[DrP]

There is a tree down on the Custis between Jefferson and Harrison St (VDOT tree, damaging fence too). Was hard to get around (not over!) at 6:45pm. Fairfax Drive is a good alternate (and easy detour – off at Jefferson and on again at Harrison (or vice versa) all along Fairfax).

I e-mailed trails@arlingtonva.us about it, so likely it will be cleared out during Friday, but tomorrow morning’s commute it will likely still be there.

[DrP]

@TwoWheelsDC 158256 wrote:

I can’t imagine riding for several miles and then looking at my bike and saying “hey, when did I get a flat tire?” Even if your tire is low (assuming it’s not already leaking), the only real concern is susceptibility to pinch flats if you go over a curb or something. Tire pressure has a pretty minimal effect on rolling resistance.

Actually, I do not need to imagine – I have experienced it everytime my tires have been flat except one. Most times I get to the bike and it is flat – but when did that happen. Three times in the past year I have been riding and noticed one wheel or the other wasn’t acting correctly and looked at it. First time I asked the person I was biking with if a problem could be spotted – “Yes, your rear tire is pretty flat” – we had been on the C&O Canal and were nearly home at this point. I have no memory of riding over glass or anything else these times. They were slow leaks.

The only time that I can almost remember what happened was when a pedestrian coming towards me forced me to change lanes and go into a puddle that apparently had glass in it (and I say forced because her side of the trail had a puddle and she decided that she couldn’t stop a second while I passed and then change lanes to the dry side (which was mine) and told me that I had to go in the puddle so her feet wouldn’t get wet.). I heard hissing and saw bubbles, but it didn’t dawn on me it was an issue. Shortly after that I keep hearing a clicking sound. A mile or two later I stopped to check it out and eventually noticed the very large chunk of glass in the tire.

I have never experienced a sudden flat.

[DrP]

Thoughts on the way to work:

So, where is everyone? Most days there are people passing me, sometimes calling it, on their road bikes and e-assist or electric bikes all thinking they are bad-asses for passing the flat-bar-hybrid-with-full-panniers who is a little slow on the uphills (and often pissed off on the downhills when you aren’t fast enough and I catch-up). Temperature is same as yesterday. Oh, I see it is the rain. Really. Rain is keeping you off the trails. What, do you melt in the rain? They make some rain gear that still makes you look cool. Oh, but you would still get wet. Really. You are not bad-asses. You are poseurs. Wannabees. FAKE. We know who the real bad-asses are. Look, even the geese are walking away from me today. Afraid of a little rain. SAD. Yes, my shoes are full of water, there is crud on my face and back from my tires, but I am still biking. I am a bad-ass.

[DrP]

This morning the mulch trail along the Pkwy to the newly paved trail was open and the route to take. If you are coming from the south, both trails are open, but the mulch trail is going to the island only (and only way to the island).

It wasn’t a bad ride, a lot of mulch (it will be messy after rains). The asphalt at the curbs by the closed entrance is not as smooth as needed – more like rounded steps. And there is a freshly painted crosswalk there – not sure why if it is closed to cars and this isn’t to be the final route. I think they are going to plant grass along the edge between the trail and wall since they were digging up the weeds there this morning. Unless they are planning on planting fresh weeds.

[DrP]

@Judd 157917 wrote:

I didn’t check to see if the goose had Maryland plates.

No front plates on my goose.

[DrP]

@Judd 157914 wrote:

Got hissed at by an a-hole goose at the Merchant Marine Memorial this morning.

I wonder if he was hissing at everyone today or just cyclists. Must have woken up in a bad mood. Or woken up by a bicycle. bell.

[DrP]

Two today:

Me: Riding down the Rosslyn Hill entering the intersection of either Quinn or Scott (whichever one has the sidewalk bumped up from work and a cone on the east side).
You: Riding much faster behind me going down the hill (might have been a an e-bike – the rear hub looked fat enough, but it was a multi-inch wide tire and you went by too fast to be sure) and deciding to pass me in the street cutting in front of me at the curb cut.
Me: Braking hard to not hit you, the curb and the sidewalk obstruction. Jerk.
You: Continue speeding down the hill catching up to other fast folks and, I think, passing them at the IOD.

Me: On the trail just rounding the Navy-Merchant Marine Memorial coming to the straight-away that goes under the Humpback Bridge.
You: Hissing goose standing in the middle of the trail.
Me: Coming to a near stop to not hit the jogger or you and hissing back.
Jogger: Chuckling at my hissing.

It seems early for goslings, and I didn’t see any, so why were you standing there hissing at me? Your friend was calmly eating grass off the trail next to you. There was the goose just after the Memorial Bridge standing off the trail staring at me, like I’d better watch my step. Are you guys in some gang or something? Was I interrupting some goose operation?

[DrP]

So, each day as I travel down the Custis along Lee Hwy towards the IOD, along the “grassy” area between the road and trail just past Quinn there has been a pile of white stuff since the snow. At first I thought it was snow. Is it actually salt? Should we all be filling containers with it to keep for next year to clear off Trollheim (or the Custis itself if the budget is lost)?

[DrP]

Mulch path at south end of Roosevelt Island Parking lot getting deeply rutted (my pedal hit the muck at one point and I was completely upright!).

[DrP]

Bridge on S. Washington Blvd. now clear of snow – route between Pentagon and Memorial Bridge now clear.

After last evenings ride I planned this morning to cross over to the MVT at the Memorial Bridge (Take Ft Myer to 110 rather than the expected lumpy Trollheim). This morning I was running a little late and decided the extra time to do that was more than the time to cross the lumpy snow field on that bridge. To my pleasant surprise, it was completely clear! Not sure if it was all due to the sun or the human element was involved too, but that route is now clear.

[DrP]

So on the route home, I went from Pentagon City to the Pentagon to Boundary Channel Drive to LBJ Grove (that shoveling of the bridge was amazing – it looks like NPS then salted it (someone did, in pink salt)) to MVT. All clear. MVT was very clear (except for Geese and the “gifts” they leave on the trail) to the GWP crossing and since the MVT looked clear after that, I went for it. There were a few patches of snow with a few tire widths clear, but easily managed. Trollheim, well, a bit of a mushy mess. I was on a hybrid with 700×38 tires. I could slowly ride most of it (in a fat-bike’s tire tracks – THANK YOU) and only occasionally Flintstoned. Custis was fine.

If I lived closer to Roosevelt Island and could figure out how to ride with a snow shovel I would have gone back to Trollheim to clear a path given its mushy state and expected freezing tonight.

Warning for tomorrow:
Several moguls next to the bridge to nowhere were full of water, so those will be ice in the morning.
The Spout Run ice rink is likely to live a little closer to its name – water was in several areas and the puddle seemed larger than the ice patch yesterday. Maybe the wind was high enough to encourage sublimation, but be wary.
Trollheim is likely to be a solid mess in the morning, so I will do the Ft Meyer route, but I can cross to the MVT rather than the Wash. Blvd route and ice field.
However, I think an afternoon trip through the MVT will be fine for me.

[DrP]

This morning I rode Custis to Ft Meyer Drive to N. Marshall to 110 trail to S. Washington Blvd. to Pentagon to Pentagon City. Other than a few curb cuts that were messy, only the S. Washington Blvd. bridge over Boundary Channel Dr was a hard mess of bumpy slush (as was pictured Tuesday). I have asked the county who controls that bridge.

I may try the route through LBJ and up the MVT crossing the GWP to get to the 110 trail this evening. This morning I just couldn’t tell from the intersection with the S. Washington Blvd trail if the MVT was clear, so I went with what I heard was a mostly clear trail. (I know the LBJ grove bit has a clear route, just not sure heading north – other photos looked iffy). Unless I decide to go W&OD. I’ll report back what I find, unless someone beats me to it.

[DrP]

@dasgeh 157175 wrote:

Folks who biked on those cleared trails in Arlington, I have some bad news. The County Manager has proposed cutting the trail snow clearing program ENTIRELY in his proposed 1 cent cut. You can see the full list here – trail snow clearing is #21 on page [!@&*$ why can’t they number pages!?!?!]. This would save a whopping $50k/year.

Also of interest is #5, which would eliminate the expansion of the street light program. DES says that it will take responsibility for trail lighting in the street light program if and only if it gets the funds for the expanded program. The Manager says DES is taking responsibility for trail lighting regardless, though I’ve never seen that on paper.

You may want to take a minute to remind the countyboard@arlingtonva.us (cc’ing the countymanager@arlingtonva.us) how important the trail snow clearing program is.

Oh, and if you have some time to bike over some counters on cleared trails today, that may be a good idea too

I had already sent a note to trails@arlingtonva.us this morning to thank them for clearing the snow (and to find out who controls that one bridge on S. Washington Blvd that wasn’t cleared). So, I just sent a note to the county board and manager to thank them for clearing the trails and how I think it is a great use of taxpayer funds and how I purchased my house in the county partially due to the wonderful trails and I work in the county so I use them all the time (and I see many people out, even this morning at 25deg). Hopefully that will help.

[DrP]

From all the wonderful posts on trail conditions, it was sounds like the W&OD from Custis to Shirlington is not very passible. Correct? Any idea on 4MR from Shirlington to Meade?

It sounds like getting from the Memorial Bridge area to the Pentagon via Washington Blvd isn’t passible – or not the whole way (that one bridge looked bad. Is that an Arlington Co controlled area?). Correct?

Does anyone know if it is passible from the start of the Roosevelt parking lot (i.e., the bottom of the bridge over the GW) to the humpback bridge area (since there is now a path under and through LBJ to Pentagon)?

The winds (especially gusts) combined with not very clear trails seemed like a bad idea today. Tomorrow is to be lower wind so I am hoping to find a passible route (two days without biking (or other major activity, like walking for hours) is about my max for sanity).

[DrP]

@bentbike33 156796 wrote:

Last night it was a bit of a cluster as riders were waiting for the leading pedestrian interval (LPI) walk signal at the regular crosswalk and jamming up the limited space between the road, the “trail closed” signage, and the entrance to the detour. The separation between the detour and the cars turning right onto Key Bridge will be a problem especially when the LPI is disobeyed because no one is coming eastbound to remind drivers of it.

That is exactly what I was thinking might occur.

Can we get a LARGE NO TURN ON RED sign installed for at least the time of the detour? Who do we need to pester, the county or VDOT?

[Author]

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