My Evening Commute

[vern]

oh YAY!! Another gloomy, foggy, misty commute.

[dplasters]

Hold on to your face, weather underground says we are in for a bumpy ride this evening.

*for specificity:

Wind Advisory remains in effect from 4 PM this afternoon to
midnight EST tonight…

* timing… late this afternoon through this evening. Strongest
wind gusts will be between 7 PM and 11 PM this evening.

* Winds… west 20 to 30 mph with gusts around 50 mph.

[Powerful Pete]

The wind gusts on the 14th street bridge kept things exciting this evening. But the real news were the honest to goodness SNOW FLURRIES that hit in earnest on the last couple of kms of my commute home this evening. WELCOME TO BAFS 2016!

[KWL]

I spotted my first Freezing Saddles Reflective Neon Green Band ^TM in the wild on the MVT yesterday evening. According to Strava, the owner was likely a member of Team 10. I was too slow to offer a greeting but if we had talked, I would have tried to convince him to take a shortcut home.

[DrP]

Windy. Very windy. Mostly head winds, but some from the sides, making for nearly comical riding. No following a line tonight.

And drivers changed their minds several times. Left turn signal until I get to the intersection about to make my own left and then changed to a right turn signal to move back in the regular lane and go straight. Another had a right turn signal and as I reached that intersection to go straight and stay to the left of the car, changes to a left signal and crosses in front of me. At least they signaled all them. Better than most.

[cvcalhoun]

With warm sweater, turtle fur, wool cap, LL Bean down jacket, ski gloves and Bar Mitts, my ride was perfectly comfortable. Maybe even a little too warm.

[cvcalhoun]

Just got this report: “Tree down across the Georgetown Branch Trail between Connecticut Ave and Jones Bridge Rd. Portage unless yer ollie hops are in the 3 feet range.”

ETA: It’s now been removed.

[DrP]

Well, that was unexpected. All reports yesterday and this morning were for slight chance of flurries and only for about an hour. Not an inch or more. Trails were good, plesant, and empty. Roads really bad, especially hills. Slick in car tire tracks. Lost traction up one hill badly. Luckily I was going uphill and slowly. Had to scoot to side or road for enough traction to stand and pick up the bike and finish ride home.

[Kitty]

Same here! I was planning on going to the monthly “All the Cycle Ladies” meeting at Phoenix Bikes, which I always ride to (MVT to 4MR to Barcroft). At first the snow was fun and pretty, and the trails weren’t too bad, but the snow was picking up (and stinging my eyes) so I decided to bail at Crystal City and take the city streets back up the North Arlington…

Bad idea. Traffic was starting to panic when I hit Columbia Pike. Going WB uphill from the Washington Blvd. overpass to Courthouse Road I was the fastest thing on wheels as traffic was at an eerie crawl. When I turned onto S. Courthouse a guy rolled down his window to tell me I was “the definition of brave.” I was starting to notice the ice under the snow going downhill NB on Courthouse but was having have the skidding problems the cars were!

Things were fine again on the trails including the nice neighborhood one from Arlington Blvd. to Lyon Park. Pershing however was where things started to get dicey.

Cars kept hugging the right, so when an SUV crowded my off the road while climbing was my first spill (thankfully the traffic was going real slow the the car behind me stopped). Heading into Clarendon by Highland, the intersections were turning into mob rule (while for some reason my front derailer stoped shifting). On Clarendon proper, where cars barely respect the bike lane on a good day, I had to fight for our my place on the road while the lack of traction was getting everyone. ART buses were stalled left and right.

Clarendon from N. Courthouse to Rhodes, that fun decline, was so treacherous with ice and there were already so many accidents on it the police were blocking it with flares and redirection cars through the old Wells Fargo drive-thru back onto Wilson. I needed to get back home to Rosslyn, which left no non-hill options so I took my chances… resulting in spill #2. In this one both bike and rider skidded and slid a good 10 feet in slow motion, while the rider had the temerity to shout a sardonic “Weeeee!” while sliding.

I walked the rest of the way down to hill to Rhodes before attempting the last couple of blocks on the bike. Rosslyn where Clarendon and Wilson reunite was a recreation of “Thunderdome” with cars sliding down the hill downbound, and unable to climb upbound. A half-block from my apartment a subway grate knocked the bike out from under me a third time–shearing the waterbottle case clean off.

So at the end of it all bruised, and (hopefully) not broken. If I didn’t wreak my ride, I’ll see you on the trails tomorrow.

[wheelswings]

Yow. Sounds like a strenuous and scary ride, Kitty. I hope you didn’t break anything (though bone bruises are no picnic either…)
The icy hills were freaky in my neighborhood too, especially with the cars spinning out. I ran a couple blocks with my bike as well, mainly to avoid the cars, and I slid about 15 feet but stayed upright (like you I was screaming…. but it wasn’t “weeee”).
Heal fast! Sorry we missed you at Phoenix. w&w

[brendan]

Riding home from Herndon in the unexpectedly more intense snow, I had no particularly scary moments on the W&OD and Custis…that is until I started down the Rosslyn hill. A lot more slick than expected. I even ended up sliding slowly across N Scott street against the light. Even at slow speed, I could not, foot down, stop the bike from forward motion and felt that if I fell on the trail, I’d keep sliding into the street…better to do that upright. Luckily no cars were coming.

The parts of the Rosslyn hill that had barriers on the north side of the trail were pretty snow free, so they served as a nice slide-free regrouping area.

Anyway.

Inside DC was hit and miss, I had to walk up 29th to Q from M St – the big dummy, even severely loaded down in back, couldn’t get traction on the rear wheel going up the hill.

And by Q St. things were getting really icy, so I ended up alternating sidewalk walking/street riding depending on conditions or incline. Finally went down trying to slowly turn left on 11th St from Q St. Bruised knee, but much more bruised ego. Made it home safe. Shower, dinner, beer and…studded tires now mounted.

B

[PotomacCyclist]

Good thing I got off CaBi well before the snow started falling. In the late afternoon, I was more wary of riding through the piles of Canada geese poo along the Anacostia River than about snow. I checked in the bike and took Metro back, long before the snow and ice arrived. I did see that the Potomac River was already partially frozen over, even in mid afternoon.

[dasgeh]

As I left work, late for me and bundled for the ride, I ran into my ultimate boss, who had a good laugh at my getup. We talked about biking in the cold on the walk out, then as he turned to go to the car garage he said “you know it’s snowing” and I replied “I know, thanks, I brought the snow bike”.

I was expecting a light dusting, so I was surprised to see at least 1/4″ already on the ground when I got outside at 6:45pm. Luckily Virginia Ave nw was lightly traveled enough that it was all snow. I realized quickly that riding on just snow was fine but was worried that riding on car tracks would be icy, so i tokk my normal, trail route home. I pedally along the TR Bridge very carefully – even though I felt like I had great traction, I don’t want to find out what happens when you lose traction on that sidepath – and I was still beating the cars. I didn’t go down on the Trollheim. Once I hit Virginia, all the cars on all the roads were crawling. A car was stopped blocking 2 lanes on Lee near the top of the hill. The trail was a joy to ride on – crunchy powder with lots of traction, quiet, beautiful and magical. My neighborhood streets were surprisingly fine to bike on. The few cars I saw were sliding in turns but as long as I stayed out of their tracks, I didn’t have a problem.

And I’m so glad today is my flex day!

[KWL]

Egad! That was a workout. During the hour I spent riding 8 miles another inch of snow was added. And thank you, thank you, thank you Arlington County for the easy going on the 4MRT and the ramp up to Rt 1. Nice work.

[cvcalhoun]

My adventure for this evening included a salt truck. Before the snow even started, they were pretreating Columbia Road. A salt truck passed me, and shot salt crystals at high velocity onto my legs. Those things sting! And of course, I kept passing the truck when it got stopped by traffic, and then it would pass me, so the same thing happened numerous times.

[Author]

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