south of 495 and just west of the Mt Vernon Trail). Other than biking the MVT, which I don’t much enjoy given the crowds, tree roots, and overall bumpy/poorly maintained trail, I don’t know where I would bike if I lived out there. I like having a few different 10-mile “go to” road routes for morning workouts and longer 20-30 mile options for weekend rides. My fear is that every ride would have to involve getting on the MVT and commuting back into Arlington and DC. Is this fear real? Or are there great road biking options in this part of Virginia that I just don’t know about but would love?

[Emm]

Are you on facebook? if so, check out the Contes Old Town Roll facebook group. There are some good route options for that neighborhood. I lived there for awhile, and still go over there to do road rides since it’s a GREAT area for road riding, esp on weekends.

Here’s part of a route, minus the worst hills:
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/47729541

I usually take Fort Hunt down to Sherwood hall, and THEN start my ride with GPS, since that’s when I forget the route, hence the ride cutting in and out. For all the fun hills, try this: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/32291935?privacy_code=hTnevyB1aRD6Ksw3

Those routes are easily modified, and only have a very small piece of the MVT included.

[trailrunner]

They have done a fair job adding bike lanes to that area, so you could probably come up with some good routes that don’t cross Route 1 and stay close to home. They’ve also added some good bike infrastructure to the south to get you past Fort Belvoir. You could easily do a longer ride to Mason Neck on the weekend.

ETA: There’s also Fort Hunt Park. If you work your way there, you could do a couple laps there to get in some mileage.

[Rootchopper]

I’ve lived in Fort Hunt for over 30 years. There’s tons of decent riding here. Divide the area in two, north and south of Little Hunting Creek (the creek one mile north of Mount Vernon). South of the creek is Woodlawn with lots of quiet streets on the north side of Route 1. On the south side is a grid streets with no hills (kind of boring). North of the creek is Fort Hunt, flat with beaucoup suburban streets. Further north, it can be hilly. Basically there’s a ridge that include Mason and Hollin Hills and Belle View. The hill extends over toward the GW Parkway were it drops away (a great downhill).

I routinely do rides of 20-30 miles while barely riding on the same street twice.

Come down, get off the MVT and ride around. In no time you’ll find plenty of good suburban riding.

[Author]

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