Nasty little crash on the NE Branch this morning

[Greenbelt]

In my area, we’re pretty lucky that our trails aren’t crowded and crashes are rare. But this morning a friend of mine wiped out at the construction site under the new rail bridge, where the trail narrows and there’s often debris or dirt and gravel.

He was OK, but dazed a bit; went to the hospital to get some stitches. The construction guys did a good job of making sure he didn’t get back on his bike and try to keep riding to work, which was his first inclination. When I got there, the construction guys were already taking care of him.

Overall, I’m really pleased that the construction process didn’t close the trail — if this was Prince George’s county doing the work, they would have just closed the trail and tough luck. But this is a tricky spot under the bridge — let’s all be careful out there!

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[Terpfan]

You give a good reminder about trails with sand and debris. I always have to remind myself following any big rain that sand accumulates in a few spots. Eg, if I ride down the Calvert St connector to RCP, there is a horrible pile of sand at the bottom following every rain storm. It would not be fun to wipe out on at a high rate of speed.

[DCAKen]

@Terpfan 92833 wrote:

You give a good reminder about trails with sand and debris. I always have to remind myself following any big rain that sand accumulates in a few spots. Eg, if I ride down the Calvert St connector to RCP, there is a horrible pile of sand at the bottom following every rain storm. It would not be fun to wipe out on at a high rate of speed.

The pile of sand just doesn’t pop up after every rainstorm, but it’s there for months at a time, growing larger after every storm.

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The real problem is there is no drainage point for all the run-off coming down the hill and it just pools at the bottom of that hill before the bridge. I’ve written to the RCP folks about this spot many times, trying to get them to fix this issue. They’ll occasionally clean the trail, but never actually improve the drainage so it doesn’t keep happening.

They cleaned the trail last Monday, the day before Tuesday’s downpour. And what do you know…it was covered in mud once again.

[skins_brew]

I use the trolley trail now, about 95% of the time. With UMD classes starting up, I might have to start taking the Lake Artmesia Route instead of Paint Branch Pkwy though. Nicer scenery by the lake

[Terpfan]

@DCAKen 92928 wrote:

The pile of sand just doesn’t pop up after every rainstorm, but it’s there for months at a time, growing larger after every storm.

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The real problem is there is no drainage point for all the run-off coming down the hill and it just pools at the bottom of that hill before the bridge. I’ve written to the RCP folks about this spot many times, trying to get them to fix this issue. They’ll occasionally clean the trail, but never actually improve the drainage so it doesn’t keep happening.

They cleaned the trail last Monday, the day before Tuesday’s downpour. And what do you know…it was covered in mud once again.

I guess I hadn’t noticed it as much until after rain storms. Then again, this was one of the main reasons I stopped taking this route as much to work opting for on-road Georgetown. Part of me thinks we should just bring shovels and dig a ditch running along it ourselves.

But it’s a horrible mess that I bet someone will be seriously injured on if they don’t know it’s there.

[DCAKen]

@Terpfan 93157 wrote:

I guess I hadn’t noticed it as much until after rain storms. Then again, this was one of the main reasons I stopped taking this route as much to work opting for on-road Georgetown. Part of me thinks we should just bring shovels and dig a ditch running along it ourselves.

But it’s a horrible mess that I bet someone will be seriously injured on if they don’t know it’s there.

Back on a warm, rainy Saturday in January, I went for a run on the trail, encountering many pools of standing water. Later that afternoon, I climbed on my bike and did a little guerrilla civil engineering, attempting to create drainage routes for the bigger pools. I didn’t have a shovel, but improvised with tools at hand (namely, a frisbee found along the trail).

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