My Morning Commute

[DrP]

@DrP 168142 wrote:

Absolutely gorgeous morning!

Third beautiful fall morning in a row!
I hope more are like these.

[bentbike33]

@PeteD 168266 wrote:

Only took a month of commutes… The Fine Gentleman was speeding in the Bike and Bus Only lane on 7th infront of the Capital One Center, and decided his right side rearview mirror needed adjustment, and my left hand was the perfect thing to do that for him.

And as he stopped at the light at H Street, he rolled down his window to reach across to fix his mirror, I asked him brusquely if he needed his mirror fixed; the fine gentleman thanked me without looking up from his phone, oblivious to the fact that the cyclist fixing his mirror was also the one whose hand he just mashed with it.

Maryland Driver in the District… Though it wasn’t a 1812 commemorative plate.

My apolgies to those in earshot for the obsenities that broke free from my mouth. He was completely oblivious to what he just did, what he could have done, and how both of our lives would have changed due to his negligence.

Sounds like his mirror needed to be “fixed” with a 3-pound sledge hammer. Hope your injury is not serious.

[Brett L.]

bentbike33;168268 wrote:

sounds like his phone needed to be “fixed” with a 3-pound sledge hammer. Hope your injury is not serious.

fify

[hozn]

Rode the DCWA double-track in Great Falls “on the way” in to work. Can’t complain about my commute.

[OneEighth]

The Stupid Fairy clearly got a great cyber Monday deal on a new wand.

[rcannon100]

@PeteD 168266 wrote:

Maryland Driver in the District… Though it wasn’t a 1812 commemorative plate.

I was right behind you Pete. I managed to get a photo of the driver…..

[barbielwc]

Where is this trail? It looks like fun!

[barbielwc]

@hozn 168274 wrote:

Rode the DCWA double-track in Great Falls “on the way” in to work. Can’t complain about my commute.

Where is this trail? It looks like fun!

[hozn]

@barbielwc 168886 wrote:

Where is this trail? It looks like fun!

This is the DCWA trail that runs for a bit along the Potomac up in Great Falls. Yeah, it is kinda cool!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15800[/ATTACH]

It is interrupted, though, by some property that is closed off to through traffic. Frustratingly. Today I took a detour around this on the Potomac Heritage trail (right along the river), which was really wonderful singletrack. (I can see, though, that it need to be very dry, as even now – so many days after it has rained – there were a couple of soft spots.)

[jabberwocky]

@hozn 168943 wrote:

It is interrupted, though, by some property that is closed off to through traffic. Frustratingly. Today I took a detour around this on the Potomac Heritage trail (right along the river), which was really wonderful singletrack. (I can see, though, that it need to be very dry, as even now – so many days after it has rained – there were a couple of soft spots.)

My girlfriend and I have hiked those trails a lot (Seneca Tract to Riverbend along the Potomac Heritage trail is an absolute gem of a hiking trail, almost totally unused and very remote feeling and lovely). I do believe that the PHT and most of the stuff in Seneca Tract are technically closed to biking. It looks like you mostly rode the gravel access trail for the water facility though.

[hozn]

@jabberwocky 168946 wrote:

My girlfriend and I have hiked those trails a lot (Seneca Tract to Riverbend along the Potomac Heritage trail is an absolute gem of a hiking trail, almost totally unused and very remote feeling and lovely). I do believe that the PHT and most of the stuff in Seneca Tract are technically closed to biking. It looks like you mostly rode the gravel access trail for the water facility though.

Thanks for the heads up. I know American Heritage Trail is closed to bikes but couldn’t find anything definitive on the PHT (and didn’t see any signs referencing bikes — though did see signage telling horses not to ride if muddy). So I used fact that these had lots of Strava usage to infer that these were probably ok. (And there were clearly signs of other cyclists.). But obviously just because others do it doesn’t make it right. I’ll find a better detour for the closed section of the gravel road.

[jabberwocky]

@hozn 168947 wrote:

Thanks for the heads up. I know American Heritage Trail is closed to bikes but couldn’t find anything definitive on the PHT (and didn’t see any signs referencing bikes — though did see signature telling horses not to ride if muddy). So I used fact that these had lots of Strava usage to infer that these were probably ok. (And there were clearly signs of other cyclists.). But obviously just because others do it doesn’t make it right. I’ll find a better detour for the closed section of the gravel road.

Honestly, I saw cyclists on the trails multiple times while hiking and there are tracks everywhere, so even if closed it isn’t really observed or enforced. Just more of an FYI. Its definitely an underutilized trail.

Might check on the status of the PHT; my recollection is that the section between Great Falls and Algonkian is administered by NOVA parks, who historically have not been bike friendly on their natural surface trails (for many years, the only singletrack open to bikes in the entire NOVA parks portfolio was the Fountainhead MTB trail). I know they’ve relented some in recent years, but don’t know for sure what the current status is.

I recall that when MORE was putting on the NOVA epic a few years back, they pushed for access just for the day of the event to try and create a loop and NOVA parks said no.

[hozn]

@jabberwocky 168948 wrote:

Honestly, I saw cyclists on the trails multiple times while hiking and there are tracks everywhere, so even if closed it isn’t really observed or enforced. Just more of an FYI. Its definitely an underutilized trail.

Might check on the status of the PHT; my recollection is that the section between Great Falls and Algonkian is administered by NOVA parks, who historically have not been bike friendly on their natural surface trails (for many years, the only singletrack open to bikes in the entire NOVA parks portfolio was the Fountainhead MTB trail). I know they’ve relented some in recent years, but don’t know for sure what the current status is.

I recall that when MORE was putting on the NOVA epic a few years back, they pushed for access just for the day of the event to try and create a loop and NOVA parks said no.

I sent an email to PHT folks to ask for clarification on where bikes are/aren’t allowed, though it sounds from your comment here like this section might fall under NOVA parks instead. I’ll post back if I learn anything authoritative from either of those parties.

[cvcalhoun]

I made sure to get an early start this morning, because I was supposed to meet with someone. It did not go as planned:

• Traffic was so bad in Bethesda that I decided to ride on the sidewalk for a couple of blocks.
• Someone left a big box in the middle of the sidewalk. I decided I’d avoid it by swerving onto the grass. Unfortunately, there was a rut between sidewalk and grass. My tire got caught in the rut and I fell, bike and all, sideways onto the ground. The impact was enough to bruise my right cheek, right elbow, and both legs, and break one of the zip ties holding my Garmin.
• Needless to say, as a nutso cyclist, the damage to the Garmin was a bigger concern than the damage to my body. With the Garmin now dangling from just one zip tie, I decided I’d better get another zip tie. I stopped by Ace Hardware, and bought a package of 8″ zip ties.
• After struggling with the zip ties for a while, I realized they were too short. So I had to go back and get another pack, this time 14″.
• When I tried to go up the hill on K Street to get out from under the Whitehurst Freeway, I discovered that the right gear would not go out of high. So I was riding up that hill with the left gear in low and the right one in high, which is not exactly good for the chain.

So yeah, at this point, I’m heading for my meeting:

• Late.
• Looking like I’ve been in a bar fight due to the bruise on one cheek.
• Limping around due to the bruises everywhere else.
• Trying to figure out how I’m going to get out of the office to get my bike to a bike shop to fix the gear.
• Cranky.

Can I just say that this was an inauspicious start to my day? The good news:

• I didn’t hit my head, so both my brain and my helmet are fine.
• Ace Hardware gave me my money back on the 8″ ties, even though I had not only opened the package but cut a couple of them in my struggles.
• The right gear somehow fixed itself along the route from Georgetown to my office.
• The person I was meeting with was also late, so I didn’t actually miss the meeting.

[mstone]

@hozn 168947 wrote:

Thanks for the heads up. I know American Heritage Trail is closed to bikes but couldn’t find anything definitive on the PHT (and didn’t see any signs referencing bikes — though did see signage telling horses not to ride if muddy). So I used fact that these had lots of Strava usage to infer that these were probably ok. (And there were clearly signs of other cyclists.). But obviously just because others do it doesn’t make it right. I’ll find a better detour for the closed section of the gravel road.

The PHT isn’t really a thing, it’s a name for a bunch of existing plots that were strung together to make a trail. So you have to check the rules for each particular plot. I can’t make out from the map which plot you were actually in. I agree that the signage (and documentation) is terrible. For example, PHT goes through Scott’s Run. Their web page talks about hiking trails, but nowhere does it actually say bikes are prohibited…except in a sidebar where it says “Mountain bikers and horseback riders have illegally added to the wastes”–is that a passive aggressive ban? I tend to think biking there is a bad idea because of the erosion potential right in the watershed, but I’m still not 100% clear on what the rules are. In the greater scheme of things it may be reasonable to keep PHT as a natural surface, low impact/non-wheeled trail like the AT, given that bikes can use the C&O right on the other side of the river. (And, realistically, the money to maintain crushed gravel or other resilient trails on both sides simply doesn’t exist.) But if that’s the answer, they need more signs.

[Author]

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