March 2018 Trail and Road Conditions

[dkel]

My eastbound ride from Vienna on the W&OD was much improved. I left work at about 2:30, picked up the trail at Branch Ave (just below the climb up to Navy Federal), and rode all the way to Grove Ave in Falls Church (just past Citizens’ Bridge). The trail is 90% clear and dry! The typical bad spots are still very wet, but mostly clear of slush and ice. Even the overpasses are improved: they’re free of bumpy ice, but still deep in wet slush. The exception is the eastbound lane of Citizens’ Bridge, which is still mostly covered in heavy snow; if you stay to the left, though, it’s clearer and slushier, just use caution. The westbound lane of the bridge looked clear as I approached, but once I got onto the bridge I couldn’t see over there to tell whether it was actually clear.

tl;dr
I will be forgoing studs tomorrow: even if there is re-freezing overnight, those areas should be very limited.

[Crickey7]

Someone on the CCT Facebook page said it’s closed at River Road on account of ice falling from the nearby TV Tower.

[Oldtowner]

@dbb 176742 wrote:

Rode Crystal City Connector and north on the MVT across the 14th St Bridge right at sunup (hybrid with 35 mm, no studs)

A bit of the Crystal City Connector is single track (from the bike counter to the GWMP underpass)

The two northern bridges on the MVT at DCA were crunchy with ice chunks. I Flintstoned.

MVT was almost universally clear, with a small amount of single track and only one patch (maybe 8-10 feet) of glaze ice from refreeze (near Gravelly Point)

14th St Bridge was clear except for about 100 feet on the DC end where I Flintstoned.

DC along the Mall was clear and dry.

With the sun, much of the issues I noted will be short lived.

Thanks for taking the time to post this this morning. I was on the fence about trying it this morning from Old Town to Penn Quarter. And this cinched it for me. The trail was exactly as described at around 9. Made it in on plain old 38s. Even the bridges were crunchy enough to ride. Only saw three other bikes the whole time, but the trail was 95% clear. Thanks again!!

[semperiden]

@KWL 176766 wrote:

The Washington Blvd trail was clear this morning. I’m thinking I’ll continue to skip the Trollheim for the rest of this week. It could get to 80°F during the day and that sucker would still be iced up. Any news to the contrary would be welcome.

Trollheim was surprisingly clear this afternoon (except for a small patch under the bridge). MVT from Georgetown to 4MR was clear.

[n18]

@hozn 176747 wrote:

Tomorrow, I’ll take Lawyers all the way into Reston.

It’s amazing that only 24 hours ago we thought the melting would take days, but it’s mostly clear now. I am guessing that you won’t be using Lawyers RD tomorrow, and I hope that you don’t consider using Lawyers RD in the future until they add bike lanes. After reading this study which shows that adding bike lanes reduces injuries by 50%(90% for protected bike lanes), I stopped considering roads without bike lanes unless the speed limit is 25 MPH with light traffic. No bike lanes, no me!

[hozn]

@n18 176807 wrote:

It’s amazing that only 24 hours ago we thought the melting would take days, but it’s mostly clear now. I am guessing that you won’t be using Lawyers RD tomorrow, and I hope that you don’t consider using Lawyers RD in the future until they add bike lanes. After reading this study which shows that adding bike lanes reduces injuries by 50%(90% for protected bike lanes), I stopped considering roads without bike lanes unless the speed limit is 25 MPH with light traffic. No bike lanes, no me!

Yeah, it was completely clear for me on the way home. No need to use Lawyers tomorrow! (And I took off the studded tires.). I’m riding out to Leesburg,so hopefully west of Reston is similarly dry/clear.

(I ride on roads without bike lanes with some regularity, but I do prefer slower roads — and wider roads. Lawyers isn’t the worst, though.)

[josh]

Somewhat off-topic: Took Lawyers Rd in both directions, Maple to/from Twin Branches, for the first time today (and not realizing how clear the trail was in the evening until I reached Vienna). I was pleasantly surprised by how considerate/reasonable the drivers were. I pulled into a side street about halfway each time to let the accumulated cars through, but was without incident. No aggressive passes or anything.

For the sake of the thread: W&OD between Vienna and the Custis is clear, only thing that might be questionable tomorrow is Citizen’s Bridge.

[DrP]

@semperiden 176806 wrote:

Trollheim was surprisingly clear this afternoon (except for a small patch under the bridge). MVT from Georgetown to 4MR was clear.

This was excellent news to see this morning. Took Custis – MVT – LBJ Grove – Pentagon

The Spout Run ice rink was still present, but smaller than the descriptions I heard yesterday – the westbound lane was clear or very thin ice so I and a runner decided to take that instead of the eastbound as we should have. Otherwise only some clumps of snow/frozen slush still on trails, especially in the shadowed areas, like the I-66 bridges over Trollheim (and those were quite passable).

[Author]

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