Mountain biking in Arlington?

Our Community Forums Where to ride? Mountain biking in Arlington?

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  • #909614
    Tim Kelley
    Participant

    After my last commuter bike died, I purchased a new bike (Trek/Gary Fisher Utopia – skinny 700c wheels with front suspension) that I’ve been using to get around town. Now that all my racing is over for the season I’d like to get out and give mountain biking a try.

    So…where’s the nearest place in or around Arlington where I can ride? And what do you think I need to know about mountain biking as I am going out for the first time? Any tips/advice would be greatly appreciated!

    #924005
    Dirt
    Participant

    Great topic.

    MORE is the local mountain biking club. http://www.more-mtb.org They’ve got good information on local trails and places to ride. There are scheduled rides every week. This is the main trail advocacy group that has built/maintained most of the trails in this area.

    Log Off/Ride On is another local forum. It is a group of local mountain bikers that get together and ride every week. Their trail wiki is pretty dang good. http://www.logoffrideon.com/forum/index.php These are the people I ride with.

    Wakefield and Accotink parks are probably the closest mountain biking to Arlington. There’s between 8 and 10 miles of singletrack packed into two Fairfax County suburban parks. They’d be a good place to explore with your slightly skinny-tired bike. If you have pretty serious lights (more than what we were distributing last week) there are night rides at Wakefield on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

    If you’ve got a car and can drive a little, Laurel Hill regional park in Lorton is a great place to get your feet wet with mountain biking. I ride there with a cyclocross bike and the trails are fine for the skinny tires.

    Rosaryville State Park in Upper Marlboro, Maryland is another great place to ride with slightly skinnier tires.

    MORE and LoRo both have pretty good descriptions of the above-listed parks.

    I’m happy to show you around the local trails some time if you’d like.

    What kind of tires came on your GF? 40mm cross tires will do pretty well in the parks listed above. Many of the other parks in the area have enough rocks that you’ll want some fatter tires in order to ride there.

    We ride every Sunday. This time of year we’re doing some farily mellow mountain biking. Lets keep in touch and we’ll see about getting dirty. We can arrange carpools if you’re car-free like me.

    Happy Trails.

    Pete

    #924007
    DaveK
    Participant

    Rosaryville is my favorite of the close-in local trails, I take my mountain bike and my friend can ride it on his cross bike. Not too many rocks so it would be good for your bike. Much nicer setting and better flow to the trail than Wakefield IMO, you’re actually out in the woods at Rosaryville instead of mostly in a power line easement.

    #924008
    Dirt
    Participant

    Totally agree, Dave. I just mentioned Wakefield because it is super close in. It isn’t a real mountain bike destination in-and-of itself.

    If you like Rosaryville, you’ll also really like Laurel Hill. Laurel Hill has a few real benefits to it. 1) It is built to hold up pretty well when it is wet. It is really ridable almost year round. 2) It is really cool to ride around the buildings in Lorton’s original gated community:

    5111624302_6b01569a18_b.jpg

    #924009
    Dirt
    Participant

    I’ll add a few things here.

    Fairfax has the Cross County trail that connects a lot of things together. I don’t drive, so I appreciate that. The CCT is accessible from the W&OD trail as well as back streets through Falls Church and Annandale.

    The CCT gives access to:

    • Great Falls (mellow doubletrack trails)
    • Riverbend Regional Park (some good singletrack– connects through Great Falls)
    • Potomac Heritage Trail (I need to explore this more — connects through Riverbend)
    • Lake Fairfax (New trails built by MORE this fall)
    • Wakefield
    • Accotink
    • Laurel Hill
    • Fountainhead (If you don’t mind a 5-mile road section)

    With the different connections, that makes for some long days in the saddle. From the house (in Falls Church) I’ve done the Northern part and the southern part on different days.

    This is the southern half: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46556659
    Tacking Fountainhead on to the end of that adds another 20 miles or so.

    As others have noted, the detour on the CCT northbound from the W&OD is closed due to bridge damage. The trails north can still be accessed through Lake Fairfax from the W&OD. I’m hoping to get a good plot of that in the next few weeks. I haven’t done that loop through Lake Fairfax in a long time.

    Things are much easier for people who don’t mind driving to the trailhead. The CCT is kind-of fun though. The northern section through Reston is actually quite pretty. The center section from Fairfax through Wakefield/Accostink is mostly paved, multi-use trail.

    I know that’s a lot to absorb. Obviously I have taken this whole “leave the car at home” thing pretty seriously.

    In my next post, I’ll talk about opening up Montgomery County’s amazing singletrack via the C&O Canal Towpath. :D

    Pete

    #924010
    Dirt
    Participant

    Germantown, Maryland has been the hotbed of Mountain Biking activity in the DC area for quite a few years. Most recently, the 62 mile Montgomery County Epic was listed as an International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) Epic ride. The MoCo Epic connects 9 trails in suburban Maryland into a loop that is actually easily expandable into the mid-70 mile range. About 15 miles of that is on roads. My friend Denis recently set up a fund-raising ride for MORE on the MoCo Epic. Around 200 people showed up to ride a 25, 40 or 62 mile version of the Epic.

    Here’s IMBA’s page on the MoCo Epic: http://www.imba.com/epics/moco-loop

    All of these trails are accessible from the C&O Towpath. The cut out that most people use is Riley’s lock. I usually cut out at Violet’s lock. Schaeffer Farms (The main trail complex in Montgomery County) is about 6 miles North on mellow back roads. That will soon be much shorter distance with the building of the new Black Rock Mill trail under construction now. Singletrack will be 1.5 miles closer to the C&O.

    Connecting all of this stuff into a ride from Northern Virginia turns into a ride that is easily 135+ miles. Most folks won’t do that in a day. It is, however very possible. In October I did the full 136 miles and change in about 14 hours. That was part of the supported MoCo Epic ride that Denis set up. Having aid stations really made that possible.

    #924011
    Tim Kelley
    Participant

    Pete & Dave–thanks for the info and advice!

    The MORE site has some good trail descriptions. I think the Laurel Hill system sounds pretty cool, especially riding around crumbling prison buildings. And the video link on there makes it seem like to it wouldn’t be too hard for a triathlete to enjoy some first time off-roading.

    Pete, to answer your question the bike came with 700 X 38 knobbies. I’ve switched to Bontrager Hardcase slicks in the same size for my daily commuting, but will probably switch back to the knobbies during the winter and if I go off roading. I’ll send you an email about going out for a ride sometime!

    #924012
    Dirt
    Participant

    I’ve ridden Laurel Hill many times with 700×40 Small Block 8’s and they are quite good. You just have to have reasonable expectations of cornering grip until you get the feel for things. We can do a mellow ride out there in the next few weeks if you like. I can put the skinnier tires back on the mutant fixie so that you won’t feel out of place on skinny tires.

    #924015
    Mark Blacknell
    Participant

    Laurel Hill and 99% of Wakefield are ridable on your bike, Tim. Funny, I thought you might already know a local MTBer with a few suggestions . . .

    (And I want in on this future intro ride. I’ll be bringing the GoPro.)

    #924023
    Dirt
    Participant

    Tried to kill ScreamingQuads this weekend. Didn’t work. He rode like a champ and managed to more than double the longest mountain bike ride he’d ever done.

    http://connect.garmin.com/activity/58272837

    5215688883_ba33d53f27_b.jpg
    Band of Brothers + 1 Sister.

    #924026
    skreaminquadz
    Participant

    @Dirt 1279 wrote:

    Tried to kill ScreamingQuads this weekend. Didn’t work. He rode like a champ and managed to more than double the longest mountain bike ride he’d ever done.

    Ha – not so fast there Pete – you were more sucessful than you think. I think I left part of myself somewhere on that ride. My body isn’t all that happy with me today ; )

    Seriously though – it was a super fun ride. Thanks for taking me!!

    #924027
    Dirt
    Participant

    @skreaminquadz 1283 wrote:

    Ha – not so fast there Pete – you were more sucessful than you think. I think I left part of myself somewhere on that ride. My body isn’t all that happy with me today ; )

    Seriously though – it was a super fun ride. Thanks for taking me!!

    I’d be willing to bet that all 4 of us benefitted from a bit of advil after the ride. Yueq in particular after his spectacular road crash at 25mph. Feeling a ride for a day or two after is part of the fun and the way that we get stronger. :D I won’t be bounding up any staircases in the next few days.

    #924286
    CCrew
    Participant

    One I didn’t see listed was Difficult Run. Not very technical, but a nice long ride (25mi total, 12 out and then back), and if you’re car free easily accessible via bus out of WFC Metro. You can pick it up out of Reston and ride all the way out to the Potomac.
    http://www.dirtworld.com/trails/trail.asp?id=479

    Bit of background at that link. Hope that helps.

    #924325
    Dirt
    Participant

    Difficult Run has kind-of been absorbed by the Fairfax Cross County trail, for the most part. You’re right, for those of us who don’t drive, it is an enjoyable ride that is easy to get to. A few weeks ago we did the North end of the Fairfax CCT + Lake Fairfax + Difficult Run + Great Falls and Riverbend. From Falls Church it was 45 miles in total.

    http://ridewithgps.com/trips/149878

    We walked through the construction site under the Dulles Toll Road. While it was entertaining, I’d recommend taking the detour over Guinea Road.

    The new trails at Lake Fairfax are pretty nice IMBA Singletrack, if that’s your kind of thing. Lots of bench-cut, swoopy singletrack.

    #924338
    jabberwocky
    Participant

    That dirtworld article is somewhat out of date. Trails have changed a lot, plus they have you riding the gravel road by the dam rather than the sweet singletrack off to the southeast.

    Lake Fairfax (part of the Difficult Run?Colts Neck loop) is my local trail. I actually created a map for it recently, since I know it quite well and haven’t ever seen a good one:
    http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/889/lorolakefairfaxmapwip13.jpg
    The up to date version usually lives on our local trails wiki here: http://www.logoffrideon.com/trails/index.php?title=Lake_Fairfax

    The “loop” usually entails continuing up the doubletrack to where it intersects the CCT (at Carpers Farm Way), then following the CCT south to the W&OD and looping back to the Ice Rink lot. You can also follow the CCT north to Great Falls (which is what the dirtworld article is saying to do). These days, with all the new stuff at Lake Fairfax I generally stay within the park rather than looping it out though.

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