Porta-Potties @ Gravelly Point

[KLizotte]

FYI: For clean facilities your best bet is to go to Nat’l Airport, Crystal City, the marina located on the trail, Old Town (Torpedo Factory), or NPS facilities located under the Wilson Bridge.

[PotomacCyclist]

Some swim coaches include what is known as hypoxic training sets. The swimmers practice swimming more strokes before breathing, the idea being that you are developing your lung strength. I don’t know if that’s really possible, but many coaches still hold to this practice.

Anyway, every time I pass those porta-potties, I prepare myself by holding my breath before I reach the Miasma Zone and continue holding my breath until I’ve passed the dark cloud. I always think of it as hypoxic training on the bike!

Maybe there’s something to hypoxic swim training. I can hold my breath for much longer than I could six years ago (when I was first starting to bike as an adult and when I started training for triathlons). I can make it past the porta-potties at a slow speed (because of all the pedestrians), holding my breath and without gasping for air.

***
There were plans to move the porta-potties and the pedestrian path away from a separated bike path. Or the path would be widened through Gravelly Point. However, nothing has happened with these plans for nearly two years. I don’t know if the Gravelly Point project will ever get underway.

http://www.arlnow.com/2012/05/30/changes-proposed-for-gravelly-point-roaches-run/

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectID=23571

[n18]

If you have a smart phone, just use Google Maps(or Google.com if using non-Android phone), search for “grocery stores” or “department stores“, then “Get Direction”, then choose the bike symbol.

[Starduster]

@KLizotte 84255 wrote:

FYI: For clean facilities your best bet is to go to Nat’l Airport, Crystal City, the marina located on the trail, Old Town (Torpedo Factory), or NPS facilities located under the Wilson Bridge.

Or, on this day, the Harris Teeter at S. Glebe & Jeff-Davis Hwy. (Unexpected benefit of the Four Mile Run detour)

So… this was not an anomaly, huh?

[Anonymous]

@Starduster 84278 wrote:

So… this was not an anomaly, huh?

I’ve ridden back and forth past them for years without ever being tempted to stop as the smell is enough of an argument against for me. Until one day last summer I was desperate and needed to. I opened up the first one and looked inside and decided I wasn’t really that desperate after all.

Not an anomaly.

[Starduster]

@PotomacCyclist 84263 wrote:

Some swim coaches include what is known as hypoxic training sets. The swimmers practice swimming more strokes before breathing, the idea being that you are developing your lung strength. I don’t know if that’s really possible, but many coaches still hold to this practice.

Anyway, every time I pass those porta-potties, I prepare myself by holding my breath before I reach the Miasma Zone and continue holding my breath until I’ve passed the dark cloud. I always think of it as hypoxic training on the bike!

Maybe there’s something to hypoxic swim training. I can hold my breath for much longer than I could six years ago (when I was first starting to bike as an adult and when I started training for triathlons). I can make it past the porta-potties at a slow speed (because of all the pedestrians), holding my breath and without gasping for air.

***
There were plans to move the porta-potties and the pedestrian path away from a separated bike path. Or the path would be widened through Gravelly Point. However, nothing has happened with these plans for nearly two years. I don’t know if the Gravelly Point project will ever get underway.

http://www.arlnow.com/2012/05/30/changes-proposed-for-gravelly-point-roaches-run/

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectID=23571

Thank you for the links. Good to know that someone has at least tried to address this, including the safety of the runway section of the trail. My least favorite part- NO protection for a falling rider from parkway traffic at speed (supposed to be 40 mph- but we know better…)

So, Gravelly Point is NPS. Has anyone here already tried complaining to them about the health issue?

[brendan]

Heading south from 14th St. Bridge towards the airpart yesterday…for a moment, the smell of bar-b-que was really nice…and then it was sewage bar-b-que. And that was a couple hundred yards up the river from the porta-potties, so I stopped using my nose. The combination of good food smell plus…that…made it so much worse.

[PotomacCyclist]

Probably related to the FIVE MILLION GALLONS of sewage that spilled into the Potomac River on Wednesday. Yikes!

http://dcist.com/2014/05/five_million_gallons_of_sewage_spil.php

[Terpfan]

@Starduster 84278 wrote:

Or, on this day, the Harris Teeter at S. Glebe & Jeff-Davis Hwy. (Unexpected benefit of the Four Mile Run detour)

So… this was not an anomaly, huh?

Well, the irony there is that the very same Harris Teeter was also filled to the brim with untreated sewage waste a few years ago (two, maybe?) and they just re-opened. .

There is also a ton of trash there this morning, but that’s always the case following nice weekends in the spring/summer/fall. I think they empty those on a monthly basis or at least that’s about as much as I’ve ever seen their septic tanks. I just go further down south of OT at the marina or visit the woods.

[Birdstrike]

@brendan 84288 wrote:

Heading south from 14th St. Bridge towards the airpart yesterday…for a moment, the smell of bar-b-que was really nice…and then it was sewage bar-b-que. And that was a couple hundred yards up the river from the porta-potties, so I stopped using my nose. The combination of good food smell plus…that…made it so much worse.

Well that explains all the close calls I’ve had over there…they stumble out of the porta-john semi-asphyxiated and then stumble onto the trail without so much as a sideward glance first.

[NicDiesel]

@brendan 84288 wrote:

Heading south from 14th St. Bridge towards the airpart yesterday…for a moment, the smell of bar-b-que was really nice…and then it was sewage bar-b-que. And that was a couple hundred yards up the river from the porta-potties, so I stopped using my nose. The combination of good food smell plus…that…made it so much worse.

I will never understand why on the weekends tons of people set up RIGHT NEXT to the Portajohns for their picnics and plane watching. Vomit city.

[brendan]

@NicDiesel 84342 wrote:

I will never understand why on the weekends tons of people set up RIGHT NEXT to the Portajohns for their picnics and plane watching. Vomit city.

I can only assume it’s the kind of smell that you get used to if you’re under constant exposure.

I figure I know why they put the porta johns there instead of further away from the trail (personal safety/visibility for night portajohn users). But I’d suggest putting them another 6 feet or so back, just to reduce the crowding in front of them on nice weekends.

As for the toddlers (and the older children who should know/be taught better) traffic jams, we ended up off-trailing it saturday evening on our return trip as the trail was hopelessly full of non-moving families staring at the sky. Also, kids bikes and scooters just abandoned in the middle of the trail (really, parents, REALLY?). Made me almost want to mount a cow-pusher on the front of the bike. But even jokingly, that’d make me a jerk.

B

[KLizotte]

Depending on where you are going, cutting through Columbia Island and the Pentagon reservation is a great way to avoid the horror of Gravelly Pt.

[MattAune]

@KLizotte 84352 wrote:

Depending on where you are going, cutting through Columbia Island and the Pentagon reservation is a great way to avoid the horror of Gravelly Pt.

They also have well maintained public restroom facilities there.

[CaseyKane50]

@KLizotte 84352 wrote:

Depending on where you are going, cutting through Columbia Island and the Pentagon reservation is a great way to avoid the horror of Gravelly Pt.

And, most of Boundary Channel has been repaved and Long Bridge has a nice new bike path.

[Author]

Posts