[bobco85]

@lordofthemark 166601 wrote:

VisitAlexandria would be interested in details of this project. They said as much at the last BPAC meeting.

Update: I reached out to them, and after some discussion, I am happy to announce that the Alexandria Visitor Center is planning on printing a few of the guidebooks! They said the guidebooks will be available in early 2018. Thank you for getting me in touch with them!

[bobco85]

I’ve been wanting to do a video highlighting the East Coast Greenway in the DC area for months now, and I’m glad to say that I finally finished it!

I chose to use a 48 mile segment of the East Coast Greenway running from Greenbelt through DC and into Occoquan, and my goal was to fit it into a 12 minute video (aimed at 4 miles/minute) which I almost did, save for intro/outro. It took 2 days of filming to gather footage in the days before Independence Day (hence the security chain-link fencing along the Mall) with 49 separate videos and 90 separate overlays. I also made sure to have different music to separate the MD, DC, and VA portions (keeping in mind that Columbia Island is still technically DC).

There are 2 distinct detours in the video that I should point out. The first is that the ECG offers 2 options when reaching the intersection of the NE Branch, NW Branch, and Anacostia River Trails in Hyattsville (shown here: https://map.greenway.org/?loc=14,38.94496,-76.93953): the main route goes along NW Branch, into Brookland, along the MBT, and past Union Station to the National Mall, and the alternate route goes along Anacostia River Trail, Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, past Navy Yard, and through SW Waterfront to the National Mall. I labeled these the (main) Metropolitan route and the (alternate) River route. The other detour is near Fort Belvoir (shown here: https://map.greenway.org/?loc=14,38.71060,-77.17651) where US-1 has a new paved sidepath running from Mt Vernon Memorial Hwy/Jeff Todd Way all the way to Lorton Rd. The ECG route has riders detouring onto Backlick Rd, Ffx Co Pkwy Trail, and Telegraph Rd, so my video shows a more direct route.

You can take a look at the East Coast Greenway route map on their site here: https://map.greenway.org/

I put a lot of work into this one, and my change in style for my other videos including symbols, overlays, and animations was due to my initial work on making this video. It’s the last major bit of DC-area footage that I have (I might do one shorter video on a MD trail, but that’s it for footage), so it makes me a bit sad, but I am happy to have been able to contribute to biking videos in the DC area. Enjoy!

[video=youtube_share;qRa4D05s4Dw]https://youtu.be/qRa4D05s4Dw[/video]

[bobco85]

Hope y’all survived Election Day! I saw folks had to brave the cold rain, but I’m glad you went out anyways to the polls. Here in King County (includes Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Tukwila, and extends a fair bit into the mountains), they don’t have polling locations except a few for those that need assistance with voting. Everyone who is registered to vote gets a ballot in the mail (I got mine on October 18) and submits their votes by mailing it in or using one of the many dropboxes around the county. I procrastinated but still submitted my ballot in time.

Enough with politics; the other day, I did a ride through the drizzle/light rain around Cougar Mountain and Squak Mountain to visit Issaquah and saw the rest of the I-90 Trail.

Standing at the base of Tiger Mountain at Poo Poo Point Trailhead. Giggling aside, Poo Poo Point is a launchpoint up Tiger Mountain that hanggliders and paragliders like to use, and in clear weather one can sit and watch them take off and soar through the sky. I will return on a better day (likely not going to happen until spring, it being the Pacific Northwest) to do so. Take note that the start of the trail crosses a field used for landing, so watch your head!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]15696[/ATTACH]

Heading north into Issaquah, I was able to ride the short yet wonderful Rainier Trail which connects to the East Lake Sammamish Trail and the local high school. It is another rail-trail that featured a train station and passes through downtown Issaquah.
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Issaquah was a major city in the timber industry; they had this display outside to show what it looked like
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After a visit to Lake Sammamish, I headed onto the I-90 Trail which runs just like the Custis Trail albeit with a little more separation. The geometry and colors screamed to me to take a photo with my bike, so here’s my contribution to bike porn.
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This tight, steep spiral to an overpass bridge on the I-90 Trail is a design that I’ve seen used in a couple of places around here. I’m not really a fan of them because they aren’t easy to use on a bicycle especially when dealing with oncoming traffic.
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I’m working on my video tour of the East Coast Greenway between Greenbelt-DC-Occoquan, so hopefully I’ll be able to finish and share that sometime next week.

[bobco85]

The underlying question behind nearly every FS discussion that needs to be answered is this: What is the point of Freezing Saddles? (I think everyone has a different answer to this)

I think Freezing Saddles is a competition designed to advocate for cycling in non-ideal conditions which winter tends to be more than willing to provide. It is designed to challenge folks, whether they be a casual weekend rider or a hardcore double-digit weekday commuter or anything between, to try to bike even a little during the time of year that many just say, “It’s just too tough to bike now.” Freezing Saddles gives folks a dose of healthy peer pressure that even though a lot of folks stop biking in winter, here is this group who are interested and are actually doing it, and they’re badass. This leads to the idea that cycling can be done at least 365 days a year for anyone willing to put in the effort and gets more people invested and involved in the cycling community, diverse and disparate as it may be at times.

Keeping that in mind, here’s what I would request for FS2018:

• Participation – riders should be registered and at least minimally involved on the forum, folks on this forum are what brought this whole thing together
• Teams – teams should only have folks willing to ride at least once every 2 weeks, everyone else goes to Slackers team
• E-bikes – yes – biking in the winter is about grit and determination, not athletic prowess
• Team rides – add an incentive for teammates to ride with each other; teams able to do so should get a point bonus (e.g., add 5 points per person per group ride per day to the team score)
• Prizes & Side Bets – yes – this has become such a diverse and bizarre range of prizes that really help make Freezing Saddles so much fun. Keep them coming!
• Serious Fun – my term for group activities that are fun yet still organized and competitive – let’s keep Freezing Saddles that way!

It’s snowing here in Tukwila, so I must go for a ride 😎

[bobco85]

That’s a scary situation, essentially being blindsided by an aggressive driver. I’m glad you weren’t injured as a result of such a bone-headed driver.

Considering the car pulled into the gas station, the car likely would have been caught on one of the security cameras, if not the actual crash itself (depending on camera placement and angle). Hopefully you can get the evidence needed for FFX police to find and punish the driver.

[bobco85]

@lordofthemark 167310 wrote:

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.980313,-77.0574092,3a,75y,91.35h,69.54t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sqyfjRKB975EDeQY1KCw5Lw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

There appears to be room for a sidewalk without cutting down a single tree. Is either side willing to give up onstreet parking?

They don’t necessarily need to build a sidewalk. They could put in a PPL (protected pedestrian lane) which allows for some parking like what was done here in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood for 3 blocks on 8th Ave S: https://goo.gl/maps/uQbn5nDdzWT2
Here’s a pic of it:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]15674[/ATTACH]

I’m sure it’d be a lot less expensive to build compared to pouring concrete, redoing the gutters, and possible loss of trees.

[bobco85]

Greetings again from the other Washington!

I checked out the south end of Lake Washington in Renton. This is at the dock of the Renton Rowing Center, and you can see the Seattle skyline just left of center with Mercer Island on the right
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When I first rode the Cedar River Trail, I was surprised at how many non-bike-friendly signs there were. I was told by a local that a cyclist had hit a pedestrian on that trail, so they decided to install these signs. Bicycles are only allowed on certain parts of the trail with a speed limit of 10 mph, and sometimes they must be walked (there are dismount signs at nearly every underpass). Needless to say, I usually avoid riding on this trail.
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As a new member of the Cascade Bicycle Club (largest bicycle org in North America with 17,000+ members), I went to their annual member meeting at their headquarters in the NE part of Seattle just off Lake Washington. It took a lot of will to refrain from taking that really cool cassette/chain flower!
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At the Cascade HQ, they had a member lounge with some cool mementos (hmmm, I wonder what could have caused them to cancel their Seattle to Portland ride that year ).
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As part of my dual-citizenship, er, membership with Cascade and WABA, I represented the DC area as well as I could. Also, I found a new favorite ice cream (sorry, Turkey Hill, I’ve found someone new) in Tillamook (Oregon-based) white chocolate raspberry yum. The ice cream is so rich, one has to eat slower to truly enjoy the flavor (this is not helping with weight loss). I also have tried and liked their chocolate peanut butter, Oregon blueberry patch, and Oregon strawberry flavors.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]15663[/ATTACH]

[bobco85]

Awesome! At last, the new Anacostia River Trail (IMO one of the biggest pieces of bike infrastructure in the past few years as it makes the popular Anacostia Tributary Trail System fully continuous) shows up! I’ve been waiting for an update to the heatmap, so it’s really nice to see newer routes show up.

[bobco85]

@Dewey 167188 wrote:

Much obliged to you for the video, I’d come to the same conclusion, looking closer at the Google streetview photos for that road all the cyclists ride on the sidewalk. Very brave of you to ride in the bike lane to take the video, thank you.

You’re welcome. I rode my road bike which is obviously much faster than a CaBi and gathered footage on a weekend when it was less crowded, so I can only imagine how crazy that stretch gets during the average weekday rush hour.

[bobco85]

@Dewey 167100 wrote:

I’m taking my car into the shop for repair near the MoCo Airpark and want to commute in to work on Metro rail from Shady Grove station, I have a bike rack on the back of my car and was thinking of picking up a Capital Bikeshare, dropping off the car, then riding to Shady Grove Metro station from the Airpark. Google maps suggests riding the bike lane on Shady Grove Road, but looking at street view there’s a difficult intersection with the Mid County Highway, I would be cycling during rush hour on a 45mph road. The MoCo bicycle comfort level map marks the road in red (confident cyclists), and a local ride cue sheet suggests it’s best avoided during rush hour. I understand MoCo permits riding on the sidewalk but only if a bike lane is not available, it’s my first time there and I don’t know what morning traffic is like. I was thinking of crossing at Mill Run Dr and riding on the sidewalk as far as Tupelo Dr to avoid having to ride on Shady Grove Rd through that intersection.

Do other cyclists who ride on fast arterial road bike lanes also consciously change your route and ride on the sidewalk to avoid difficult intersections?

On a Capital Bikeshare bike, I cannot recommend riding in the bike lane for that stretch of road. The speed of traffic is way too fast compared to your own (especially when riding that slow tank of a CaBi bike), and you’ll feel incredibly uncomfortable. What you’ll want to do is ride on the eastside sidewalk which runs the entire way until leading you to a paved sidepath that will lead to the Metro.

If you want more of a visual of what that stretch looks like, I made a video during SafeTrack that includes a route on Shady Grove Rd going from Muncaster Mill Rd to the Shady Grove Metro. Scroll to 2:40 in my video for that section of Shady Grove Rd:
[video=youtube_share;455tnNZbilQ]https://youtu.be/455tnNZbilQ?t=2m40s[/video]

I hope this helps you find a workable solution.

[bobco85]

I know it’s not Wednesday, but I’ve got some more sights from the Seattle area to share! I finished a video of a ride along some of the waterways in Seattle in the evening last Friday.

The day had not started out great, as I had my 4th glass-caused flat since moving here while biking to the bike shop to pick up some new pedals (I jumped on the train and bus and let the bike shop fix it). Once everything was taken care of, I was able to spend the late afternoon taking in the autumn sights along the Ship Canal Trail, a new 2-way buffered bike lane connector that’s 1 mile long, and the Elliott Bay Trail which goes along part of the Seattle downtown waterfront.

For those interested, here’s the route that I took: https://www.strava.com/routes/11051454

It was a chill ride for the most part, and I hope that’s reflected in the video. Enjoy!

[video=youtube_share;BtU5Huctyc8]https://youtu.be/BtU5Huctyc8[/video]

[bobco85]

I had a really great time riding with folks during last year’s Cider Ride, so I know y’all will have fun this year.

For a preview of what’s in store for you, here’s my video of last year’s ride:

[video=youtube_share;H1lbRxPRdfU]https://youtu.be/H1lbRxPRdfU[/video]

[bobco85]

In getting through my backlog of footage from the DC area, I decided to make a video for the Bethesda Trolley Trail.

While the footage is from early July, you can see a lot of construction and improvements being made to the section along Old Georgetown Rd which was in the process of upgrading from a sidewalk to a wide sidepath (riding on a sidewalk next to 40 mph traffic is not fun). I also made a 1 block deviation from the main trail route because I personally found it safer to cut behind a stretch of buildings to Marinelli Rd to cross Rockville Pike instead of riding on the Nicholson Ln sidewalk that narrows and provides less-than-ideal sight lines for drivers turning right off Rockville Pike.

The trail is also set for expansion farther north to the Twinbrook Metro and should connect to Rockville, but this at least shows the potential.

[video=youtube_share;6ZkLmFb4-BI]https://youtu.be/6ZkLmFb4-BI[/video]

I will probably follow a DC-Seattle-DC-Seattle pattern for my next videos while I work out the rest of my backlog, but I’m happy to have a lot to show!

[bobco85]

I’ve expanded my exploration of the greater Seattle area, including a ride to get even better views of Mount Rainier!

This is how to do a parallel sidepath; this section on Des Moines Memorial Dr features a really smooth ride with almost all of the road crossings being very safe (there’s one road crossing near an off-ramp that needs work and another one that has an oddly-placed bollard). This is part of the planned Lake to Sound Trail which will run on a combination of trails and sidepaths between the south end of Lake Washington in Renton, past my apartment complex (I really like this fact), past SeaTac Airport (see my #5 post on this thread), and on the Des Moines Creek Trail to Puget Sound. Also, yes, I will be making a video of this mostly-completed route (it’s on my list).
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Riding in a small group (just 3 of us) on the Des Moines Creek Trail, very reminiscent to me of upper parts of Rock Creek Trail (the nice parts before you get to all the congestion)
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Stopped to check out (and sample) raspberries along the Green River
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View of Mount Rainier at Lake Tapps (~31 miles away from the summit, half the distance from my zoomed-in sunset pic from last week); to set the olfactory mood for this pic, the entire area around Lake Tapps has a fresh pine scent which is just wonderful (it makes your lungs calm and happy). Also, Lake Tapps sits on a plateau about 400 feet of elevation above the surrounding area, and I found it strange to have to climb up to get to a lake because, you know, water is supposed to flow downhill and not get pooled up high and left behind by ancient glaciers!
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Neat tunnel crossing under a train track I passed through after a super fun downhill from the lake
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[bobco85]

@Judd 166834 wrote:

Was this Steve O’s ride though? Cause the problem is Steve O not plugging his Garmin into computer for several days and not a change at Strava.

Since Strava combines group ride activities (usually it will say “Person X rode with A, B, & C other people”), it should have shown up for others first but didn’t (note: I am following everyone that was on that ride). It’s been weird for me because it almost seems like specific people just stopped riding altogether. I haven’t seen wheelsandwings’ wonderful lyric poetry for about a week now, and that’s not okay!

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