[DCAKen]

@KLizotte 150803 wrote:

Won’t the zoo cut through be closed after hours? Which means you will have to be comfortable going through the tunnel which has a very narrow sidewalk.

Note that when the trail through the zoo is closed (7 pm – 6 am), there is no one permitted on the trail between Calvert Street and Porter Street. Currently, the asphalt is completely gone south of Harvard Street (with the exception of the tunnel) and they’ve put up more fencing north of the tunnel.

[DCAKen]

After yet another Incredibell failure (the striker keeps breaking on the ones I’ve gone through), I decided to treat myself and get a Splurgecycle…I mean Spurcycle. The bell reverberates for quite a long time!

[DCAKen]

Yay! Just a few blocks away from where I live. Now I don’t need to worry about the long trek home after several beers.

[DCAKen]

My brother, a rabid vintage Volvo fan, created the Pegamoose (a take on the Mobil Pegasus) and made a limited release of stickers

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[DCAKen]

I’ve been hearing that the trail has been closed between the Parkway and Klingle on some Sundays. The project page only has a notice about a November 6 closing, but hasn’t had any additional updates. I commute through RCP every day and the entire trail has been open between 6 am and 7 pm.

I recommend writing to the superintendent (rocr_superintendent@nps.gov), but don’t hold your breath on a rely. I don’t always get a response to my messages about trail issues.

[DCAKen]

@DCAKen 149365 wrote:

Yesterday I saw a tractor blowing leaves from Ross Drive in the park. This morning, I saw a tractor blowing leaves off the meadow at the intersection of Ross Drive and Glover Road. And yet the trail is still choked with leaves in places. I sent the superintendent a scathing email asking just where are their priorities…but that probably won’t make any difference.

I’m happy to say that I was wrong. I received this email on Friday and on the ride home that evening, I enjoyed swept trails in Rock Creek Park.

Thank you for your emails pertaining to the leaf and debris along locations of the multi-use trail. We understand your frustration and are working diligently to address and correct each issue as soon as possible. The locations you are referring to in your previous email have been cleared and will continue to be monitored and cleared weekly. Our trails staff currently clears sections of the multi-use trail and other established trails weekly. Our crew normally operates from north to south along the multi-use trail and does so two to three times per week. While recent staffing issues and the Beach Drive closure has slowed down progress, I assure you that the park is doing its best to keep up with multi-use trail maintenance along Beach Drive and the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway and will continue until all hazards are abated.

Hopefully they will clean the trails on a weekly basis. I certainly haven’t see any evidence that the crews are on the trails three days a week, even before the Beach Drive rehabilitation project started.

[DCAKen]

What was that car doing at Q Street? Going down 15th the wrong way and trying to turn onto Q to go the wrong way.

[DCAKen]

@DCAKen 148769 wrote:

As could the Rock Creek trail

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Yesterday I saw a tractor blowing leaves from Ross Drive in the park. This morning, I saw a tractor blowing leaves off the meadow at the intersection of Ross Drive and Glover Road. And yet the trail is still choked with leaves in places. I sent the superintendent a scathing email asking just where are their priorities…but that probably won’t make any difference.

[DCAKen]

There’s another new detour in place on the Rock Creek Park trail. The trail is now closed between the tunnel and the zoo entrance onto Beach Drive. The trail is diverted onto the roadway for this short distance. Fortunately, it’s much wider than the detour south of Peirce Mill.

[DCAKen]

@bentbike33 148763 wrote:

The whole Custis could use a good sweeping.

As could the Rock Creek trail

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[DCAKen]

@Kitty 148310 wrote:

I was ecstatic when they announced the date for it! My birthday is the middle of next week, so I’m treating it like my rolling birthday party! 😮 I’m doing the Honeycrisp ride and will have party hats! If you see me, ask for one!

As I was leaving the Dew Drop Inn parking lot at the end of the ride, I saw a rider coming in wear a party hat. Did you hand out many hats?

[DCAKen]

I’ve registered for the Honeycrisp ride. Last year’s ride was a lot of fun with the added surprise of the cider mugs swag at the end of the ride.

[DCAKen]

As part of the Beach Drive rehabilitation project, there’s a new detour in place for the path between Bluff Bridge (just north of Piney Branch) and the bridge over the creek south of Peirce Mill. The path is closed and all users are directed onto the road. This segment, more or less

[DCAKen]

Yesterday afternoon, as I cycled down through Rock Creek on the section of trail going through the zoo, I noticed a group of police officers standing on the trail just upstream of the south gate. As I passed by, there were more EMS personnel lifting someone on a stretcher from the creek bed. I couldn’t tell if it was a pedestrian or a cyclist that had tumbled off the trail into the creek.

Also on the way home, I noticed my real derailleur was shifting rather oddly, so I figured the cable was about to break. So I continued the ride only shifting my front gears, making for a good spinning morning with the rear in the fourth ring. I stopped in at City Bikes in Adams Morgan to get the cable replaced, but the mechanic (one I hadn’t worked with before) was sure it was just in need of an adjustment. After fiddling with the rear derailleur, he starting working the shifter and almost immediately, the cable snapped. And now they had to take apart the shifter to get the broken end of the cable out…which was exactly why I brought it in before it broke. Fortunately, it only took them about 15 minutes to get that repaired, but that made me think back to the time when I broke a cable on an older bike and they weren’t able to get the end out of the shifter, requiring me to buy a new one.

[DCAKen]

You can always notify the Park Superintendent about these blockages: rocr_superintendent@nps.gov

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