[bentbike33]

Let’s start with some preventive measures that should cost very little and speed access via melting to the MVT after a snow event, to wit:

1. Remove the snow fences at the approaches to the Humpback Bridge and any other snow fences adjacent to the trail. They make things worse. Snow fences may make sense in wide-open areas of the MVT like Gravelly Point, but they need to be placed well back from the trail to be effective.

2. Do not dump snow cleared from adjacent facilities onto the MVT.

[bentbike33]

@Steve O 135547 wrote:

The most exciting part was along the W&OD just east of Madison Manor. Four Mile Run had come out of its banks and had flooded the trail up to the sound wall. I decided to forge through, figuring it might be 3-6 inches deep. When it got above the ankle of my TOP FOOT, and I was fighting the current and hardly moving I decided it would be prudent to turn back.

Ran into this a few years ago in September, remains of a hurricane I think. There is an imperceptible dip in the trail here of a couple feet that is revealed by the flooding. I turned back before the water reached my hubs and weaved through the surrounding neighborhoods on both sides of I-66 before finding my way back to the W&OD. Another epic gully-washer, but at least that time it was not dark.

Not a good idea to proceed through something like this. One false step and you’re on your way to the Potomac.

[bentbike33]

@ian74 135362 wrote:

Only thing I wasn’t too keen on was the rear fender shifter slightly during my bumpy ride up the MVT, but a simple push on the mounting bracket had them fixed right up.

PlanetBike has a similar model I use: http://ecom1.planetbike.com/7017.html

You might try cinching the straps one more notch tighter, or putting a strip of old tube between the seatstay and the fender mount.

[bentbike33]

Thanks for all the input on my Strava/iPhone issue. I guess I’ll just live with what I get including the odd 40-mph uphill sprints through solid objects and other weirdness (maybe make them segments and finally get a KOM).

[bentbike33]

This questions is not strictly related to Freezing Saddles, but it seems to me this is the most likely thread to ask. It concerns inaccuracies in the GPS recording of my rides. My employer recently switched my smartphone from a BlackBerry to an iPhone 6. I used a freebie 3rd-party app on the BlackBerry to record rides, and the errors were generally associated with places where the GPS signal would be weakest (next to sound walls, in the Valley of the Shadow of the Two Sisters, etc.), but otherwise looked random, and over the same daily commute route, there was little variance in distance recorded. With the iPhone, I’m using the Strava app, and it seems to want to “correct” my route to keep me on streets, or put me on streets, when I am riding on the W&OD, Custis or MVT. This lengthens my commute rides by about 3%. There seem to be fewer such “corrections” when I record with the Strava app and the iPhone in Airplane Mode. Any other helpful hints (and, no, I don’t care to buy a “real GPS” for my bike)?

Thanks.

[bentbike33]

@bentbike33 135208 wrote:

The snow fences are still there.

And remain so today. I was wondering which would be gone first, the Humpback Glacier or the snow fences that created it. Given the predicted temperature for tomorrow, I think the last of the Humpback Glacier will be the first to disappear.

[bentbike33]

@snugglefestival 134873 wrote:

Maybe it was the neck gaiter?! You all have to let me know if you start getting compliments from strangers because of them.

Wednesday afternoon, I passed a rider wearing the Snugglefestival signature hounds-tooth-skull neck gaiter and I said: “Team 12?”

Alas, no, he was from a rival team. I think it was 16.

[bentbike33]

@ctankcycles 135178 wrote:

Their suggestion to salmon this airport ramp would be laughable if it wasn’t so irresponsible… https://goo.gl/maps/wAUbcCqKsT52

I stand by my previous post.

[bentbike33]

@dbb 134348 wrote:

Right now I’m trying to get the NPS to take the snow fences down on the Humpback approaches as they seem to be causing, not preventing problems.

The snow fences are still there.

[bentbike33]

@lordofthemark 135174 wrote:

It really feels like the competition is stiffer this year. … Without going into the weather comparison, it seems to me like we not only have more riders this year, but many of the new riders are very strong riders, and some of last year’s riders are more into it.

Maybe Metro sucks more this year? That and the sheer awfulness of exercising indoors is the reason I’m in FS this year for the first time.

[bentbike33]

@Tim Kelley 135159 wrote:

If you really care, this was the suggestion:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10990[/ATTACH]

So the suggested route was to salmon on the streets including highway on-off ramps, or are these glacier-strewn sidewalks?

[bentbike33]

@huskerdont 135145 wrote:

Anyone ride Trollheim this morning? Any ice? I need to leave early and that’s my usual route home (though not in). I’m on 25 slicks.

Trollheim was dry this morning. No ice. The descent from the GWMP overpass to the TR Island parking lot, however, was a challenge somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00 when I flintstoned down, but mid-40s and sun will fix that for the afternoon.

[bentbike33]

@Tim Kelley 135065 wrote:

I told you I was asking for a friend!

Scratching my head how NPS is having a meeting with 20 bike advocates on it’s trail plan, but expects us to get there without riding on the Parkway….

They WANT you to ride on the Parkway. In fact they are counting on it as a way of quietly (well, aside from the odd squealing tire) eliminating up to 20 troublemakers at once.

[bentbike33]

My Frozen Valentine

https://www.strava.com/activities/493579315

[bentbike33]

@mstone 134840 wrote:

It should be painfully obvious at this point that if VDOT did NOTHING AT ALL the trails would be clear by now. What we should demand as a minimum is that they don’t make things worse by piling snow mountains where people need free access. That should be the baseline: if there isn’t money to clear trails, fine–but don’t spend taxpayer dollars to make trails inaccessible. Given the forecasts for the next week, many trails/sidepaths/sidewalks will likely still be impassible a full month after the snow.

Indeed, aside from the remains of the Humpback Glacier, all the remaining snow piles I see were created with end-loaders. Their operators need better instructions.

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