Silver Spring to Georgetown

[Crickey7]

What part of Silver Spring? It’s huge.

[Crickey7]

And what is your tolerance for riding in traffic?

[NationalMammal]

I’m coming from right around Wayne and Flower Ave (not too far from the metro station). Ideally, I’d like to stay off of busy roads as much as possible.

[Crickey7]

Sligo to Maple, turn right. Ride up to Aspen, go under the RR tracks to Blair. Stay on Blair a half block, then take the soft right onto 3rd. Ride Third to Kansas, take a right. Kansas to Upshur, take a right. Ride Upshur to Arkansas, take a left, and go 1 1/2 blocks to Piney Branch and take another left. Ride Piney Branch to Beach Drive, get on just until Porter and then hop onto the Rock Creek trail (it’s been reopened there). Take trail to Georgetown.

[Crickey7]

Let me know how it works out. I’ve ridden only about 90% of this.

[NationalMammal]

Thanks!

[jrenaut]

How is Piney Branch to Beach Dr? I’ve driven that a few times and it’s not that cool. I always get to Beach by continuing on Upshur then bombing down Mathewson to Blagden, but I’ve only done that on the weekends.

As an alternate, I might take Kansas all the way to Randolph, left then first right on 10th. Right on Spring, left on 11th, right on Vermont, right on R, left on 17th, right on M. That’s pretty quiet until M and then godspeed.

[Crickey7]

@jrenaut 166172 wrote:

How is Piney Branch to Beach Dr? I’ve driven that a few times and it’s not that cool. I always get to Beach by continuing on Upshur then bombing down Mathewson to Blagden, but I’ve only done that on the weekends.

As an alternate, I might take Kansas all the way to Randolph, left then first right on 10th. Right on Spring, left on 11th, right on Vermont, right on R, left on 17th, right on M. That’s pretty quiet until M and then godspeed.

That’s the part I hadn’t ridden. I’d be tempted to try your way. I have to say, riding on the RCP trail sounds like it would be better than riding on streets, but I kind of don’t like it very much. There just aren’t a lot of good routes through Mount Pleasant/Columbia Heights.

[jrenaut]

Another option is 11th to Columbia then after you cross 16th St, take the first right after the little park then left at the T to go down Harvard. If you go straight into the zoo you can go left and get on the trail there, although there’s a crummy spot where you have to cross RCP.

Columbia to Adams Mill/Calvert then left onto the trail just after Connecticut isn’t too terrible.

[Crickey7]

Another thing to remember is that you don’t have to come back the way you got down. Piney Branch might be fine heading in (Blagden comes down in the stretch that’s closed now), and then take a different way back.

[jrenaut]

So, Piney Branch. I just drove it today at about 330PM. NB it’s a parking lot. SB it’s moving steadily. The pavement SUCKS. There’s no shoulder. There is a sidepath for a while but not the whole way. It’s pretty much straight downhill, though, and the speed limit is 25, which actually seemed to resemble how fast cars were going.

In conclusion, I wouldn’t bike it unless I really had to. Others might reasonably make a different decision, and I’d probably get used to it if I tried it for a while, but I can’t recommend it.

[secstate]

Many of us who bike from Silver Spring to downtown cut through Chevy Chase and pick up the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda. This is a great ride, especially if you have a bit of extra time.

A second trail option is to take Wise Road through Rock Creek Park to Oregon Ave, then turn left on the paved bike trail through the woods and follow that down to Georgetown via Ridge Road.

Finally, you could take the 14th St bike lane and 15th St cycletrack to P Street and head into Georgetown from there. Lots of options!

[Zack]

When I lived off of Georgia Ave, I would ride down Aspen to Sherrill Dr and into Rock Creek Park. Traffic should not be too bad at the moment because of Beach Dr’s reconstruction. Ross Dr and Ridge Rd are closed to cars but open to people walking and biking. Ross Dr has a wicked hill but it is pretty and even when it was open to cars, hardly any used it. Try this link. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/8802-8804+Bradford+Rd,+Silver+Spring,+MD+20901/38.9863773,-77.0216808/38.978307,-77.0188226/38.9736957,-77.0227345/38.9728995,-77.0405091/38.960595,-77.0419442/38.9450451,-77.0501204/38.9047244,-77.0563494/@38.9933623,-77.0121839,1510m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m40!4m39!1m20!1m1!1s0x89b7c60160c2ee6b:0x39774cd2f34accd!2m2!1d-77.0061882!2d39.0006791!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0054988!2d38.9963333!3s0x89b7c60342c19337:0x848a199dae1a477f!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0104641!2d38.9914461!3s0x89b7c8a75762527d:0x63905542c8eadef8!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0188999!2d38.9901634!3s0x89b7c8a3a293bed7:0xfc64e2b5bdd72b6a!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0224244!2d38.9855401!3s0x89b7c89792aad33f:0xf9ed20a09aba2e88!1m0!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-77.0267887!2d38.9736101!3s0x89b7c88e933430a7:0x8df1af00bc877208!1m0!1m0!1m0!1m0!3e1!5m1!1e3 If you don’t like Piney Branch Rd in MD, try E Wayne to Silgo Creek Trail and up Hartford. This route has a few sections with a lot of traffic but they are relatively short. For example, the DC section of Piney Branch Rd is wide for one spot and then narrow for another few blocks.

[Crickey7]

Don’t ride 16th Street if you want to live. Drivers on that road are downright horrible.

[secstate]

@Crickey7 166318 wrote:

Don’t ride 16th Street if you want to live. Drivers on that road are downright horrible.

I’m always surprised to see cyclists on 16th Street. Fourteenth is such an easy alternative, and the portion north of Columbia Heights is pretty chill.

At one point there was a proposal to make dedicated bike/bus lanes on 16th. That might change things. But, it is a very busy bus route and I have a hard time imagining that I would prefer it over 14th.

[Author]

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