[Judd]

@Steve O 203262 wrote:

This is doubtful, because it is rare that bike-on-bike crashes are reported even less so on off-road trails. Or single-bike crashes for that matter.
For instance, government data says that the trollheim is pretty safe, since there are hardly any officially recorded crashes there. And even in the case of injuries, hospitals and police do not sync up their data.

I’m with Steve O on this. The only collection of crash data on the MVT that I’m aware of was done by a public health student who collected data by contacting jurisdictions and gathering reports of dispatched medical units.

I’ve crashed three times in the MVT, all three of which resulted in injury but not an official report.

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[Judd]

@historygeek 203246 wrote:

New Deal Landmark Pointless Prize

There’s so much history around us, and I, for one, am going to need biking destinations (since they can’t all be coffee shops and breweries this year). For those days when it’s too cold to stop outside for long enough to eat or drink– here’s a pointless prize for visiting New Deal projects.
What it is: During the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt promised a “New Deal” for Americans. Federal programs, including the CCC, WPA, and others, came to be collectively known as the New Deal. Projects ranged from new trails in parks to municipal buildings to recording folk music and oral histories. I’m defining this broadly– so if it’s federally funded and from the 1930s, we’ll count it.
The rules:
Take a bike-related pic at your favorite New Deal site. Post it in the “New Deal Pointless Prize” channel. Prizes awarded for:
Visiting the most New Deal sites by bike (and posting each to the channel).
Best New Deal Pic.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Prize for best historical description.

Need help getting started? Go to https://livingnewdeal.org/map/ to find a map of New Deal sites. But don’t limit yourself to these. Want to travel to a location where a famous artist lived while working for the WPA? Go for it. The site of a great music performance funded by a federal arts program? That counts.

I love this prize. There are several sidewalks in my hometown with a WPA stamp on them.

Folks looking to score some points on a long ride should ride down to the rest area at the Mount Vernon Estates and read the signs there.

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[Judd]

The Friends of Mount Vernon Trail also power washed the curve on the bridge by Marina Towers this month. A Marina Towers resident who stopped to chat on the trail told me that they refer to this part of the bridge as “Deadman’s Curve” because they’ve seen so many crashes here. Volunteers also screwed down loose boards and hammered nail pops back down. If you ride through you might notice that the bridge is much quieter. Some of the nice Marina Towers residents raised the possibility of running a hose and extension cord from their building down to the trail so it may be possible to power wash the whole bridge in the spring.

This curve will get a non-skid treatment applied once the weather is warm enough. This treatment along with our battery powered power washer is made possible through contributions made to our GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-crash-free-trollheim

The cleaned versus uncleaned difference is pretty stark.
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[Judd]

Big thanks to secstate, komorebi and rootchopper for coming out on Saturday to power wash Bridge 1. We were able to get half the bridge done before the water ran out. Secstate and komorebi were awesome and helped schlep 70 gallons of water from our staging area to the bridge. We got the worst part of the bridge done and will return for the other half in the spring when NPS turns the water back on at the nearest spigot.

This picture shows the difference between the slimy uncleaned deck on the left and the cleaned deck on the right.
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komorebi with one of the yard signs we use to let trail users know we’re working on the trail.
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Wide shot of the cleaned bridge.
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Close up of the cleaned decking.
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[Judd]

@Smitty2k1 203150 wrote:

Yeah I’m all about this. Two things I miss:

1) Judd’s fun camping trip out the C&O to a lock house
2) DC Bike Party. For all it’s faults and issues it’s still a friggin blast, though you really gotta watch your 6

I’m keeping fingers crossed that the lock house ride can happen this year.

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[Judd]

@JustinW 203060 wrote:

Wonderful work – thanks to all who helped!

Recently, going through that “tunnel” felt like biking down some fuzzy dragon’s gullet, what with all of the vines and such. Seeing daylight along there will be great!

The experience is very different now. I happened upon a picture of the bridge from 2008 and it had a couple of vines on just one panel of the fence so it looks like we had 12-13 years worth of vines to work on.

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[Judd]

@dbb 203051 wrote:

Does the NPS have anything useful in their nursery?

The nursery ceased operations this year. I didn’t hear a lot of detail about the decision but my understanding was that the resources to run the nursery were more costly than buying wholesale and that the species that are typically planted are more available in the marketplace than they used to be.

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[Judd]

@Steve O 203039 wrote:

A big-ass sign?

Quit trying to destroy the viewshed. [emoji1787]

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[Judd]

@Rootchopper 203045 wrote:

I don’t. It wasn’t continuous but it was better than nothing.

I usually ride this section with one hand shielding my eyes.

I was able to check it out on Streetview images from 2008. Pretty significant loss of foliage. Ive done some initial research on some possible plants to serve as screens and how to get them at a free or low price.

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[Judd]

@secstate 203046 wrote:

One that looks nice, and not too expensive!

Doing the paperwork to change the name of the group to the Friends Who Say Ni of the Mount Vernon Trail. We will plant any native Virginia shrubbery which you bring us.

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[Judd]

@Rootchopper 203031 wrote:

Use shrubbery to provide a screen between the Parkway and the trail, from Gravelly to the first flyover bridge and again at either end of the 4MR bridge. Riding south, headlights blind riders. Also, they back light trail traffic making trail users very hard to see. I have had several close calls because of this. Also, I saw a pedestrian get nailed by a bike at the south end of the 4MR bridge.

There used to be shrubbery along the stretch immediately next to the auxiliary runway but it was removed a long time ago.

The headlight issue is definitely on my list and vegetation management is an activity the Friends are allowed to do. There is a spot where I consistently ride off the trail at night. Do you happen to have any pictures of the old shrubbery?

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[Judd]

@arlcxrider 203023 wrote:

There are also newish and closely spaced white “flexi” bollards athwart the MVT where the trail transitions from that short section of street north of Alexandria Ave., approx. mile marker 5. Flexi or not, hitting one of those would entail a high suck factor.

As for why NPS installs these things, it’s probably to keep drivers from inattentively wandering onto the trails and boardwalks, like this award-winning driver who made it to Chain Bridge on the C&O towpath before ending up in the drink.

https://wtop.com/dc/2020/05/crash-leaves-vehicle-partially-submerged-in-co-canal-in-dc/

This is only list of least favorite parts of the trail since the trail is also a short access road for one of the house’s driveways. Do you have any thoughts on a different treatment here that would help discourage cars from driving down the trail?

[Judd]

@zsionakides 203020 wrote:

I hadn’t been down on the southern part of the MVT in a few months, but one of the bridges just north of Ft Hunt now has orange flex(?) posts at both ends of the bridge. This is a bad treatment in general, but going northbound it’s challenging to navigate around due to the curve there and I couldn’t imagine trying to do it on a longer bike (tandem, longtail).

I’ll check it out sometime this week and check with the Park to determine the intent of its placement and see if we can adjust. There are a few places on the trail that have posts or barrels up right now and I believe the intention of all of them are short term interventions to for places where people may inadvertently bike off trail. If you’re talking about the bridge pictured below, it’s possible that it’s placed as part of the engineering work being done this week to replace Bridge 12.

[Judd]

@secstate 203013 wrote:

Really appreciate all the work you and others have put into this important project. I think about it every time I ride Trollheim! It is surprising to me that it’s left to volunteers given that the bridges have been known safety issues for a long time, though I recognize that NPS has limited resources.

I’ll be glad to pitch in on Saturday. See you then!

Saw your registration come through. Thank you for signing up.

It’s certainly frustrating when things on the trail don’t get fixed. The NPS staff that I’ve worked with have all been great and supportive and genuinely care about the NPS. I have a stack of tools in my living room right now that the Friends are borrowing from NPS which have enabled many of the current projects. GWMP has about a $13 million operating budget and 120 employees to care for a major highway, a major trail and 31ish sites some of which are pretty darn unique (it’s hard to keep a carillon maintenance person on staff, I’m sure.) There’s also sometimes constraints on the trail that make maintenance difficult like lack of nearby water sources. It’s all stuff that can be overcome, but I think most government agencies tend to focus on the thing that is most on fire at any given point and defer preventative maintenance.

Philosophical me has lots of thoughts that are good fodder for happy hour talk. Practical me is super happy to be a partner with GWMP and be able to take care of things that matter to trail users. I’m a firm believer that doing good things has a snowball effect and that building a strong Friends group will help enable GWMP in obtaining additional resources.

[Judd]

Giving the remaining December events a bump. I need a few more volunteers for both of these events to avoid having to schedule follow on events to complete the work.

Thursday, December 17th – Help replace broken and deteriorating deck boards on Trollheim Bridge. Sign up at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/130708473563

Saturday, December 19th – Help clean Bridge 1 near Mount Vernon Estates. This bridge has been the site of multiple crashes due to slippery deck boards. Sign up at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/130729572671

[Author]

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