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@huskerdont 136555 wrote:

Yeah, if you follow either one you’ll figure it out easily. The CCT just goes to Water Street, and the towpath has a footbridge you can take up to G-town just below 34th Street. There are steps at the top that require you to dismount. A little further on there is an easy access down to Water Street via 33rd.

I guess that one person’s easy is another’s difficult. I often take that 33rd Street connection, did it yesterday for example, but it is a rather steep downhill requiring one to dodge potholes and other obstacles, and because the turn onto Water Street is close to blind, one has to go quite slowly downhill.

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No picture of the helmet on the handlebars?

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@AFHokie 134855 wrote:

Its too detailed to explain via phone typing.

Google “forum spambot” and you’ll find multiple sites explaining how they work & why most (if not all) are automated.

Speaking of George’s white bike; the entire Oxford English Dictionary is somewhere around 500-600 megabytes. An automated program can run the entire dictionary against questions like that in less time than it took me to type this.

So perhaps the questions should have two-word answers.

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@PotomacCyclist 134846 wrote:

I think they hire people to sign up and post those spam messages. They could bring in someone off the street at a small overseas Internet cafe or computer sweatshop.

There are limits to how often someone can post, which is an anti-spam measure. But the spammers get around it by waiting a couple minutes between posts. The time gaps are irregular, from what I saw by reading down the index page. The gaps were 3 or 4 minutes, with a pause for about 10 minutes, and then another stream of spam posts. They also switch accounts after 20 posts or so. I think that would be more difficult to do with a spambot. Labor in many countries is very cheap. Those spammers can just hire people at minimal cost to set up accounts and post spam for hours on multiple forums and websites. Those people don’t need to be skilled at hacking. They can just follow the regular sign-up process, which isn’t difficult to learn. Then the spammer hirees can go through the Captcha process to prove they are humans and not spambots.

I don’t have proof of this but I’ve assumed that’s what is going on. I think this is also the case when we see new accounts opened from Bangladesh (or usually bangladesh without capitalization) or India and the person tries to be friendly but doesn’t post about anything remotely related to cycling or bikes or even transportation. (I mention Bangladesh and India because those are two of the most common countries I see listed for the spammers on this forum. I think I saw Nepal once too. There are also some spammers listed as being from “United States” with no city listed.)

That makes sense. It also explains how they know the color of George Washington’s white bicycle.

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@PotomacCyclist 134828 wrote:

I just didn’t want the spammer to have the benefit of taking over the top of the index completely. At one point, he/she/it had filled up 2 or 3 entire pages of the index. I’m not sure why they do that, especially when none of the text was in English or even English characters. Do they think that someone on a U.S. website will see a huge wall of text and garbled computer symbols and think, wow, that sounds like a great deal?

I didn’t see any links in any of the messages.

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@Tania 134470 wrote:

I was running late so I drove into Leesburg rather than parking by the skate rink on Claiborne.

It’s clear from Dry Mill (the first crossing there after King St) to the high school in Purcellville. We did a road loop out to Lovettesville and back but everything is clear and mostly dry.

I should have asked this as soon as I saw that you intended to travel the W&OD from Leesburg to Purcellville. I have probably not been on this part of the trail since early October. How is the reconstructed section at Clark’s Gap? Is it finished? Is there indeed less interaction with traffic? Is the replacement of the switchback an easier climb when heading westward? I am not asking about how much snow covering there is /was, just if the trail has been improved.

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@mstone 134487 wrote:

For some reason…$$$

A typical reason.

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@Tania 134470 wrote:

I was running late so I drove into Leesburg rather than parking by the skate rink on Claiborne.

It’s clear from Dry Mill (the first crossing there after King St) to the high school in Purcellville. We did a road loop out to Lovettesville and back but everything is clear and mostly dry.

Is Tuscarora the one where the trail dips down and then back up – no bridge over the water? If so, that’s the crossing I meant.

Yes, that is Tuscarora. As you said, there is no bridge. There certainly is a threat of floods there. IIRC, you can see the piers of the old railroad bridge a bit south of the trail. For some reason they did not use that route and rebuild the bridge when making the bike trail.

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@Tania 134453 wrote:

I’m heading out that way today – Claiborne to Purcellville and then a road loop so I’ll report back. I’m told there is some ice at the Sycolin underpass and hoping goose creek isn’t flooded.

If it flooded, it’s receding. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/va/nwis/uv/?site_no=01644000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060,62620,62614 It’s hard to believe that it would reach the W&OD level.

What would concern me more is Tuscarora right before Leesburg.

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@AFHokie 133973 wrote:

This brings up a good point; a forum glossary for the new members.

Heck for older members as well…there’s trail section nicknames that I’m still not sure where/what they mean

seconded

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@consularrider 132046 wrote:

I’m just curious if the posters who have advocated for “fixing” the 60° turn by the Lyon Village Shopping Center have any suggestions of what could realistically be done to improve the trail in the area at this point. Yes, a better mirror would help being able to see who is just about to collide with you when you have poor bailout options. The basic problem is that the Custis was built as part of the original I-66 construction and we must deal with infrastructure which has little room for modification, no matter what our desires. Unless the trail is completely rerouted to the north side of I-66 as far as the Bridge to Nowhere, the trail must somehow cross I-66 here and there is no room to expand the trail footprint. Do people envision a sweeping bridge from the top of the little hill at 17th St N with the trail then on the east side of I-66 before another bridge over Lee Highway reconnecting to the current trail behind the shopping center. This would have the benefit of also eliminating the “S” curve of death. How many millions to build? I can think of much higher cycling infrastructure priorities in the I-66 corridor.

Isn’t the main problem there the fact that those heading toward Rosslyn have a retaining wall and a lot of trees which makes it hard to see who is coming?

BTW sweeping bridges is a good idea since they get covered with leaves and other debris. Seriously, have you seen the bridge which was built a few years ago over Veirs Mill Road on the Rock Creek trail? It is possible to build sweeping bridges, although this one seems more ornate than it has to be.

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@huskerdont 131892 wrote:

I think you are right to find it frightening. I’ve seen cyclists down there, and have almost had collisions myself. You’ll navigate it safely time after time, but do it every day for a decade or so and your odds of having a problem go up. At this point I always have my hands on the brake levers just in case, and I tend to hug the outside of the trail.

I go slowly and ring my bell a lot. It’s not a well-constructed turn, but I don’t think that there is room to improve it.

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@dasgeh 131796 wrote:

Yep. The neighborhood from that bridge until the 2 sisters is called Cherrydale. The “spiral” is often called “the S-Curve of [insert frightening phrase here]”. No need to note the neighborhood (though it is on the wayfinding signs, and we do have a hardware store and some restaurants and shops – and lots of car dealerships), but the S-Curve is discussed here often.

Off topic post.
Heading toward DC, after the S-Curve and the I-66 underpass, I find the left turn quite frightening also since it is a blind turn.

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I think pages 11 – 17 are the parts of the Master plan being referred to. http://www.fallschurchva.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2145

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@cvcalhoun 130650 wrote:

Hmm, if they don’t allow autos, can it still be an autobahn?

It’s only called that in the article since the German word Fahrradbahn wouldn’t make sense to most English readers while Autobahn has entered the English language. Bahn means railroad, so Autobahn actual means railroad for cars, and Fahrradbahn, railroad for bicycles. You can google Fahrradbahn to get a lot of pictures and articles in German.

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