[princeofhills_nj]

Thanks for asking, but my trip to DC is this coming weekend (4/4-4/6) not last weekend. But it looks like there might be rain in the forecast (ugh). The bike is still coming with me though, if I get washed out on Saturday I’m planning on riding in DE Sunday afternoon on my way home (visiting a friend, former north Jerseyan). If I can’t ride, I’ll spend the day at the National Museum of Art…

Up here in NJ on Saturday we had about a 3 hour window to ride in the morning. And I took advantage of it, thanks to a fellow BTCNJ member who decided to lead a ride that wasn’t going too far out. Rain started at around 11 AM, and that was it for the weekend.

Thanks again to everyone who responded to my posts – much appreciated!

[princeofhills_nj]

Jon R.: just to clarify, the section of Beach Drive that is closed to autos on weekends, is that south of the coordinate pin on the link to Google Maps you posted in your previous reply or north of it?

[princeofhills_nj]

Doing my homework on a rainy morning up here! Found a good photo of “The Intersection of Doom” here: http://bikewashington.org/trails/wad/custis.htm
It must have been taken early in the morning as it looks like there’s no cars around…

Can anyone give some current trail conditions on the Rock Creek Trail, especially the northern section up in the park? I may be using a cue sheet from bikewashington.org. How would you rate the cue sheets at that website?

[princeofhills_nj]

Thanks to everyone who responded, the information has really helped! I’ve been studying Google Maps the past few days trying to line up the directions in everyone’s replies to what I see on the map. One of the reasons I registered to this forum was I was very concerned with having to deal with traffic going west towards Rock Creek & Georgetown on M Street from my hotel. Since I’m not sure how early I’m going to be up on Saturday morning (a busy evening of socializing with family and friends is planned for Friday), I want to try and avoid “traffic shock” as much as I can during my ride, even if I have to take an indirect route.

I might as well give you some background about my skills as a rider, I’m experienced: been with BTCNJ for 20 years, top level of the ride categories, raced for two years, also a ride leader, but I don’t go into the city that much. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve ridden in Manhattan NYC – all group rides and at least two of them were on Thanksgiving Day morning where there was virtually no traffic. But yeah I hate dealing with traffic, even in the North Jersey suburbs (and it seems to get worse every year)! I avoid centers of busy towns when you know it’s going to be heavy traffic.

One of the items on my “to do” list for this DC trip is to obtain a commerical printed copy of the Washington DC Bike Map -I found the links to the PDF file at WABA’s site, and the DC DOT site – but printing a legible version of the file without using multiple pages is impossible! I decided to call the DC DOT telephone # at the website to see if I could get a copy mailed to my house, the CSR was friendly and said I could use a SASE but I didn’t want to cut it that close to my trip using snail mail. He told me if I take the DC Metro to the Navy Yard stop on the Green Line, they are on the 4th floor and I can take the elevator upstairs and grab as many copies as I want during business hours. Does anybody have any suggestions where I can get one of these maps without having to go too far from my hotel? Do bike shops have them, and are there any good shops near where I’m staying?

If anyone would like to meet me Saturday AM and show me around, at least for a 35-40 mile route, the company would be appreciated!

Thanks much!

-Ray M. (PrinceOfHills)

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