January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow

[Powerful Pete]

@ebubar 133328 wrote:

Pondering biking from Takoma all the way to Marymount tomorrow. Pretty sure I’ll be good into the city. Curious if anyone has info on M street, Key Bridge, Custis up to Lee HWY and Lee Hwy up to Old Dominion and Marymounts main campus. I suspect my usual sidewalk riding from the Italian Store up Lee to MU wont be possible and I’m not a fan of riding that road uphill with rage filled speed demons in giant metal boxes…

I can comment on Lee Highway from 5 points intersection (Koons Toyota) to MU:

1. Lee Highway through to the intersection with Lorcom (the stretch passing the Fire Station) has been cleared and is exactly two lanes – there is no sidewalk cleared at all. Ergo, you should take the lane if you ride up.

2. Lee Highway from the Lorcom intersection to Old Dominion Drive is also clear, but is more of a 1.5 lane – ergo, safer as a cyclist, as the cars more or less have to cede the “half lane” to cyclists.

3. Old Dominion Drive to MU is good, you even have a wee bit of the cycling lane cleared of snow.

Depending on how comfortable you are riding on Lee Highway, it can be done. I have not ridden Old Lee Highway yet, but visually (from my bike this afternoon as I was riding down Lee Highway/Old Dominion) it looked clear.

Hope this is helpful.

Disclaimer: this information is not meant for Boomer. If Boomer reads this post, Lee Highway and indeed all of Arlington is completely snowed in. Stay home and don’t ride.

[Kitty]

I did a recon ride from Rosslyn this afternoon… it isn’t pretty. If you go through this part of Arlington to get into the city, be advised that you might have to be prepared to get into traffic and take the lane.

If any of the sidewalks along Lee or Gateway Park are cleared, the snow plow pack will keep a bike from getting on them. If I can’t get over to Custice I will usually go EB on Lee Hwy for a bit, but today the snow mountains narrowed it as such that there is no shoulder necessitating trying to keep up with the Suburbans going 50. No thank you.

Speaking of Custis… its true! I had been plowed… up until the point around the Sheraton where riders would take it into the city. Where it meets SB traffic from the Key Bridge, there is a deep slushy divet in the snow plow pile that you can carry the bike over. However from there the block with the bike counter (ironically enough) is a snow/ice/slush field that I had to dismount and walk on… only to reach the “intersection of doom” which is an insurmountable snow mountain. Needless to say, I didn’t get to see what the MVT or the Roosevelt bridge crossing looked like…

I decided to turn around an see how Custis was faring. Heading WB I had to walk the bike on the slush-ice climb toward Scott. I could ride again up until after Veitch, from there until the shopping center it was hard going through deep ice slush I ended up attempting to Flintstone through. I worry about it refreezing overnight. That overpass is going to be dangerous. From there it was mostly rideable. Clearly care had been taken to plow, and while I twas “single lane” for most of it, with the limited trail traffic it wasn’t bad.

So then I opted to take the connector into Ballston past Glebe… bad idea! That had not been touched and was a hard slog soggy on foot back to Ballston, which ended with my CX hurdles.

Wilson blvd from Ballston to Washington Blvd has the bike lane fully obscured by snow mountains. I usually take the bike laned stretch of Fairfax Dr. to get to Clarendon Blvd (the parking area for St. Charles Borromeo and Northside Social), but that was completely snow blocked.

Ironically enough Clarendon itself, which is usually one of my more angst-inducing places to ride between the cars and the peds, was the best, clearest part of this, with a largely unobstructed bike lane most of the way to Rosslyn! Clarendon blvd did turn into yet another dead-end though as authorities were redirecting traffic for snow clearing (I hope!)

So all in all, progress has been made, but there is a ways to go.

[mstone]

@Boo Boo 133297 wrote:

I feel confident getting to Fair Lakes tomorrow, should the office be open, taking streets and not bothering with the trail.

As of tonight Fair Lakes is mostly 1.5 lanes, occasionally necking down to .9 lanes. People are driving like it’s dry and sunny, so watch your back. There are a number of missing turn lanes so tempers are high, though they had some bobcats out tonight and may have made significant progress by tomorrow. (Note: bobcats in the travel lanes are a whole new source of excitement.) In general all the intersections I’ve seen have been backed up because nobody can see to turn on red, they aren’t properly aligned with the sensors so the light cycles are horrible, and the triple turn lanes are mostly single lanes.

[PotomacCyclist]

I saw some CaBi stations in DC that were cleared of snow. I don’t know what percentage of the stations are plowed.

Yesterday’s mild temperatures melted a lot of snow but still not enough. I looked at another Arlington CaBi station, next to a road lane. The snow patch only extended about 6 inches back from the rear bike tires at the station, but it was about 15 inches high. I didn’t have a shovel and I was too sore to do any shoveling. But I kicked and pushed away some of the snow from the back tires to break up the snowpack. A snowpack 5 inches high will melt much faster than a 15-inch snowpack.

So I might do this over the next couple days, if CaBi isn’t up and running. I’ll pass by some stations. Instead of grinding myself into the ground trying to shovel them all out, I’ll just break up some of the tall snow banks by kicking away the snow. It only takes a few seconds and minimal effort. I’ll be sure not to push the snow into the road lanes or on the sidewalks. This will help with the natural snow melt as the temperatures get into the 40s and 50s over the next few days (except today). This will only work at stations where the snowpack doesn’t extend too far horizontally from the bikes and docks.

When I passed by the station I dug out the other day, I saw that all of the small snow patches that I left on the bikes had melted away completely. So it seems that in 50-degree temperatures, snow patches of 1-2 inches deep will melt in less than a day.

[dbb]

14th Street Bridge Bike Lane?

I’ve been in South Dakota for a week.

[jrenaut]

@dbb 133348 wrote:

14th Street Bridge Bike Lane?

I’ve been in South Dakota for a week.

According to pictures on Twitter, it’s clear.

[brownnugen]

Any update on MVT, from Belle Haven Marina to DC?

[DismalScientist]

East side sidewalk on the Key Bridge is clear.

[dcv]

Custis all clear this morning except the Spout Run overpass and the Rosslyn Monolith

[kcb203]

Drove from Falls Church to Reston. I could see from the toll road that the W&OD is totally snow covered where it goes under the toll road. And the trail along Fairfax County Parkway is non-existent. The snowbank where the WB toll road exit ramps hits FFX Cty Parkway is a 12′ mountain of snow.

[dasgeh]

@brownnugen 133353 wrote:

Any update on MVT, from Belle Haven Marina to DC?

NPS GWMP confirmed that they have no plans to clear the MVT at all this year. I have no idea how effective Mother Nature has been so far. You might want to focus on the on road connections (get to Boundary Channel Dr, then use the 27 Trail, if that’s cleared, to the Memorial Bridge, which is supposed to be clear).

The good news is that they are engaged and at least talking to us.

[MFC]

From the little I could see from the Metro, the MVT didn’t look clear at all.

[hozn]

@kcb203 133356 wrote:

Drove from Falls Church to Reston. I could see from the toll road that the W&OD is totally snow covered where it goes under the toll road. And the trail along Fairfax County Parkway is non-existent. The snowbank where the WB toll road exit ramps hits FFX Cty Parkway is a 12′ mountain of snow.

Yeah, I drove too. I mapped out a no-trail route, but I can’t find a reasonable way to do that without riding on Browns Mill or Hunter Mill and that just seems pretty unsafe in these conditions (with the snowbanks). My fingers are crossed that they’ll hit the W&OD today between Reston and Vienna (with the snowblower) in which case I’ll ride in tomorrow.

From their FB page:

Our crew has blown from Bluemont Park (Wilson Blvd) to route 50 and is continuing east…

We also have another blower just starting from the Broad Street bridge in Falls Church, heading east to Bluemont Park.

That doesn’t help me too much, of course, since those sections are relatively easy to detour

[gibby]

@jrenaut 133349 wrote:

According to pictures on Twitter, it’s clear.

Wow, that’s a first! I figured we were in for at least a week of slogging thru the muck there.
I’ve held off riding the Long Bridge route since I figured it meant bike hauling thru the marina park and across 14th Br. Hafta give it a go tomorrow..

[Harry Meatmotor]

@gibby 133360 wrote:

Wow, that’s a first! I figured we were in for at least a week of slogging thru the muck there.
I’ve held off riding the Long Bridge route since I figured it meant bike hauling thru the marina park and across 14th Br. Hafta give it a go tomorrow..

If there’s decent melt today, this might be an *almost* clear route by tomorrow. On Tuesday there was a decent foot path packed down, and the marina parking lot was partially plowed. Getting from the marina to the 14th St Br might be hit or miss. I would guess walking that entire section would add about 15-20 minutes.

[Author]

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