flatten the hills
Mon Apr 27 15:00 EDT 2020
I don't like some of the hills between my house and the W&OD Trail. So today was exploring some alternative routes.
Heading south on George Mason Drive - which ceases to exist for a couple of blocks, and becomes a stream-valley park with a trail, cutting through some ugly-steep hills - seems to be the key component. After that Geo Mason has some long-but-not-steep hills, and generally light traffic for a 2+2-lane street.
It looked like Frederick St would make a good connection to the Custis Trail, and it was, but the underpass under I-66 to the W&OD is closed for construction. (Geo Mason crosses over I-66 a few blocks east.) I had to double back on Fairfax Dr (another one of those Arlington streets that crops up repeatedly in disjointed segments) to get to a (surprisingly-busy) ped/bike overpass.
Then I took the W&OD west as far as Oak St in Falls Church, negotiating the Lee Hwy overpass construction detours. Coming back, I left the W&OD at Lee Hwy, back to Geo Mason (avoiding the hills I'd get taking Sycamore). The trails were not very busy - perhaps because the sky looked like there would be downpours any minute. The forecast said otherwise, and it was coolish (57°F/13.9°C) and not raining. 9.77mi (15.72km)
Tuesday 03:00
The simple ride again, out the W&OD and a couple of miles past Vienna.
I'm trying a different route to the W&OD trail to avoid some very steep hills (both ways) on Sycamore St and Williamsburg Blvd. (I was checking out an option when I got to the closed underpass on the Custis trail earlier.) Taking George Mason to Lee Hwy to the W&OD has longer hills, but not so steep. Lee Hwy (US 29) is normally fairly busy, but not so much at night, and not at all with everyone staying home. This adds about 0.6mi (0.97km) each way, which isn't a negative if you're riding for a distance, not a destination. 24.15mi (38.87km) tonight.
I decided not to take the W&OD bridge over Route 7 (Broad St/Leesburg Pike) in Falls Church. But the street-level access paths are poor pavement, no better than the rough boards of the bridge. (And when traffic is back to normal, the street crossing will be difficult.)
I overtook one person walking in Vienna, and on my way back I passed a runner outbound.
Wednesday 04:00
Another night ride out the W&OD. The setting crescent moon was impressive, but I couldn't get clear views of it. I passed one person out walking near Vienna. There's some kind of construction going on at the trail's crossings of Shreve Rd and Virginia Lane.
When I got to Hunter Mill Rd, I decided to keep going; it wasn't as cold as previous rides. I went out to Old Reston Ave.
30.51mi (49.10km). If I'd realized how close I'd be to 400 miles (644km) for the month, I think I would have gone another couple of miles out.
It felt colder when I was riding back. There didn't seem to be any wind, but the cloud cover was breaking up.
I think I saw someone sleeping under the American Dream Way. It's a pair of very wide overpasses that would be good cover in a storm, and everything (else) was very wet last night, after rain, very humid. There was a lot of fog on parts of the trail, and I was glad my headlight has high and low beam patterns. I couldn't see to the other end of one of the bridges across a creek.
Wednesday 18:13
I don't need to feel bad about not making 400 miles this month. I rode another 18.71mi (30.11km) this afternoon, and I'm at 415 (668km) now. Instead, I can lament not making 50 miles (80.5km) today - only 49.22 (79.2km). I repeated the ramble down George Mason to the Bluemont Junction Trail to the W&OD, and then east to the trail's origin, and then beyond Shirlington, eventually to National Airport. But instead of just retracing my route home, I went up the Potomac on the Mount Vernon Trail and then picked up the Custis Trail after passing Roosevelt Island - one of my regular commute routes.
The trails were busy, but not the worst they've been since we were told to stay home. The weather was beautiful - about 74°F/23°C. That was a major incentive for playing hookey, since it may be raining all night (so no late-night ride tonight) and all day and night tomorrow.
I rode with the mask this afternoon; without it Monday. And I generally don't bother with it at night. (I maybe see one or two other people on the trails in 20-30 miles.)
For an inter-agency challenge, we've been logging our rides on the Love to Ride site. (I'm curious whether people can see anything specific on the site (e.g. my profile) without creating an account.) They've added 2 new categories to their ride purposes: "indoor ride" and "ride with kids" join "fun or fitness", "transport to or from work", "transport to or from meeting", and "transport to or from other destination".
Thursday 23:00
It rained much of the time, as forecast. This month's riding ended yesterday.
Friday 08:03
Randomly checking links in my posting, I found my W&OD Trail links point to a page that no longer exists. Looking for the current page on the NOVA Parks site, I findEffective at 11:59 P.M. on March 24, 2020, NOVA Parks (Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority) will move to the Passive stage of its Pandemic Plan. At this stage, all entrance gates and parking lots will be closed to vehicular access. The public may continue to use the trail systems and is encouraged to use proper social distancing.
Using the trails with Social Distancing Is Allowed.
Walking or Biking to our Parks is OK.
Driving To, or Parking At our Parks is NOT OK.
I noticed the parking lot at Clarks Crossing was barricaded Wednesday morning, and I wondered about that. (I think that happened within the last day or two. It certainly wasn't blocked off all of April.) A lot of people will not be able to use a park if they can't drive to it. On the other hand, I've mentioned repeatedly that - during the day - the trails have way too much traffic (bike and foot) for social distancing.
There's other parking areas where it's less clear whether the parking is for a trail or for adjacent businesses. And there's neighborhood streets all along the trails where one could just park. If you're out for a walk/run/skate/ride, parking within a couple of blocks seems like no big deal.The W&OD (formally, the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park) ... has become more crowded - especially in towns and urban areas, and especially during peak times such as rush hour and weekends. ... the shared-use asphalt trail through Falls Church is no longer serving its users well, and ... creating side-by-side trails for bicyclists and pedestrians will alleviate crowding and provide sufficient future capacity for the City. .... This competition for space will worsen as volumes increase. The parallel trails will provide greater capacity and encourage use by people who may otherwise avoid the trail due to overcrowding.
The plan shows an 11'-wide (3.35m) bike trail and an 8'-wide (2.44m) pedestrian trail, with 2' (0.61m) of separation.
They're right; it's the urban and suburban areas that are congested; there's far less traffic between the towns.
Most of Arlington could also benefit from widening the trail, but many sections would be difficult to widen like that (30'-feet/9+m, counting shoulders and drainage). Often, there's not that much space along stream banks. And many underpasses, bridges, and grade crossings to would have to be re-built. The Falls Church section, from the Fire Station and Little Falls St to Shreve Rd, is open ground and level, and visibility is good at the grade crossings. (Except the bridge over VA 7, Broad St (Leesburg Pk), 2 directionally-isolated lanes.) This possibly could extend out to Virginia Lane. Beyond that there's a big hill; people out for an easy walk might take the other path following Shreve Rd, while people out for distance will take the hill to get across I-66 and keep going toward Vienna. The W&OD is in rough shape on this hill, but fast cyclists can take Virginia Ln itself.
And there is significant commuting traffic; this isn't just recreational. (Although towns are seeing recreation as important too, now.)
Sunday 18:10
I haven't been riding the last few days, even though we've had a couple of days of good weather. I'm on-call for work this weekend, so I need to be where I can have remote access to our computers. [This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/1143172.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
I don't like some of the hills between my house and the W&OD Trail. So today was exploring some alternative routes.
Heading south on George Mason Drive - which ceases to exist for a couple of blocks, and becomes a stream-valley park with a trail, cutting through some ugly-steep hills - seems to be the key component. After that Geo Mason has some long-but-not-steep hills, and generally light traffic for a 2+2-lane street.
It looked like Frederick St would make a good connection to the Custis Trail, and it was, but the underpass under I-66 to the W&OD is closed for construction. (Geo Mason crosses over I-66 a few blocks east.) I had to double back on Fairfax Dr (another one of those Arlington streets that crops up repeatedly in disjointed segments) to get to a (surprisingly-busy) ped/bike overpass.
Then I took the W&OD west as far as Oak St in Falls Church, negotiating the Lee Hwy overpass construction detours. Coming back, I left the W&OD at Lee Hwy, back to Geo Mason (avoiding the hills I'd get taking Sycamore). The trails were not very busy - perhaps because the sky looked like there would be downpours any minute. The forecast said otherwise, and it was coolish (57°F/13.9°C) and not raining. 9.77mi (15.72km)
Tuesday 03:00
The simple ride again, out the W&OD and a couple of miles past Vienna.
I'm trying a different route to the W&OD trail to avoid some very steep hills (both ways) on Sycamore St and Williamsburg Blvd. (I was checking out an option when I got to the closed underpass on the Custis trail earlier.) Taking George Mason to Lee Hwy to the W&OD has longer hills, but not so steep. Lee Hwy (US 29) is normally fairly busy, but not so much at night, and not at all with everyone staying home. This adds about 0.6mi (0.97km) each way, which isn't a negative if you're riding for a distance, not a destination. 24.15mi (38.87km) tonight.
I decided not to take the W&OD bridge over Route 7 (Broad St/Leesburg Pike) in Falls Church. But the street-level access paths are poor pavement, no better than the rough boards of the bridge. (And when traffic is back to normal, the street crossing will be difficult.)
I overtook one person walking in Vienna, and on my way back I passed a runner outbound.
Wednesday 04:00
Another night ride out the W&OD. The setting crescent moon was impressive, but I couldn't get clear views of it. I passed one person out walking near Vienna. There's some kind of construction going on at the trail's crossings of Shreve Rd and Virginia Lane.
When I got to Hunter Mill Rd, I decided to keep going; it wasn't as cold as previous rides. I went out to Old Reston Ave.
30.51mi (49.10km). If I'd realized how close I'd be to 400 miles (644km) for the month, I think I would have gone another couple of miles out.
It felt colder when I was riding back. There didn't seem to be any wind, but the cloud cover was breaking up.
I think I saw someone sleeping under the American Dream Way. It's a pair of very wide overpasses that would be good cover in a storm, and everything (else) was very wet last night, after rain, very humid. There was a lot of fog on parts of the trail, and I was glad my headlight has high and low beam patterns. I couldn't see to the other end of one of the bridges across a creek.
Wednesday 18:13
I don't need to feel bad about not making 400 miles this month. I rode another 18.71mi (30.11km) this afternoon, and I'm at 415 (668km) now. Instead, I can lament not making 50 miles (80.5km) today - only 49.22 (79.2km). I repeated the ramble down George Mason to the Bluemont Junction Trail to the W&OD, and then east to the trail's origin, and then beyond Shirlington, eventually to National Airport. But instead of just retracing my route home, I went up the Potomac on the Mount Vernon Trail and then picked up the Custis Trail after passing Roosevelt Island - one of my regular commute routes.
The trails were busy, but not the worst they've been since we were told to stay home. The weather was beautiful - about 74°F/23°C. That was a major incentive for playing hookey, since it may be raining all night (so no late-night ride tonight) and all day and night tomorrow.
I rode with the mask this afternoon; without it Monday. And I generally don't bother with it at night. (I maybe see one or two other people on the trails in 20-30 miles.)
For an inter-agency challenge, we've been logging our rides on the Love to Ride site. (I'm curious whether people can see anything specific on the site (e.g. my profile) without creating an account.) They've added 2 new categories to their ride purposes: "indoor ride" and "ride with kids" join "fun or fitness", "transport to or from work", "transport to or from meeting", and "transport to or from other destination".
Thursday 23:00
It rained much of the time, as forecast. This month's riding ended yesterday.
Friday 08:03
Randomly checking links in my posting, I found my W&OD Trail links point to a page that no longer exists. Looking for the current page on the NOVA Parks site, I findEffective at 11:59 P.M. on March 24, 2020, NOVA Parks (Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority) will move to the Passive stage of its Pandemic Plan. At this stage, all entrance gates and parking lots will be closed to vehicular access. The public may continue to use the trail systems and is encouraged to use proper social distancing.
Using the trails with Social Distancing Is Allowed.
Walking or Biking to our Parks is OK.
Driving To, or Parking At our Parks is NOT OK.
I noticed the parking lot at Clarks Crossing was barricaded Wednesday morning, and I wondered about that. (I think that happened within the last day or two. It certainly wasn't blocked off all of April.) A lot of people will not be able to use a park if they can't drive to it. On the other hand, I've mentioned repeatedly that - during the day - the trails have way too much traffic (bike and foot) for social distancing.
There's other parking areas where it's less clear whether the parking is for a trail or for adjacent businesses. And there's neighborhood streets all along the trails where one could just park. If you're out for a walk/run/skate/ride, parking within a couple of blocks seems like no big deal.The W&OD (formally, the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park) ... has become more crowded - especially in towns and urban areas, and especially during peak times such as rush hour and weekends. ... the shared-use asphalt trail through Falls Church is no longer serving its users well, and ... creating side-by-side trails for bicyclists and pedestrians will alleviate crowding and provide sufficient future capacity for the City. .... This competition for space will worsen as volumes increase. The parallel trails will provide greater capacity and encourage use by people who may otherwise avoid the trail due to overcrowding.
The plan shows an 11'-wide (3.35m) bike trail and an 8'-wide (2.44m) pedestrian trail, with 2' (0.61m) of separation.
They're right; it's the urban and suburban areas that are congested; there's far less traffic between the towns.
Most of Arlington could also benefit from widening the trail, but many sections would be difficult to widen like that (30'-feet/9+m, counting shoulders and drainage). Often, there's not that much space along stream banks. And many underpasses, bridges, and grade crossings to would have to be re-built. The Falls Church section, from the Fire Station and Little Falls St to Shreve Rd, is open ground and level, and visibility is good at the grade crossings. (Except the bridge over VA 7, Broad St (Leesburg Pk), 2 directionally-isolated lanes.) This possibly could extend out to Virginia Lane. Beyond that there's a big hill; people out for an easy walk might take the other path following Shreve Rd, while people out for distance will take the hill to get across I-66 and keep going toward Vienna. The W&OD is in rough shape on this hill, but fast cyclists can take Virginia Ln itself.
And there is significant commuting traffic; this isn't just recreational. (Although towns are seeing recreation as important too, now.)
Sunday 18:10
I haven't been riding the last few days, even though we've had a couple of days of good weather. I'm on-call for work this weekend, so I need to be where I can have remote access to our computers. [This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/1143172.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]