January 2019 – Road and Trail Conditions

[TwoWheelsDC]

The DC portion of the CCT is “rideable,” but not great. Basically, there’s like a 1-foot wide strip of relatively smooth, but non-slick ice. Thankfully, there aren’t many people out on it. With my knobby studded tires and gravel bike, I was good for about 7-8mph. The Towpath is absolutely unrideable, however. There’s basically a 3-inch thick layer of frozen slush under the snow and it froze hard enough that it has zero give and you can’t just power through it. Maybe a fat bike or semi-fat bike could do it, but I ended up walking most of the C&O section of my commute.

The RCP path from the volleyball courts to West Potomac Park is barely rideable, but should get enough sun today to make it okay for tomorrow.

The trail on Maine Ave. in front of Washington Marina was not cleared in any way and is an absolute mess.

[rcannon100]

Bluemont Arlington

4MR: Hardpack. Icy.

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WOD: Plowed. Patches of asphalt mixed with patches of certain death. Bridges are hardpack. Black ice in underpasses.

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[dkel]

W&OD from Shreve Rd in Falls Church to Maple Ave in Vienna is pretty sketchy. The blower cleared some areas, but at least half of the distance is very icy; the ice is hard packed and quite smooth from the blower, but I would have felt much more confident on studs. That said, I rode 95% of the way on medium-knobby 40s and did fine white-knuckling it. I am not taking the same route home, though: I’m opting for streets! I’ll ride studs tomorrow for sure, as I know that all of those shady low-lying areas on the trail will remain largely unchanged for days.

[Mark]

@LhasaCM 185766 wrote:

The MBT is in pretty good shape from Franklin to R, decent shape (at least one side passable) from R to NY Avenue, and an utter disaster from M to Florida.

I rode on the MBT today. This morning it was in pretty good shape except for two places. The first bad spot was near the NY Avenue underpass. I believe water tends to collect there, so I can understand why that spot can get icy. The second spot was near the NoMA Gallaudet metro station. For some reason, that section was never cleared. Why would they clear the rest of the trail, but leave that stretch untouched?

[DrP]

Mild change on trip home. Army-Navy drive to 28th to Meade to 4MRT to W&OD to Custis.
The bike lane on Army-Navy drive was partially clear – the buffer allowed on to feel like it was a regular bike lane (the other direction, which has parking between the bike and car lanes, did not look so clear, but the sidewalk over there looked great. My side was all snow). I jumped over to the sidewalk where the bike lane disappeared since (1) I wasn’t sure if there would be icy bits and I didn’t want to fall in front of a car that wanted to go 50mph and (2) there was less lane anyway due to pushing the snow over. The sidewalk varied from fantastic to passable.
The 4MRT sidewalk was still a mess along Glebe from Meade to after the bridge where the trail turns towards 4MR. There was some sidewalk visible, but near the road it was quite narrow and the idea of potentially falling into oncoming cars had me half-flintstoning. 4MRT trail after that wasn’t horrible (thank you CBGAnimal for the removal of some of that snow next to the generator). I am still curious as to what is in that puddle that is just so not frozen under Glebe.
W&OD was much more clear than this morning, but patches were solid pack or rutted. Still quite passable.
Custis was pretty good. The eastbound lane coming up under I-66 wasn’t great, but the westbound lane was clear and no one was coming. Access points to the trail still bad.
This might be the route in tomorrow morning unless someone comments that the Custis is great on the Rosslyn hill and the 110 and Washington blvd trails to Pentagon are clear.

[LhasaCM]

@Mark 185924 wrote:

I rode on the MBT today. This morning it was in pretty good shape except for two places. The first bad spot was near the NY Avenue underpass. I believe water tends to collect there, so I can understand why that spot can get icy. The second spot was near the NoMA Gallaudet metro station. For some reason, that section was never cleared. Why would they clear the rest of the trail, but leave that stretch untouched?

From Franklin to R – DDOT used a traditional pickup truck/plow. That took care of most of the trail, with some volunteer labor doing the manual shoveling needed for the transition to 8th street and around the flexposts protecting the trail at S and T streets.

From R to M – theoretically, DDOT uses the smaller Bobcat to clean that part of the trail. It does not look like that happened, or if it did, it wasn’t very successful. From R to NY Avenue – that was cleared by volunteer labor (and you’re right about the melting/refreezing at the underpass). Someone else did take a shovel to clear a path up one side of the ramp down to M Street, but in between was not touched. I opened a 311 ticket to remind DDOT to clear the part that wasn’t touched (and also requested NoMaBid to assist if possible), but as of 5PM that had not yet been acted upon.

[TwoWheelsDC]

TR Bridge is like, 50% unrideable. I had to walk most of it tonight. Custis is re-freezing fast and felt kinda dangerous in a lot of places, even with studs. The zig-zag at the East Falls Church basketball courts is also awful. I slid out even with studs, but the studs probably helped keep upright.

[bikedavid]

Trail conditions on the W&OD between Old Reston Parkway and The Bike Lane. A little crusty in some spots particularly around the American Plaza Way underpass otherwise ridable.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[semperiden]

The trail next to 27/Washington Blvd was clear from Columbia Pike all the way to Arlington Memorial Bridge. MVT from Arlington Memorial through Trollheim was really bad. I tried to put up a good fight riding it on my 32s, but on hindsight, it should have been faster walking it.

Rosslyn hill on Custis was clear, except for a patch between the sound wall.

[Sunyata]

@TwoWheelsDC 185929 wrote:

Custis is re-freezing fast and felt kinda dangerous in a lot of places, even with studs. The zig-zag at the East Falls Church basketball courts is also awful. I slid out even with studs, but the studs probably helped keep upright.

That section looked SUPER sketchy again this morning and I diverted to the snow like I did yesterday.

Overall, the Custis was better this morning than it was yesterday, but I still bailed at Ballston and took Fairfax in to Courthouse.

[dasgeh]

@semperiden 185937 wrote:

The trail next to 27/Washington Blvd was clear from Columbia Pike all the way to Arlington Memorial Bridge. MVT from Arlington Memorial through Trollheim was really bad. I tried to put up a good fight riding it on my 32s, but on hindsight, it should have been faster walking it.

Rosslyn hill on Custis was clear, except for a patch between the sound wall.

Now there are 2 trails next to 27/Washington Blvd and both start near Columbia Pike (the old one, connecting to Memorial Bridge, and the new one, Towers Park to Courthouse Road). It would be great to have clear names for them…

How’s the Memorial Bridge? I didn’t love the Custis-Key Bridge commute this morning, and may go back to my roads to the Iwo Jima – 11 trail – Memorial Bridge route.

[LhasaCM]

@LhasaCM 185766 wrote:

The MBT is in pretty good shape from Franklin to R, decent shape (at least one side passable) from R to NY Avenue, and an utter disaster from M to Florida.

1/16 update: AM commute was the same, but it looks like “they” finally got around to clearing a path for the PM commute. Still a few sketchy spots, but at least they were spots rather than long stretches.

[DrP]

@dasgeh 185953 wrote:

Now there are 2 trails next to 27/Washington Blvd and both start near Columbia Pike (the old one, connecting to Memorial Bridge, and the new one, Towers Park to Courthouse Road). It would be great to have clear names for them…

Washington Blvd Trail East (the old one) and Washington Blvd Trail West (the new one)?

[DrP]

I tried a different route home (well gym). Joyce to Columbia Pike to Washington Blvd Trail East (the one along the Pentagon) to 110 trail through the park with Iwo Jima to Lynn to Custis to Quincy.

(I should probably mention that I am on 38s that are not as nubby as they once were)

Sidewalk on Joyce has some slush/icy bits, but all is well, beautify, actually, from there until the park just after the cemetery.
Do not let the clear patch at the N Marshall Dr/Access Rd fool you. Shortly after that the trail going uphill is a hardpack/slushy/icy mess. Uphill required walking. Once at the Carillon, it cleared up some and the trails were rideable. The sidewalk on N Meade quickly became completely covered and I got on the road.
The bike lanes on Lynn are not completely clear (nor of cars at that time of evening either. Sigh), but made it to Custis despite the construction and snow.
Custis going up Lee was pretty clear, but ice melt may mean some slick bits in the morning. The bridge over spout run is a lot of hardpack/slush/ice. And for a long way. I got through it. There is a similar mess on the bridge over I-66 (but not as bad) and the bridge over Lee Highway (worse than the I66 bridge, but better than Spout Run). I exited at Quincy, and aside from the snow boulder at the turn, that exit was great.
The bike lanes on Quincy between 15th and Fairfax were anywhere from 5% to 95% clear – whatever the plow got. Cars weren’t too annoyed at me. The protected lanes between 9th and Wilson were clear.

Fairfax drive bike lanes were clear.
Ballston connector was passable – worst over I-66.
Custis clear from there to St Ann’s.
I still think W&OD and 4MRT is a better bet. Especially after CBGanimal has done so much there.

[Sunyata]

@DrP 186009 wrote:

Fairfax drive bike lanes were clear.

The bike lanes on Fairfax Drive westbound are 99% clear.
The bike lanes on Fairfax Drive EASTbound are about 65% clear.

I got beeped and yelled at (over loudspeaker) by some sort of law enforcement personnel (black unmarked SUV, shoulder patches did not look like ACPD) on Fairfax on my way home yesterday evening for not being in the bike lane (that had cars parked in it, BTW). I only got a partial license plate as he sped away so I can not report him to whatever agency he works for. 😡

[Author]

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