Safe route to Lost Rhino from the W&OD

[lordofthemark]

@jrenaut 165910 wrote:

If I’m leading a group including children from the W&OD to Lost Rhino (21730 Red Rum Dr #142, Ashburn, VA 20147), are we all going to die? Is there a kid-friendly alternate route?

How slowly do y’all ride with the kids?

I don’t ride that fast, and did the usual (?) route, and did not die, but didn’t really like it. Here is my strava for it, you can check my speed.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1153272158

[jrenaut]

Probably slowly. It’ll be me and my 7 and 9 year olds on their own bikes, my wife, a friend, and her 6 and 9 year olds (but they might be on her longtail, not sure). Safe to say we won’t be fast.

[mstone]

@jrenaut 165910 wrote:

If I’m leading a group including children from the W&OD to Lost Rhino (21730 Red Rum Dr #142, Ashburn, VA 20147), are we all going to die? Is there a kid-friendly alternate route?

I don’t know if I’d do it, honestly. Definitely not the obvious way on Smith’s Switch unless the kids are confident & experienced (which seems unlikely). I’d maybe say try using the sidepath on Ashburn Village Road, but that’s also the usual VDOT mess of uncontrolled crossings and (from the imagery anyway) disappearing paths once you finally get to cross the street at Farmwell Rd (so I don’t know how you’d get from the Farmwell intersection to Lost Rhino). It’s possible the google pics are out of date, so you could try scouting to see if someone’s put in some more trail. Ah, the car centric wasteland of Loudoun county, where kids should always be driven.

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 165916 wrote:

It’s possible the google pics are out of date, so you could try scouting to see if someone’s put in some more trail.

They didn’t.

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 165916 wrote:

I don’t know if I’d do it, honestly.

This, I guess. As you can see I was riding about 12MPH, and I found it uncomfortable. And its not a beautiful ride either. And IIRC Lost Rhino is not more kid friendly than other breweries – I don’t think it has an outdoor area. I went cause riding there was on my “list” and I WANT to get used to riding in less comfortable places. If your friends are from Ashburn I would just ride to Old Ox, or to one of the Leesburg breweries. If they are from DC, there are (as I suspect you know) lots of breweries in NoVa that are much more accessible from the trails (Caboose, New District, etc)

[mstone]

+1 for Old Ox if that’s an option. Caveat is that I don’t remember if they have any kid friendly beverages like Lost Rhino’s root beer. They do usually have a food truck out front, and you can check a schedule for what the food truck is and whether it would provide the kid-friendly alternative that day.

[jrenaut]

So background here – for the fundraising gala at the kids’ school, the wife and I auctioned a “bike and brew” tour because people are always jealous of how we spend the winter biking with the kids to breweries for the Freezing Saddles side bet. So we’re just trying to plan a kid-friendly ride in the DC-ish area. We had planned Old Ox, and it sounds like we should probably skip Lost Rhino, at least for now.

Thanks for the advice.

[FFX_Hinterlands]

There’s Old Ox, Crooked Run and Beltway Brewing all in the Sterling area. Green Lizard has local beers, too. Probably not a good reason to go down to Lost Rhino.

[FFX_Hinterlands]

@FFX_Hinterlands 165925 wrote:

There’s Old Ox, Crooked Run and Beltway Brewing all in the Sterling area. Green Lizard has local beers, too. Probably not a good reason to go down to Lost Rhino.

Oh, two more: https://www.facebook.com/Twinpanzee and https://www.facebook.com/rocketfrogbrewing both in Sterling. Twinpanzee is open now but not looking all that bikeable. RocketFrog is close to Crooked Run in Sterling.

[jrenaut]

I think the plan is Crooked Run, Rocket Frog, and Old Ox. All these options, though – gives me some goals for Freezing Saddles.

[Paul Hart]

@jrenaut 165928 wrote:

I think the plan is Crooked Run, Rocket Frog, and Old Ox. All these options, though – gives me some goals for Freezing Saddles.

That’s exactly the way I see it!

[Paul Hart]

@FFX_Hinterlands 165925 wrote:

There’s Old Ox, Crooked Run and Beltway Brewing all in the Sterling area. Green Lizard has local beers, too. Probably not a good reason to find oddsdigger betting info.

Sounds great! And RocketFrog is close to Crooked Run in Sterling.

[jrenaut]

Re-upping this thread because I never really got an answer, and we’re considering this for this weekend. Is there a reasonable way to get from the W&OD to Lost Rhino if we’re biking with kids? Google Maps makes it look like you might be able to come in from behind the brewery and that might not be a terrible route?

[bentbike33]

@jrenaut 196197 wrote:

Re-upping this thread because I never really got an answer, and we’re considering this for this weekend. Is there a reasonable way to get from the W&OD to Lost Rhino if we’re biking with kids? Google Maps makes it look like you might be able to come in from behind the brewery and that might not be a terrible route?

Strava Global Heatmap shows many riders using Smith Switch Station Rd, which becomes Waxpool at the intersection with Farmwell. There is also an industrial park before Smiths Switch you could go through (where Old Ox Brewery is) since Smiths Switch is no wider than it was when it was gravel. Lots of wide non-busy (on a weekend) streets that will get you most of the way to the industrial park containing Lost Rhino. Unfortunately, at least a short jaunt on the Cartopian Thoroughfare of Waxpool is unavoidable.

[jrenaut]

Didn’t even think to look at the heatmap. We were hoping maybe you could get in the back way, but since NO ONE has ever Strava’d that route, I’m guessing it’s not accessible. Thank you!

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