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@skreaminquadz 1283 wrote:

Ha – not so fast there Pete – you were more sucessful than you think. I think I left part of myself somewhere on that ride. My body isn’t all that happy with me today ; )

Seriously though – it was a super fun ride. Thanks for taking me!!

I’d be willing to bet that all 4 of us benefitted from a bit of advil after the ride. Yueq in particular after his spectacular road crash at 25mph. Feeling a ride for a day or two after is part of the fun and the way that we get stronger. I won’t be bounding up any staircases in the next few days.

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That’s similar to what the trail next to the river between Great Falls and Riverbend was before that was closed.

I forgot Potomac Overlook. That was at one time in the very early 1990s open to bikes. It didn’t last long.

Fun place to hike and run though. Is the tea house in the middle still open from time to time?

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Tried to kill ScreamingQuads this weekend. Didn’t work. He rode like a champ and managed to more than double the longest mountain bike ride he’d ever done.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/58272837

Band of Brothers + 1 Sister.

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Big Agnes has the right idea. I make sure to raise my elbow in a noticable gesture to indicate on which side the rocket is launching.

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I used it a few weeks back and it worked. I didn’t have a problem. It is a super cool idea if they keep working.

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I’ve ridden Laurel Hill many times with 700×40 Small Block 8’s and they are quite good. You just have to have reasonable expectations of cornering grip until you get the feel for things. We can do a mellow ride out there in the next few weeks if you like. I can put the skinnier tires back on the mutant fixie so that you won’t feel out of place on skinny tires.

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Germantown, Maryland has been the hotbed of Mountain Biking activity in the DC area for quite a few years. Most recently, the 62 mile Montgomery County Epic was listed as an International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) Epic ride. The MoCo Epic connects 9 trails in suburban Maryland into a loop that is actually easily expandable into the mid-70 mile range. About 15 miles of that is on roads. My friend Denis recently set up a fund-raising ride for MORE on the MoCo Epic. Around 200 people showed up to ride a 25, 40 or 62 mile version of the Epic.

Here’s IMBA’s page on the MoCo Epic: http://www.imba.com/epics/moco-loop

All of these trails are accessible from the C&O Towpath. The cut out that most people use is Riley’s lock. I usually cut out at Violet’s lock. Schaeffer Farms (The main trail complex in Montgomery County) is about 6 miles North on mellow back roads. That will soon be much shorter distance with the building of the new Black Rock Mill trail under construction now. Singletrack will be 1.5 miles closer to the C&O.

Connecting all of this stuff into a ride from Northern Virginia turns into a ride that is easily 135+ miles. Most folks won’t do that in a day. It is, however very possible. In October I did the full 136 miles and change in about 14 hours. That was part of the supported MoCo Epic ride that Denis set up. Having aid stations really made that possible.

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I’ll add a few things here.

Fairfax has the Cross County trail that connects a lot of things together. I don’t drive, so I appreciate that. The CCT is accessible from the W&OD trail as well as back streets through Falls Church and Annandale.

The CCT gives access to:

• Great Falls (mellow doubletrack trails)
• Riverbend Regional Park (some good singletrack– connects through Great Falls)
• Potomac Heritage Trail (I need to explore this more — connects through Riverbend)
• Lake Fairfax (New trails built by MORE this fall)
• Wakefield
• Accotink
• Laurel Hill
• Fountainhead (If you don’t mind a 5-mile road section)

With the different connections, that makes for some long days in the saddle. From the house (in Falls Church) I’ve done the Northern part and the southern part on different days.

This is the southern half: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46556659
Tacking Fountainhead on to the end of that adds another 20 miles or so.

As others have noted, the detour on the CCT northbound from the W&OD is closed due to bridge damage. The trails north can still be accessed through Lake Fairfax from the W&OD. I’m hoping to get a good plot of that in the next few weeks. I haven’t done that loop through Lake Fairfax in a long time.

Things are much easier for people who don’t mind driving to the trailhead. The CCT is kind-of fun though. The northern section through Reston is actually quite pretty. The center section from Fairfax through Wakefield/Accostink is mostly paved, multi-use trail.

I know that’s a lot to absorb. Obviously I have taken this whole “leave the car at home” thing pretty seriously.

In my next post, I’ll talk about opening up Montgomery County’s amazing singletrack via the C&O Canal Towpath.

Pete

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Totally agree, Dave. I just mentioned Wakefield because it is super close in. It isn’t a real mountain bike destination in-and-of itself.

If you like Rosaryville, you’ll also really like Laurel Hill. Laurel Hill has a few real benefits to it. 1) It is built to hold up pretty well when it is wet. It is really ridable almost year round. 2) It is really cool to ride around the buildings in Lorton’s original gated community:

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Great topic.

MORE is the local mountain biking club. http://www.more-mtb.org They’ve got good information on local trails and places to ride. There are scheduled rides every week. This is the main trail advocacy group that has built/maintained most of the trails in this area.

Log Off/Ride On is another local forum. It is a group of local mountain bikers that get together and ride every week. Their trail wiki is pretty dang good. http://www.logoffrideon.com/forum/index.php These are the people I ride with.

Wakefield and Accotink parks are probably the closest mountain biking to Arlington. There’s between 8 and 10 miles of singletrack packed into two Fairfax County suburban parks. They’d be a good place to explore with your slightly skinny-tired bike. If you have pretty serious lights (more than what we were distributing last week) there are night rides at Wakefield on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

If you’ve got a car and can drive a little, Laurel Hill regional park in Lorton is a great place to get your feet wet with mountain biking. I ride there with a cyclocross bike and the trails are fine for the skinny tires.

Rosaryville State Park in Upper Marlboro, Maryland is another great place to ride with slightly skinnier tires.

MORE and LoRo both have pretty good descriptions of the above-listed parks.

I’m happy to show you around the local trails some time if you’d like.

What kind of tires came on your GF? 40mm cross tires will do pretty well in the parks listed above. Many of the other parks in the area have enough rocks that you’ll want some fatter tires in order to ride there.

We ride every Sunday. This time of year we’re doing some farily mellow mountain biking. Lets keep in touch and we’ll see about getting dirty. We can arrange carpools if you’re car-free like me.

Happy Trails.

Pete

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The new singletrack at Lake Fairfax Park will make a great detour route if it isn’t too wet out. I’m gonna go ride that this weekend. I’ll post up about it on Moonday.

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They’re pretty loud. At least the two that I’ve heard. There’s a guy in the neighborhood in Falls Church who has one. It moves pretty well. Sounds like a weed whacker on steroids.

I got a few interesting comments when I rode my unicycle to the Metro last winter in a snow storm. Need to see if I can hook up a moped motor to it. NOT

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I noticed that some of the areas near St. Ann’s school had been fixed lately. I don’t know if that was utility based or not, but three bumpy areas were removed and there’s new pavement there.

@Josh: I agree with your identification of areas that need love. I too am 100% suspension-free, though I’ll likely go to slightly wider tires this week since my Special-ed Armadillos are finally showing signs of mortality.

As a side note, I’m completely disappointed with those tires. The things cost me $105 and barely lasted me 3 seasons and a total accumulated mileage of close to 15,000. I got so ripped off.

I rely on the bumps between Lincoln and Lee Highway to wake me up before the S of Certain Death.

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And Zinn’s newest edition of the Mountain Bike maintenance book hits the shelves this week… updated with the latest and greatest in mountain biking stuff.

Thank you for your kind words, sir.

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My head definitely doesn’t need to stop. Nor is it likely to.

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