Report your MVT wooden-bridge accident here. Date, location, circumstances.

[NickBull]

I’ll start:
Three accidents on the Trollheim. Two were approximately a decade ago, both making the initial left turn too fast for the wet wood.

More recently: August 19th, southbound on main body of the Trollheim approx 8:45am. This was the morning after heavy rain so I knew the bridge would be slick so I was going at an OK pace. But then I was passed by a cyclist going faster who promptly wiped out directly in front of me. With a cyclist now splayed out, sliding sideways and decelerating rapidly in front of me, there was little prospect of turning more sharply on the wet wood to use the little bit of space to his right, and I did not want to be impaled on the pointy bits of metal on his bike, so I touched my rear brake and instantly went down. I hit hard, bruising my hip and shoulder, but at least just sliding on wet wood. Hip is OK; shoulder will heal, I think, but over a month later, it still hurts to pull my bike shirt off at the end of a damp ride.

By the way, there is a solution to this problem, it’s one that is used on wooden boat decks: paint with anti-fungal paint; after it dries, spray glue on it and sprinkle with sand. If there were repeated, cost-effectively preventable accidents on a section of the Parkway, the Park Service would fix the problem. Why doesn’t it fix them on the MVT?

Topic

[Judd]

The Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail pressure washed the intersection of Trollheim and ramp to the TR Bridge this morning. We did a total of three passes with the pressure washer. Picture below shows the difference between dirty (on the left) and washed (on the right). A big thank you to volunteers who cleared invasive honeysuckle around Trollheim this year. Not only has it prevented a lot of vegetation growth into the bridge but it also made it possible to run the hose from NPS’ pressure washer and reach the bridge. If you’d like to help improve the Mount Vernon Trail, register for an upcoming volunteer event at mountvernontrail.org/events

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[Judd]

A little bit more before and after to show the difference after pressure washing. Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail will be out tomorrow morning at Trollheim trimming some honeysuckle away from the north side of the bridge. We could use some more help. Details and registration are at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vegetation-removal-near-trollheim-bridge-registration-672727364657

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@Judd 226013 wrote:

The Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail pressure washed the intersection of Trollheim and ramp to the TR Bridge this morning. We did a total of three passes with the pressure washer. Picture below shows the difference between dirty (on the left) and washed (on the right). A big thank you to volunteers who cleared invasive honeysuckle around Trollheim this year. Not only has it prevented a lot of vegetation growth into the bridge but it also made it possible to run the hose from NPS’ pressure washer and reach the bridge. If you’d like to help improve the Mount Vernon Trail, register for an upcoming volunteer event at mountvernontrail.org/events

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[Author]

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