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Beautiful morning! Sunny and not too many others on the trails. During the part of my route that had me heading west, well, that was less fun with the headwind and I felt like I was going nowhere, especially with the large truck behind me. While I am looking forward to leaving work at the end of the day, I am not looking so much forward to the ride home since it is mostly west and northwest – right into the wind. “It is a good workout” will be my mantra.

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I am so NOT looking forward to biking to work in the dark again. For some reason biking home in the dark seems okay, like it is prepping me to sleep or something.

So would removing daylights savings time entirely or at least shortening it back to where it used to be likely to be more controversial or less than all the other things that congress is not passing now?

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@cdjewell 175691 wrote:

I didn’t take a chance this morning. I’m pulling a 5-year-old in a trailer which complicates getting over the tree.

Tree was not there at 7-something this morning. You should be good in future in regards to that tree (no promises that other trees won’t fall)

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@bentbike33 175611 wrote:

Here’s the picture.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]17328[/ATTACH]

Joggers were going around next to the retaining wall this morning.

I had to pick up my panier-laden bike over it – being short makes it a little worse too.
I e-mailed the county about it – I figured that they plow that section that maybe they clear it too. I received the automated message received reply. Hopefully it won’t be there tomorrow morning.

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@bobco85 175033 wrote:

I just finished my video on my morning bike commute here in Seattle! After getting a job in November and learning that they had a bike cage in the building, I was able to eventually figure out a nice route for biking the 13.5 miles from my apartment in Tukwila to my building in downtown Seattle. Haha, this video shows the route I use now, and I have not gotten a single flat while taking this route.

I had wanted to make a video of my commute, but I couldn’t figure out how best to show it until I started reviewing the footage I had collected over commutes during November, December, and January. There was such variety in the sky, daylight, weather, and more that it would be cool to show the changes between each on the same stretches.

This is the morning bike commute I make every Monday/Wednesday/Friday (I take the light rail on Tuesday/Thursday). Enjoy!

Wow! How long is the actual commute – it seems quite long. And the weather has been unpleasant a lot. And so much on your tier 3 and maybe 2. I think I could shave 2-3miles off my commute if I was willing to put up with some of that (and the honking/close passes) rather than stick to trails. I am impressed. Keep it up and keep safe!

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Sun, o glorious sun! Where have you been? It has been so long that I forgot that you cause the temperature to rise. Yes, 10 deg from when I left home until I got to the office. I was too cold to start and much too warm at the end of my commute. However, I am glad you are back.

Wondrous ride, albeit warm at the end.

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@Erin Potter 174934 wrote:

We’ve been asked to share a notice about upcoming work that will impact the Four Mile Run Trail underneath I-395. It’s scheduled to begin within the next two weeks.

The trail will remain open, though reduced to an 8 ft width during the two-month construction period.

Friendly reminder to be alert for construction activity and to take extra caution while traveling this trail portion due to the reduced trail width.

Do we get to keep the lights? I was glad when those were turned back on recently.

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Really? Seems too early in the season, but this morning a pair of geese were hanging out on the channel side of the Navy-Merchant Marine Memorial. One on the grass and one on the trail hissing at me as I rode by. I swear this gets earlier each year.

So, warning geese are in their protective mode. No goslings yet spotted.

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Clearly the world (including Arlington) has whiners. It isn’t hard to drive the road if you are paying attention. But that is rare, I admit.
Living half a block from Washington Blvd, I use it frequently. If I am walking to East Falls Church (station or shops/restaurants) and have time constraints, Wash Blvd is the route since it is much shorter than the trail. Otherwise, I am usually going further out on W&OD, so the the trail makes more overall sense (and my biking buddy really, really prefers trails). I will likely use the road on the few occasions I bike to the FC farmers market.
I drive along this section of road to get to places frequently. Before the change, the general traffic speed was >40mph. Note that the limit is 30mph. After the change, well, many weeks after, people are going closer to 30mph. Other than the odd yellow line bulb-outs at Quantico and Roosevelt (which make drivers slightly swerve to not drive on yellow lines), the striping is easy to follow *if you pay attention.* I know, that is soooo diffucult to do while driving. If they posted some signs, even temporary ones, indicating that the new striping requires reduced speed (I bet there are official words for that somewhere), more people might not have had issues. I think we are getting use to it. Now it is only between Glebe and Westover that >40mph is more typical (and closer to rt50).

I am still waiting for bike lanes from Harrison (current eastern end of bike lanes) and Pentagon City…

And I will gladly meet people for wine (not whine, but likely some of that will appear) at the Italian Store. Or an espresso. or cannoli or gelato…

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Freshbikes in Ballston has been looking more and more closed when they put the pizza place in recently (I was trying to figure out how they were going to stay in business with so much less space and lack of street signage). Apparently they slowly reached that point so that I didn’t realize it when I was across the lot last night. They were randomly helpful and insulting (not that they said outright insults, just told me an outright lie about the lube I liked (“Oh, that company merged with another and they don’t make it any more”) and told me that it would cost more to fix my bike than buy a new one (not at all the case. But I did both at another shop).). I was hoping they would stay for the rare occasion I needed to fix a flat while I was at the gym.

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6PM-ish update:
W&OD from Shirlington to Columbia pike clear.
W&OD from Columbia Pike to just before the pond (or, shortly after mile marker 2) clear
W&OD from there to Carlin Springs and less frequently to the I-66 overpass west of Ohio (and connecting to Custis Spurt), mostly clear but some large patches of snow. Oddly. I guess the tall trees a distance from the trail without leaves have a lot of branches and kept things in enough shadow to not melt. At all. Well, maybe a little bit of ice at the edges of pavement but all pretty passable on my 38c tires.
Ped bridge over I-66, basically clear (snow and wet pavement at edges).
Custis Spurt: snow patches next to overpass, then eastbound large dry areas and large snowy areas.
I do not expect these areas to be icy in the morning. More crunchy snow, perhaps, but not icy.

Well, this has me more hopeful that Trollheim won’t be an icy mess in the morning. Just crunchy snow.

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Plowing by Arlington was wonderful – Custis was basically clear to Roosevelt Island parking.

MVT: NPS cleared Roosevelt Island parking lot area well, except for one icy spot about where the bridge to the island is.
I was glad to hear that Trollheim was snowy – that was great this morning (tires are 38s) so no slipping, even the bridge across the boundary channel was easy because it was snow covered. However, I worry for tomorrow morning since there will likely be partial melting during the day and re-freezing tonight. There were some snowy/icy bits from there to about the Memorial bridge crossing, but all passable. LBJ grove area to Boundary channel drive was all clear with occasional spots to easily avoid (worst at the wooden bridge, but still avoidable, if not too fast).

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4MRT from Meade to Walter Reed was clear, maybe a few spots here and there to avoid.
W&OD from Walter Reed to George Mason was very clear, except for some very avoidable splotches.
W&OD from George Mason to Columbia Pike had a clear lane down the middle with occasional widening.
W&OD from Columbia Pike to Bluemont Trail was mostly snow with one or two clear patches and a couple of icy areas to avoid – stay on the snow if you can.
Bluemont Trail From W&OD to Fairfax Dr was plowed only occasional patches of snow/ice the machine didn’t get.
Fairfax drive and Quincy were good in Ballston.
Ballston connector was plowed but had many missed areas, some of which were icy. However, all small and easy to not fall.
Custis was plowed from Ballston connector to St Anne’s and only had a few missed patches.

Anyone know what Trollheim is like? Or the bridge in LBJ grove? I would like to do that tomorrow morning.

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Trail report for Wednesday 17 January. starting about 7:40am
Custis from Harrison to W&OD to 4MRT to Eads to 18th

Custis covered in snow, but very passable – many cyclists had used it already
W&OD deeper snow, but still easy to ride on. Much thinner towards Columbia pike and then very thin with wind-driven slightly thicker patched from Columbia Pike to 4MRT. When thinner, it was crunchier.
4MRT was plowed from Shirlington to beyond Eads (presume MVT, but I couldn’t see that far). All wet too. If it dries, it will be great, otherwise it might turn into an icy mess, especially for the underpasses.
PBLs on Eads and 18th were good.

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First, I am excited that my count on the Rosslyn counter was in the single digits two days in a row. I do not expect that to keep up. Second, I am surprised at both yesterday’s number and today’s number. I know today is a holiday, so far fewer commuters, in fact, I did not see another bicycle my whole commute. So at about 7:30am, I was number 8 on the monolith. What surprises me is that yesterday, at about 10am, it was warmer, and I saw other cyclists before and after Rosslyn, I was number 5.

It was a cold commute, but a lovely sunrise and so little traffic. I would have preferred about 10deg warmer, but that is okay.

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