January 2015 Trail Conditions

[ramblingrider]

@Greenbelt 104452 wrote:

MD trails in Prince George’s are in pretty horrible shape. The College Park trolley trail is rideable between 193 and Lakeland Road, but not from Lakeland to Paint Branch Expressway. The sidepath under the Metro on Paint Branch is impassable. Better to cross under at the Metro station pedestrian tunnel. From there, take neighborhood streets (Old Riverdale, Jefferson, Hamilton, 38th, Arundel to get to DC. The Hyattsville trolley trail behind the arts district and Franklins to old Riverdale was unrideable.

Once in DC, it’s smooth sailing. The streets are good, the Met Branch is beautifully plowed, the 1st street bikeway is good, the PA Ave median bikelanes are good, the 15th street bikeway is good.

You can really tell the difference in priorities — in DC, they’re making an effort to clear the bike lanes and sidewalks. In Maryland, the usual contempt and unconcern for non-motorized transport.

Met Branch trail in DC:

Thanks very much for the update. I’m going to be taking this route this weekend, and was thinking of taking the roads instead of trails through Hyattsville. Glad to hear that my instincts were correct.

[bobco85]

@creadinger 104547 wrote:

So it sounds like trying to do the ArlLoop tomorrow is a bad idea because of the W&OD?

Unless you are prepared (studded tires), I would say it’s a bad idea not because of the W&OD (mostly clear except between Columbia Pike and the intersection with the Custis trail) but because of the MVT (untouched, it seems).

[Bruno Moore]

@Greenbelt 104452 wrote:

MD trails in Prince George’s are in pretty horrible shape. The College Park trolley trail is rideable between 193 and Lakeland Road, but not from Lakeland to Paint Branch Expressway. The sidepath under the Metro on Paint Branch is impassable. Better to cross under at the Metro station pedestrian tunnel. From there, take neighborhood streets (Old Riverdale, Jefferson, Hamilton, 38th, Arundel to get to DC. The Hyattsville trolley trail behind the arts district and Franklins to old Riverdale was unrideable.

Things thawed out a lot during the day; the Trolley Trail is rideable all the way from Berwyn to Calvert Hills (though the two bridges over Paint Branch Creek south of Lakeland are icy—ride with caution, if at all!); there are a few icy/slushy patches on the section through Hyattsville to look out for, but nothing I’d call impassable.

The Northwest Branch, on the other hand, I would call that. Long stretches of heavy ice, sometimes snow.

[rcannon100]

Lee Hwy sidewalk under I-66 in Lyon Village (connecting to Custis Trail… warning there may be debris on Custis trail as well.) has been reported to VaDOT (for the second time)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7403[/ATTACH]

[Steve O]

@bobco85 104558 wrote:

W&OD (mostly clear except between Columbia Pike and the intersection with the Custis trail)

I rode the WOD home from FS HH last night with Dismal and wheels&wings. Dismal had studs, w&w had a mountain bike (not knobbies) and I had my 3-speed toodler bike with wide slicks.
It’s about 80-90% clear now with 3-4 places you can either ride or walk depending on your confidence level. I rode all the way, which is doable if you keep a straight line, steady speed, don’t brake or turn. Nerve-wracking if you haven’t developed the confidence to do this, but not a problem if you have. If you want to walk these sections, they are probably less than 100 yards total between C. Pike & Custis. w&w went down once on the approach to the Carlin Springs underpass. Banged her knee I think; I hope it’s better today.

[brendan]

Just an update, since I’d asked earlier in the thread: Hains Point is open and the roads clear to pavement.

[Powerful Pete]

I can confirm that Hains Point is gloriously clean and free of any and all snow/ice/slush.

I rode the 14th Street Bridge and then rode north of the MVT to the IOD. The bridge is now perfectly rideable and there is little in the way of ice (few patches here and there, just be careful).

The MVT has several patches of icey ice, but usually in the midst of leftover crunchy snow, so you will not be caught out unawares and can always ride on the shoulder/grass.

Trollheim is still mostly covered in snow/ice, so be careful there. I ended up walking a bit just to be on the safe side, but nothing extraordinary in terms of conditions/time involved.

So, things are looking pretty good over all…

And before I forget, this was at around 16:00 this afternoon.

[vern]

I just rode the WOD from Reston to past Park St. in Vienna on slicks. Very doable up to Park St., with the large majority of the trail having at least some clear space. I only had to get off the bike at Buck Thorn, as the approaches on both sides of the hill were snow covered, causing me to spin my wheels going up the hill. On the other side of Park st (east), conditions deteriorated markedly, and someone who passed me going the other way told me it was much worse heading further east, so I stopped and turned around. Hopefully the sun this afternoon will melt some of that.

[MRH5028]

@vern 104837 wrote:

I just rode the WOD from Reston to past Park St. in Vienna on slicks. Very doable up to Park St., with the large majority of the trail having at least some clear space. I only had to get off the bike at Buck Thorn, as the approaches on both sides of the hill were snow covered, causing me to spin my wheels going up the hill. On the other side of Park st (east), conditions deteriorated markedly, and someone who passed me going the other way told me it was much worse heading further east, so I stopped and turned around. Hopefully the sun this afternoon will melt some of that.

Can confirm. Just got back from riding WOD from Gallows to Hunter Mill and back. Gallows to Maple is mostly packed snow and ice, was ridable with my CX tires, but certainly some slick spots. Past vienna to Hunter Mill was basically all pavement with some patches of snow.

[bobco85]

Custis Trail is still pretty amazing. Just be careful when going down the S-curve, there’s a little bit of ice on the inside of the first curve that will require you to go closer to the middle line.

Key Bridge (the more-trafficked downriver side) is narrower due to the ice/snow. Memorial Bridge was nice and mostly clear. The Washington Blvd trail from Memorial Bridge to the Pentagon is almost completely clear.

W&OD between the Custis intersection (Bon Air Park) and Bluemont Park has patches of ice/snow, especially around the Wilson Blvd underpass at very inconvenient spots.

Exercise caution when riding on the roads, as the leftover salt has made the stripes for the bike lanes (and many other lines) very hard to see.

[TwoWheelsDC]

The TR bridge is easily passable, but only 50% of the width of the path is clear, so passing an oncoming cyclist or ped would be pretty harrowing. Also, the troll is not fantastic, but passable on slicks if you take it really easy.

[rcannon100]

So…. I was wondering. Would it be useful to change the format of the Trail reports. Instead of making threads by month ~ maybe we should make threads by trail? If someone wanted to find the last report for trail conditions on the WOD near Vienna, they have to wade through lots of other reports about other trails in the current months thread. But if each trail (or trail segment or something) had its own thread, then the conditions of the trail you are interested in would pretty much be the last post to that thread.

Esta Mejor??

[Phatboing]

@rcannon100 104866 wrote:

So…. I was wondering. Would it be useful to change the format of the Trail reports. Instead of making threads by month ~ maybe we should make threads by trail? If someone wanted to find the last report for trail conditions on the WOD near Vienna, they have to wade through lots of other reports about other trails in the current months thread. But if each trail (or trail segment or something) had its own thread, then the conditions of the trail you are interested in would pretty much be the last post to that thread.

Esta Mejor??

Yes, very. This way us plebs don’t have to read about fancy Arlington county and their fancy trail plowing.

[hozn]

Yeah, that would be much more useful. In have never ridden some of these MD trails people mention and only care about the W&OD for my commute.

[ShawnoftheDread]

I’m going to disagree. Many of us ride multiple trails, and sometimes bad trail conditions necessitate choosing alternate trails. I’d rather not check the WOD post, the Custis post, the 4MR post, and the MVT post just to see how I should go to work.

[Author]

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