Road bike route from Georgetown to White’s Ferry

[consularrider]

The VeloDCity Meetup group does a Metros and Ferries ride every so often that starts at the Shady Grove Metro and goes to the Dunn Loring Metro. The one time I did the ride it was in the opposite direction on July 13, 2008 and went straight to Georgetown instead of going north to Shady Grove (seehttp://www.meetup.com/bike-133/events/8063699/) . I don’t have the milage for the turning points going all the way to Georgetown or a clean cue sheet. Their June 13, 2010 ride took a slightly different route from Edwards Ferry (http://www.meetup.com/bike-133/events/13389453/). Both of these routes are rolling hills with some good climbs. I believe that both of these are fairly popular cycling routes, but River Rd can have traffic issues.

From Georgetown, either ride out Canal Rd, turn right on Foxhall Rd (uphill), and turn left on MacArthur Blvd;
or ride the Capital Crescent Trail to Fletcher’s Cove, cross the canal, go around the lockhouse and cross Canal Rd going uphill on Reservoir Rd, and turn left on MacArthur Blvd.
Follow MacArthur all the way out to Falls Rd and bear right. Then turn left on River Rd (MD 190) in Potomac. Follow River Rd until it forms a T junction with Seneca Rd (MD 122) and turn left (you’re still on River Rd). Continue until you reach Mt Nebo Rd and turn right. Contine on Mt Nebo, bearing left where it turns into W Offutt Rd. Continue until T junction with Edwards Ferry Rd, turn right. Continue, bearing left on Edwards Ferry at the intersection with Westerly Rd. Continue until the T junction with Whites Ferry Road where you take a left to Whites Ferry.

From Google Maps, it looks like you can turn left at Edwards Ferry and get back to River Rd which has a flater route to Whites Ferry. However, I don’t know what that road surface is like.

[brendan]

Thanks, I’ll check out those options next time I ride the loop on my hybrid or road bike!

[DismalScientist]

@consularrider 3169 wrote:

… Continue until you reach Mt Nebo Rd and turn right. Contine on Mt Nebo, bearing left where it turns into W Offutt Rd. Continue until T junction with Edwards Ferry Rd, turn right. Continue, bearing left on Edwards Ferry at the intersection with Westerly Rd. Continue until the T junction with Whites Ferry Road where you take a left to Whites Ferry.

From Google Maps, it looks like you can turn left at Edwards Ferry and get back to River Rd which has a flater route to Whites Ferry. However, I don’t know what that road surface is like.

Some of the roads on Google Maps don’t really exist. River Road becomes Mt. Nebo, which becomes Orcutt. You can turn left at Edwards Ferry (which doesn’t have a sign) and that becomes River Road again, the last three miles are gravel to White’s Ferry. Turning right at Edwards Ferry goes to MD 107 or White’s Ferry road. I didn’t go this way, but I imagine it is paved all the way.

Another option is to turn right on Partnership Road from River Road. This will get you to Poolesville and you can follow White’s Ferry road from there.

[DaveK]

Do this. It’s all paved.

http://app.strava.com/activities/43929228

But don’t, for the sake of your sanity, make the afternoon return trip on the W&OD. It’ll drive you insane.

[Bilsko]

+1 on DaveK’s and Dismal’s recommendations

If you can put up with a few miles of packed gravel (fine, even on 23s) where River Rd resumes after Edward’s Ferry, its a lot easier than dealing with high speed traffic on paved roads the long way around.
Also, riding through the turf farms and their neon-green grass is pretty fun too.

There are a couple unmarked roads that show up on Google maps that look like they connect through, but some of them are private roads that belong to the Covanta power plant so watch out for those

[Author]

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