July 2014 Trail Conditions

[chris_s]

W&OD Shut Down Due to a Suspicious Package at Bluemont 7/3/2014

http://www.arlnow.com/2014/07/03/breaking-wod-trail-shut-down-due-to-suspicious-package/

Topic

[chris_s]

FYI: There is a 12 inch water main break at S. Walter Reed Dr. at Wakefield St. WSS crew is onsite. Entrance and exit of Wingate Townhouse Community will be maintained as one lane traffic with flaggers. Walter Reed rush hour traffic is not impacted. Bicyclists, please be advised of the ongoing repair work nearby. Trail traffic is not impacted. Estimated time of completion is 4 p.m. today.

Also bravo to DES for an extremely detailed and useful advisory.

[VikingMariner]

@Geoff 89598 wrote:

My wife, Cathy, and I rode down to Occoquan for lunch on Sunday. A good part of the way was on the Fairfax County Parkway Bike Trail.

Someone on this forum described this trail as being “utilitarian.” I think that is being kind. It is paved, but badly needs to be swept to rid it of sand, gravel, broken glass and other broken car stuff. Next, the vegetation needs to be cut back in many spots. There are places where half the trail width is unusable because of overhanging shrubbery.

If we could take care of those issues it would almost be up to the level of the Custis. Like the Custis there are sections that need to be repaved, but we can deal with that. The permanent problem, IMHO, is simply it is the Parkway trail and as such is quite close to the cars. Riding with traffic on country roads is one thing, riding with a steady stream of cars roaring by is something else.

After all that griping I admit we will likely ride it again, just not very often. I’ll probably take my commuter bike next time, not my nice road bike. But is there any way to get it swept?

Very useful data. Thanks!

[consularrider]

@chris_s 89747 wrote:

FYI: There is a 12 inch water main break at S. Walter Reed Dr. at Wakefield St. WSS crew is onsite. Entrance and exit of Wingate Townhouse Community will be maintained as one lane traffic with flaggers. Walter Reed rush hour traffic is not impacted. Bicyclists, please be advised of the ongoing repair work nearby. Trail traffic is not impacted. Estimated time of completion is 4 p.m. today.

Also bravo to DES for an extremely detailed and useful advisory.

The intersection of Walter Reed and Arlington Mill was very muddy and slick as I crossed from the 4MRT heading to HDCC. Also, there was a large branch down on the 4MRT behind the tennis courts at the Carlton by Columbia Pike. There was about a foot of clear trail streamside to get by. Be careful out there.

FYI, I reported the 4MRT blockage using the sticky link for Arlington, and have already gotten two emails saying it was being taken care of. Good work Arlington. Now if we could get a trail sweeper for the rest of the debris (with a snowplow attachment for the winter ).

[dasgeh]

There were a ton of medium-sized branches down on the connector between Lincoln/Monroe and the Custis (east side), but thankfully no branches to speak of on the Custis itself from there to Doom-ville.

[dbb]

@dbb 89587 wrote:

Somebody has “begrimed” the MVT

Hats of the the National Park Service who has powerwashed some of the spray paint off the MVT near the Crystal City Connector turnoff.

[dasgeh]

The Custis is also begrimed, though in Cherrydale, there are some where the carrot is to the left of the W… odd

[consularrider]

@dasgeh 89901 wrote:

The Custis is also begrimed, though in Cherrydale, there are some where the carrot is to the left of the W… odd

Directional signals.

[dasgeh]

@consularrider 89902 wrote:

Directional signals.

But they point into the woods, and the last one, right before the bridge, has the carrot at the top, like pictures here.

[VikingMariner]

Seen this before, mostly in crop fields. Aliens will be coming soon. Cattle mutilations are up.

[dbb]

@VikingMariner 89913 wrote:

Aliens will be coming soon. Cattle mutilations are up.

As Courtland Milloy predicted. And when the aliens spit on your car, it will be corrosive!

[Phatboing]

The errant pieces of shattered glass in the Gallows bike lane (or more accurately, the Gallows shoulder with bike markings) just north of Idylwood finally got my tires. That’ll teach me to run my road tires at the max recommended pressure.

I must give a shout out to the HED Belgium Black + Clement Strada combination, however – the ease with which I was able to unmount and mount the tire was as delightful as things can get when you’re fixing a flat by the roadside.

[VikingMariner]

@Phatboing 90007 wrote:

The errant pieces of shattered glass in the Gallows bike lane (or more accurately, the Gallows shoulder with bike markings) just north of Idylwood finally got my tires. That’ll teach me to run my road tires at the max recommended pressure.

I must give a shout out to the HED Belgium Black + Clement Strada combination, however – the ease with which I was able to unmount and mount the tire was as delightful as things can get when you’re fixing a flat by the roadside.

Yeah. I go that route sometimes. All that glass is from car crashes, mostly from driving while texting and tailgating. Drivers tend to veer to the right while texting from the right hand. I completely avoid that area during rush hour. Too risky. Police only emphasis catching speeders. Lame. Speed doesn’t kill; bad drivers kill. Gallows needs a barrier between the bike lane and road. Someone will die there soon.

[Phatboing]

@VikingMariner 90011 wrote:

Yeah. I go that route sometimes. All that glass is from car crashes, mostly from driving while texting and tailgating. Drivers tend to veer to the right while texting from the right hand. I completely avoid that area during rush hour. Too risky. Police only emphasis catching speeders. Lame. Speed doesn’t kill; bad drivers kill. Gallows needs a barrier between the bike lane and road. Someone will die there soon.

Aw, don’t say that out loud. I’m the only candidate there, most days. I use a rear-view mirror on my usual commuter for this very reason.

My own experience can be summed up as “unsettling but not fearing-for-my-life horrible”. Every once in a while I’ve even seen the odd nice driver. A BMW human got out of my way and was courteous once. A BMW human! Talk about unsettling.

I’ve also never seen cops pull anyone over. For that matter, I don’t think I’ve even seen cops on Gallows in the 4 years I’ve been going up and down that road. In unrelated news, though, I’ve started extending my commute westward regularly to rack up some more miles, and then I come up through Vienna.

[mstone]

@Phatboing 90012 wrote:

I’ve also never seen cops pull anyone over. For that matter, I don’t think I’ve even seen cops on Gallows in the 4 years I’ve been going up and down that road.

Didn’t we get a report from someone who was pulled over by a cop for biking on Gallows? Priorities and all.

@VikingMariner 90011 wrote:

Yeah. I go that route sometimes. All that glass is from car crashes… Gallows needs a barrier between the bike lane and road.

See the FFX county parkway trail at the DTR, for an example of what happens when there’s a bike lane barrier next to accidents: the tow truck drivers & snowplows throw the scrap over the barrier and it will never get cleaned up because they’d have to send a guy with a broom.

[Rockford10]

@Phatboing 90012 wrote:

In unrelated news, though, I’ve started extending my commute westward regularly to rack up some more miles, and then I come up through Vienna.

Yeah, I need the extra miles and I only go up Gallows now when I am late for work. Today’s detour took me through Herndon…

[Author]

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