October 2015 Road and Trail Conditions

[creadinger]

@Emm 125697 wrote:

The detour through crystal city didn’t add any time to my commute–I was surprised since I expected at least a few minutes to be added. I think using the service road helped. I think it’ll add a few min on the way home because of that stupid block that only goes 1 way, but worth it to avoid the mulch. Plus it brings me right by Jimmy Johns…

I’m going to be annoying/delighting my wife a lot more the next few months as I pick up dinner for me/us in Crystal City on the way home. I could go for some We The Pizza, or a Good Stuff Burger right now in fact. And Jimmy Johns is so fast and easy. You don’t even need to worry about locking up.

[consularrider]

@creadinger 125712 wrote:

I’m going to be annoying/delighting my wife a lot more the next few months as I pick up dinner for me/us in Crystal City on the way home. I could go for some We The Pizza, or a Good Stuff Burger right now in fact. And Jimmy Johns is so fast and easy. You don’t even need to worry about locking up.

So does this mean that the NPS is in league with the Crystal City BID to increase sales volume via detours? Diabolical!

[GovernorSilver]

@consularrider 125718 wrote:

So does this mean that the NPS is in league with the Crystal City BID to increase sales volume via detours? Diabolical!

[IMG]https://www.pearldrummersforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=482671&d=1431367344[/IMG]

And here I was thinking Chipotle and Subway were my only choices for picking up something on the way home.

[Terpfan]

That one-way is annoying. Tempted to sidewalk it, but didn’t last night. Decided just to take Potomac Ave out afterward.

I’ve figured out how to skip it in the morning by simply riding through the airport. But I don’t know how to do the same at night connecting backwards. Maybe i’ll explore it tonight. It actually wasn’t too bad going through the airport although I guess no one flies at 8am on a Thursday. I think more folks will just ride through the airport when the second detour opens because otherwise they will be forced to walk/ride downhill through mulch, which does not look appealing.

[vern]

On a related matter for those that take the detour down Crystal Drive, it is scheduled for milling and repaving beginning on the morning of October 9 (tomorrow) from 15th through 26th streets. Completion is scheduled to take several weeks. The work will begin at 15th street progressing south. And as you probably already know, 18th Street is torn up due to its reconstruction between Eads and Crystal Drive. A very unfortunate set of circumstances between this work and the MVT work.

[chris_s]

@vern 125771 wrote:

18th Street is torn up due to its reconstruction between Eads and Crystal Drive.

You’re being kind. 18th Street looks like something out of Mad Maxx.

[GovernorSilver]

For convenience, here’s the route Tim Kelley posted.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38.8411811,-77.0502236/38.8565408,-77.0466255/@38.8516255,-77.0439202,1586m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m24!4m23!1m20!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0498852!2d38.8506536!3s0x89b7b72c1009552b:0xdd331415a07d528c!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0488022!2d38.8561984!3s0x89b7b7258c2b7dcf:0x9fef8fca54626773!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0489629!2d38.8580045!3s0x89b7b725becce269:0x676d0e697fd7af0a!3m4!1m2!1d-77.048977!2d38.858136!3s0x89b7b725ba255d27:0xd8246f144fb2c74d!1m0!3e1

I’ll just keep walking my bike over the wood chips in the morning. I won’t find out until next week what the Tim Kelley route is like because I plan to ride up to Columbia Heights this evening to catch a gig by my friends’ band, then ride to the metro station and take the metro home.

[KWL]

@vern 125771 wrote:

On a related matter for those that take the detour down Crystal Drive, it is scheduled for milling and repaving beginning on the morning of October 9 (tomorrow) from 15th through 26th streets. Completion is scheduled to take several weeks. The work will begin at 15th street progressing south. And as you probably already know, 18th Street is torn up due to its reconstruction between Eads and Crystal Drive. A very unfortunate set of circumstances between this work and the MVT work.

Ooof! Crystal Drive was a mess tonight. I guess it’s being prepped for the milling and repaving. Lots of trucks, cones and blocked off lanes. I certainly would rather negotiated all that on a bike than in a car, but it still wasn’t fun. I’m thinking Eads to 12th to Long Bridge for tomorrow’s commutes. Or I could give up and just walk the chips.

[ian74]

@KWL 125811 wrote:

Ooof! Crystal Drive was a mess tonight. I guess it’s being prepped for the milling and repaving. Lots of trucks, cones and blocked off lanes. I certainly would rather negotiated all that on a bike than in a car, but it still wasn’t fun. I’m thinking Eads to 12th to Long Bridge for tomorrow’s commutes. Or I could give up and just walk the chips.

I’m going to guiltily confess that I haven’t been walking my bike on those chips. Oh, I tried it, but walking in those chips in my shoes with cleats was a painful, slow and slippery. I can get through them easier by just dropping to my easy gears and spinning through them.

The new detour where we cross the ramp sucks, mainly because when heading southbound, it just ends at a curb and will dump you right into oncoming traffic. So, climb up the hill, stop (there was a backup) and wait until there’s a gap. Going north should be just as bad since you’ll be hopping up a curb and landing in slippery loose mulch. There must be a better solution.

[vern]

@KWL 125811 wrote:

Ooof! Crystal Drive was a mess tonight. I guess it’s being prepped for the milling and repaving. Lots of trucks, cones and blocked off lanes. I certainly would rather negotiated all that on a bike than in a car, but it still wasn’t fun. I’m thinking Eads to 12th to Long Bridge for tomorrow’s commutes. Or I could give up and just walk the chips.

I saw all that when I walked out of work and passed on Crystal Drive, took the sidewalk the half block to 20th and headed over to Eads. Crystal Drive looked like Pac Man and I wasn’t interested in playing that game on a bike.

[PotomacCyclist]

Article on Greater Greater Washington about the MVT detour:

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/28363/the-mount-vernon-trail-is-getting-some-tlc-near-national-airport/

[consularrider]

@KWL 125811 wrote:

Ooof! Crystal Drive was a mess tonight. I guess it’s being prepped for the milling and repaving. Lots of trucks, cones and blocked off lanes. I certainly would rather negotiated all that on a bike than in a car, but it still wasn’t fun. I’m thinking Eads to 12th to Long Bridge for tomorrow’s commutes. Or I could give up and just walk the chips.

Never give up, never surrender!

[Terpfan]

I figured out how to go through the airport on the southbound loop. It’s probably easiest to view my strava segment for it (https://www.strava.com/activities/409109324), but I will attempt to explain for any interested since I thought I would be slower than others last night (I didn’t realize they had instituted the second phase of the detour) and instead ended up passing a ton of people including those whom passed me a solid 5 minutes beforehand.

Heading south on the MVT on the straightaway after crossing the second bridge, look for the turnoff to the airport (it’s partially up the small hill by the small woods). This is a very short path that plops you out into a maintenance yard. The path suggests you go straight down a sidewalk tunnel toward the airport, ignore this. Instead, proceed right around the maintenance building toward the maintenance trucks. It looks like a small road/alley running to the right of this building. This little road will go uphill briefly and come to a stopsign at the road that gives you an option to proceed back toward airport (stoplight in left lane) or right onto bridge toward Crystal City. You need to cross one lane here (only tricky part, but made easier because those coming toward Crystal City from airport have speed bumps) and wait to veer left at the stoplight (left as if you’re going back toward the airport). Now, make your very first right as if you’re exiting toward the GWMP southbound. This is the road you were all crossing last night after the second wooded chip (uphill) detour. From this road, simply veer to the left down the abandoned road and wallah, you’re back onto the MVT. Note, this is the detailed explanations, it’s really very simple.

Caveat–I saw 0 signs forbidding going through this maintenance lot and the trail dumped me into it, but as we all know, doesn’t necessarily means its permitted. So just tossing that out there (no gates, signs, or anything, but it’s also not really accessible to vehicles at all that I could tell).

[Emm]

@KWL 125811 wrote:

Ooof! Crystal Drive was a mess tonight. I guess it’s being prepped for the milling and repaving. Lots of trucks, cones and blocked off lanes. I certainly would rather negotiated all that on a bike than in a car, but it still wasn’t fun. I’m thinking Eads to 12th to Long Bridge for tomorrow’s commutes. Or I could give up and just walk the chips.

I found if I enter the service drive right off of the MVT in Crystal City (google map link), you can take it all the way to the 26th and avoid pretty much all of crystal drive. It requires a little bit of biking in a parking lot, but only for a few yards and the parking lot has yet to have a moving vehicle in it. It’s been very safe since the whole service drive is slow and empty.

[Terpfan]

For those heading northbound, here’s my segment through the airport: https://www.strava.com/activities/408755568

FWIW, I think there is a slightly easier way that involves going around the old terminal that I will try next week.

Anyway, basically you go right onto the abandoned road (now the detour route) and then merge left onto Aviation Circle. Take it like you were picking someone up at the airport. At the end of terminal covering area you need to get over to the taxi/bus side and then proceed to continue taking the road veering right so you go by a little commercial hanger or two (ie, you don’t want to take GWMP exit and don’t want to take return loop to airport). Then you approach a parking lot and go down the second row of cars which takes you to a sidewalk curbcut. This curbcut connects you to the bottom of the first big hill from MVT heading southbound at the airport. Just be careful as obviously people come flying down this section.

I would add this route was easy when I did it because the airport was deserted. It may be tougher if it was a high volume flying day.

[Author]

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