routes from Annandale to Alexandria

[lordofthemark]

I live in Annandale close to Hummer and Little River Turnpike. Consider me a newbie. Still improving my riding skills, condition, etc. Not comfortable riding in on streets with traffic over 35MPH (and not real comfortable on streets between 25 and 35 MPH).

I have found ways north (Hummer or Lafayette to side streets to park to Fairview office park to 29 (sidepath) to Dunn Loring area and south (Accotink trail) I’m aware of some pretty good ways north east to Falls church and beyond to N arlington. There are ways west (even if means walking the bike over the beltway at Gallows to get to Accotink trail west)

East, seems more of a problem. Ive gone to Lake Barcroft via Annandale Rd to Hockett to the trail in the Holmes Run Valley Park, and then across Sleepy Hollow. Thats long and hilly (esp at L Barcroft) and leaves me too far north. I’ve done the same and gone down Sleepy Hollow to Columbia Pike to Lincolnia to side streets to Dora Kelly. Thats also long, I have issues with the hill up Sleepy Hollow, and Columbia Pike right there presents few good options. I tried to go back a different way, without a map or GPS and ended up on Beauregard to Lincolnia to Braddock to Woodbridge to old Columbia to Whispering Lane to Columbia Pike and back down Col Pike to central annandale. That was not only quite unpleasant, but left me cursing myself when I got home and looked at a map. Anyway, LRT appears undoable, and the back streets seem to give no good alternatives.

Best I can come up with is the way I went to Dora Kelly but using back streets to avoid most of the way on Sleepy Hollow – OR going down the accotink trail to Franconia Springfield parkway and using the MUP along the parkway to go east (which then means going north again)

Or putting my bike on the 29k bus.

Do any of you more experienced folks have ideas that I havent found in my two rides, and my exploration of google maps?

Topic

[ShawnoftheDread]

@bikeon 32195 wrote:

Has there been any updates from folks on routes from Annandale to Old Town Alexandria? I live right off of the Cross County Trail and work off of Duke Street near King Street Metro. I would prefer to bike to work. I cannot seem to be able to find a safe and relatively direct route. I am an experienced rider and even sections of LRT makes me nervous. I was thinking of trying to take the CCT to Holmes Run to Eisenhower. Is this possible? Thanks!

The CCT doesn’t connect to Holmes Run. You could take Annandale Rd to Holmes Run to Eisenhower. Or you could take a combination of LRT and Alpine Dr to Chambliss to pick up Holmes Run.

[lordofthemark]

@ShawnoftheDread 32197 wrote:

The CCT doesn’t connect to Holmes Run. You could take Annandale Rd to Holmes Run to Eisenhower. Or you could take a combination of LRT and Alpine Dr to Chambliss to pick up Holmes Run.

I was thinking of doing Alpine to bypass the bad parts of LRT – I take it you’ve done that and it works?

[ShawnoftheDread]

@lordofthemark 32446 wrote:

I was thinking of doing Alpine to bypass the bad parts of LRT – I take it you’ve done that and it works?

Yes, it works for the length of Alpine, but there are “bad parts” of LRT that Alpine doesn’t cover. It will get you from Evergreen almost to Old Columbia, though.

[lordofthemark]

@ShawnoftheDread 32447 wrote:

Yes, it works for the length of Alpine, but there are “bad parts” of LRT that Alpine doesn’t cover. It will get you from Evergreen almost to Old Columbia, though.

and whither then?

Up Old Columbia to Lincolnia? or back to LRT and then east?

[ShawnoftheDread]

Old Columbia’s no good — it’s a single lane in each direction with a hill, bad sight lines in parts, and fast moving traffic for much of it. There is a side path for some parts. I did Old Columbia to Elmcrest to Braddock and then some side streets over to Dora Kelly on a Sunday morning, but I didn’t think Old Columbia was easy enough riding to justify the extra time. I think I would just ride the sidewalk and access roads on the south side of LRT from Old Columbia to Lincolnia and then go up to Morgan.

[lordofthemark]

I did Shawn’s route today. LRT service lanes (et al) to Evergreen to Alpine (which connects to Pinecrest via a short trail not shown on any map I know of – leads from the Alpine cul de sac to a stretch of Alpine by the school in Pinecrest) to the twisty Pinecrest sidepath on north sdoide of LRT (which had a bunch of pedestrians at 9AM) then crossed to the south side of LRT to take the dog’s breakfast of service lanes, parking lots, and sidewalks to Beauregard.

Then north on the Beauregard sidewalk to Holmes Run, down Holmes Run to Eisenhower, east (using the nice wide multiuse path, but the road looked quite usable too) to the Carlyle development and then to the Whole Foods on Duke where I locked up and had a latte in honor of National Coffee Day. Then the same route back, except for using Morgan to Chambliss to get from Holmes Run to LRT instead of Beauregard.

hard thing about this ride is that the return part is when I’m tired, its more uphill, and it involves going FROM Alexandria TO Annandale

[ShawnoftheDread]

Good work. Yes, it’s not ideal, but at least it can be done.

[chris_s]

@lordofthemark 32549 wrote:

via a short trail not shown on any map I know of – leads from the Alpine cul de sac to a stretch of Alpine by the school in Pinecrest)

This trail?

[lordofthemark]

@chris_s 32567 wrote:

This trail?

Oops, now google maps will even show that as a bike route, I don’t think they did the last time I was playing around with routes, or maybe I didn’t pick the right OD pair. But yeah, that trail (on that MAP) is the one I was referring to.

[lordofthemark]

@ShawnoftheDread 32550 wrote:

Good work. Yes, it’s not ideal, but at least it can be done.

While the route is not ideal, it was a great ride – first time I managed to get from Annandale to someplace I consider cool using my bike alone, the weather was great, and parts of the route are great (basically the entire part in the City of Alexandria).

[ShawnoftheDread]

Another interesting tidbit about the route area: construction STILL has not started on the planned Chambliss ST bridge, which was supposed to be done around now.

[chris_s]

@ShawnoftheDread 32575 wrote:

Another interesting tidbit about the route area: construction STILL has not started on the planned Chambliss ST bridge, which was supposed to be done around now.

I see I’m not the only one whose mind was jogged about that project – I pinged Carrie Sanders from Alexandria about that on Friday. Her response:

It is expected to start construction within the next few months. Completion would be in the winter/spring.

[Cangrande]

This is disappointing, although not terribly surprising – when I heard from her this Spring, the summer completion date was firm. Oh well, it’s only been 14 years since the crossing was first (to my knowledge) seriously discussed; I guess we can wait another 6 months.

[scorchedearth]

Construction has begun on the crossing. The equipment is all staged at Dora Kelly and work is progressing. I’d guess it should be done by the summer.

[BIkerboy]

Yes You are right. It’s not so much easy to move within the traffic. And on bicycle …it takes too much time.

[Author]

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