There’s some maintenance work going on along the Mount Vernon Trail near the power plant north of Old Town Alexandria. I rode past the detour to check it out. You can ride through but you might have to wait a few minutes if the workers are on the trail. They are cleaning up some downed trees.
This is my last post for a while. Try to remain calm. I’ll be back at it next Tuesday or Wednesday. In the meantime, put down your Internet toys, pick up a bike, and go for a ride.
Author: Rootchopper
Busy Day on the MVT
It’s late summer. The sun is coming up a little bit later and high school kids are getting ready for the fall sports season. I managed to get around this group of 20 or so runners on my way to work. They were well behaved and stayed out of the left lane (mostly).
The car traffic on the George Washington Memorial Parkway on the left looks pretty heavy but this is actually a light day as many people are getting their last summer ya yas out.
This commuting weather is just awesome: nice easy breezes, sunny skies, comfortable temperatures. I’ve ridden something like nine days in a row. I am expecting my legs to say “No mas!” but they are spinning away without complaint.
Bikes, Blood, and Beer – The Second Hoppy 100
It began with an alarm clock awakening me at 5:45 a.m. This is indeed an ungodly hour for a Sunday morning. It was raining house pets outside so it looked a bit like the Hoppy 100, a bike ride to sample local craft brewers, would be a very, very wet affair. By the time I headed out the door some 40 minutes later, however, the downpour had given way to an intermittent drizzle. I abandoned the thought of driving to DC, hopped on The Mule and headed north.
The ride in went by pretty quickly, which is not surprising considering the fact that the streets and trails were empty. Just me and a whole bunch of puddles. I rode across the Memorial Bridge and around the Lincoln Memorial. Then it was up through the GWU campus to the rendezvous point at the Brewmasters Castle, a gorgeous old brownstone mansion built by a nineteenth century sudsmeister.
John Roche, the mastermind behind this ride, was handing out Dunkin Muchkins to the riders as they assembled. Proper nutrition is required on long bike rides, you know. The rest of the crew:
- Alex, communications professional, grad student, fresh from a 100 mile ride on a flat tire last weekend.
- Chris: Alex’s boyfriend, a volunteer at The Bike House, a bicycle repair cooperative in DC
- Peter: another Bike Houser guy and Kristen’s personal bike mechanic
- Kristen: uber Mom, world traveler, and Friday Coffee Club regular
- Lisa: librarian, musician, grad student, my frequent riding buddy, and Friday Coffee Clubber
- Dave: who commutes with his daughter on the mean streets of DC and sticks his tongue out at bicyclist oppressors
- Jason: a resident of Del Ray riding a bike with big fat tires
- Brian: clown bike rider and noted Hungarian toaster
We headed out in a light rain, destined for an early morning glimpse at a couple of new-ish craft brewers. Within a mile , Dave was kind enough to demonstrate a roadside flat tire repair complete with $1 bill tire boot. Remarkably, he omitted the part where you swear profusely when the puncture occurs.
After the repair, we headed to Northeast DC to a brewer on West Virginia Avenue. We rode right past the nondescript industrial building. The brewery was so new, it did not yet have a sign. They should call this company Stealthy Beer.
We doubled back and headed south, stopping to admire Bardo, another craft beer operation on Bladensburg Road. This operation appeared to be entirely outdoors and resembled a nuclear waste storage facility with metal barrels arranged along the fence. It was hard to tell since the chain link fence around the place was locked.
On we rode to the Anacostia River Trail. There was no brewing here but the riding was pretty sweet along the banks of DC’s other river. We rode north then crossed over on the Benning Road bridge to the eastern bank of the river and headed south. At the Frederick Douglas Bridge, we took a side path back over the river. We were slowed when John stopped to help a cyclist in distress on the bridge. The cyclist had crashed on the metal grate that constitutes the roadway (the side path had a concrete surface). He was stunned and a bloody mess having smashed on of his hand on the grate. He managed to get off the road and onto the side path with us. We walked our bikes past him, offered help which he refused, and took our time getting to the western bank of the river near Nationals Park.
We stopped to reconnoiter and Bike Crash Victim came walking behind us looking very much not okay. After some gentle persuading he sat down. Kristen said he was in shock at which point Chris took over and called 911. BCV sat down and Chris kept him talking. Lisa donated a hankerchief to cover his now disgusting bloody hand. Dave checked his helmet for signs of impact. He stretched out on the sidewalk and waited. A few minutes later an ambulance arrived. They put him on a stretcher and told us to take his bike to a police station a few blocks away.
Chris rode his own bike while holding BCV’s bike alongside and we made our way to the station. In the process we skipped brewery number 3 (which was not open anyway). We hoped that we could drop off the bike and be on our way but what followed was a Pythonesque farce of bureaucracy:
Station Desk Officer: Don’t bring that bike in here.
Chris: We’re dropping it off. The rider was involved in a crash and taken to the hospital.
SDO: How do I know that it isn’t stolen?
Yep, apparently robbers bring their loot to the M Street police station for safe keeping. I am a little surprised the SDO didn’t try to sell us a license for our pet fish, Eric. Well, after 45 minutes we left after we convinced the police to take the bike. While we were waiting Peter did a squealectomy on Kristen’s brakes.
Having spent so much time with the constabulary, we decided to chop a few miles off the ride and head straight to Mad Fox brewery in Falls Church. We crossed the river and headed for the Custis Trail in Rosslyn. Kristen, as she had planned, peeled off to head for home across the Key Bridge. The rest of us continued up and down and up and down along the Custis. We picked up the Washington and Old Dominion Trail and were at Mad Fox in no time. While there, Brian appeared with his Brompton to join the festivities.
The beer was pretty good (I had a Kolsch) but the coffee was what most of us really craved. I drank four cups. We ate a leisurely lunch and watched as the rain finally stopped. Somewhat drier we headed back to the W&OD and our next destination Port City Brewery in Alexandria.
The W&OD is gradually downhill all the way and we welcomed the easy riding. Brian gave chase to a passing roadie with delusions of speed. Seeing Brian spin his ass off on his Brompton, catch the guy and hang on his rear wheel made for some greatly appreciated comedy on a gray day. After crossing into Alexandria, we slogged up a long hill. Three riders broke away and the rest of us stopped to check our cue sheets. A half block up a side street, a party seemed to be starting. We could see an American flag and some bikes as well as hear some cheering. We rode up to see what the commotion was about. A father and son had just arrived from riding their bikes across the country from San Francisco. What a joyous loving welcome they received. The Hoppy 100 salutes you!
We regrouped with the breakaway and followed John’s cue sheet which led us onto an unpaved trail through a stretch of woods. Jason finally got to take advantage of his ginormous wide tires. The rest of us made do and stayed upright. The trail dropped us off in familiar territory and we managed to traverse pavement the rest of the way to Port City Brewery.
Port City was pretty crowded. I was thirsty so I had a Derecho (a little thick for my taste) and an IPA (perfection in a glass). After an hour of beer tasting, we headed back out outside. The rain had stopped. We took the nearby Taylor Run Trail to Eisenhower Avenue to Old Town. I peeled off in Old Town and headed for home. I arrived about 11 hours and 65 miles after I had left. Tired and feeling old, I sat down with my family and had dinner with chocolate birthday cake and ice cream.
A fitting end to a long, wet, hoppy 58th birthday.
My pix of the ride can be found on my Flickr page. Lisa’s account of the day is on her blog.
Leah Nails the Birthday Card
I did a gentle 20 mile ride today on the eve of my 37th birthday. It seems incredible that I have been riding a bike for over 50 years at my age.
When I arrived at home I found this card had come in the mail. My sister in law Leah nailed it.
The Mule Turns 33
Another perfect weather day made for splendid riding. I hit Friday Coffee Club and chatted with Brian Sassoon, Nancy “Two in a Row” Duley, Pappa Kid O, Jesse Seattle, Kristin McMurdo, and Ultra Kirstin. Work was crazy busy. My reward was more fantastic weather and a bike ride home. On the way, I watched as two Capital Bikeshare riders squared off in a bike rage incident. (My CaBi’s faster than yours. No, it’s not! FIGHT.) In a stereotype gone bad, one of the two young Asian men started kick fighting. The kick was a sloppy roundhouse one, so bad that I almost stopped to mock him. But Friday night is not alright for fighting, so The Mule took me home to ponder the first bike rage fight I’ve seen in over decade of bike commuting on the Mount Vernon Trail.
Via Flickr:
The odometer on The Mule my 20+ year-old Specialized Sequoia turned 33,000 miles today on the way home from work.
Hoppy Hoping
It was a splendid early October morning for today’s bike commute on The Mule. Too bad it’s August. Oh well. I broke out a long sleeve t-shirt (that my daughter bought me in Alaska ironically) and hit the road. I was in the zone the whole way to work. I said hello to the Hoppy Runner and Nancy “Lumberjack Jersey” Duley along the way but I don’t recall anything else. You know the David Byrne feeling you get when you drive somewhere for the umpteenth time, you arrive at your destination, and think to yourself “How did I get here?”
During the day, John Roche, BikeDC’s Godfather of Craft Beer, announced the details of this year’s Hoppy 100 ride. Last year’s ride was pretty epic, 100 miles, three beer establishments, a ferry ride across the Potomac, a torrential downpour, and a ride home in the dark. What more could you ask for. (And one of the beers was even called Derecho!)
This year’s ride will be a little more urban in focus and only 73 miles. In order not to tie a car up for the day, I’ll have to ride to the start in DC. This should push my mileage for the day up to 100 miles.
There seem to be quite a few folks interested in this year’s escapade, including my personal riding buddy and returning Hopster Lisa. Also, joining us should be Alex Baca who I’ve done two rides with.
My choice of steed is up in the air. I hope to pick up Big Nellie from Bikes at Vienna on Saturday. We’d been waiting for a fork from Big Nellie’s home base in California, but they sent it to the wrong bike shop. Tim of BatV is hopeful that I’ll be back in the foam seat (just doesn’t have the same ring as “back in the saddle” does it?) again on Saturday. All that said, if it rains on Sunday, I’ll probably ride The Mule cause The Mule’s a good mudder.
Well, the ride home was so nice that words fail me. I had lots of company. There were so many bikes streaming across the 14th Street bridge I did a double take. Of course, most of them blew by me within the next mile. People coming toward me were talking and smiling. If I had regular pants on, I would have sworn that my fly was down.
The last few miles were a bit of a slog. I rode up the Park Terrace hill without my usual verve, which is saying something because I normally climb like a crippled gnu.
Time to shut it down again for the night. Gotta get up early for Friday Coffee Club.
Long Time No See
After five days without Internet service, I am back at the blog, sounding a bit like Jackie Stewart’s commentary at the winter Olympics, to boot. (It’s a beautiful day here at the blog.) Conditions for bike commuting have been positively eclectic.
Friday’s commute featured a big surprise. I left home early to go to Swings and Friday Coffee Club. I looked for Nancy Duley under the 14th Street Bridge where she has been known to lurk. There were two cyclists there but no Nancy. I continued into the city without incident, pulled into Swings, bought coffee, and sat down at one end of the long table filled with bike commuters. People at the opposite end started yelling for me to come to their end where there was woman with curly hair that I hadn’t seen before. It was Nancy Duley, whom I have never seen without a helmet on. She, of course, fit in perfectly with the gang and had a fine time.
Monday’s commute was so uneventful I don’t remember it. When I get into the bike commuting zone, I get into the zone!
Tuesday morning was pretty muggy. Not much happened on the way to work. In the evening I rode shotgun in a Prius to my friend Kate’s (yep, another Kate!) happy hour party at Bar Louie in Penn Quarter. On the way we stopped at the light at Constitution and 15th just as French Braid Kate (no relation to the Bar Louie Kate) rode across the cross walk in front of us. I am not stalking her. Honest.
I had a couple of beers and commiserated with Bar Louie Kate who was celebrating her new job at a new agency. We met during Earth Day activities. We shared a display table, me doing the bike commute thing and she doing the walk commute thing.
I left the bar at 7 and took the subway back to Rosslyn. I changed and headed out on The Mule at 7:20 with an ominous line of clouds just to the west. I didn’t know there was a severe thunderstorm warning in effect. Oops.
It was still light out so I didn’t bother putting my headlight or taillight on. I knew I’d need them for the second half of the commute so I figured I’d stop and put them on when it got dark.
The ride down the Mount Vernon Trail to Old Town began into a headwind. The trail wasn’t crowded and the riding was peaceful. As expected, by the time I reached Old Town Alexandria it was dark out, suspiciously so. What I didn’t realize was that the weather front had blocked out any remaining daylight and moonlight.
I kept rolling right through Old Town. It was dark but I could see just fine. South of Old Town I rolled along the trail when all of a sudden I entered a cloud of gnats that went on for a half mile. It was biblical. I had to keep my mouth closed. They were hefty little bugs, bouncing off my arms, legs and face. I think if I had my headlight on the size of the swarm would have freaked me out. South of Belle Haven Park the darkness was jet black. I had to slow way down. Seeking street lights, I bailed out on the trail at Tulane Drive, opting to trade the climb up the Park Terrace hill for the blackout.
I noticed that I now had a tailwind. Uh oh.
The good news was the bug swarm was behind me. The bad news was the storm hit. I was drenched in a minute with two miles to go. And the rain was COLD!!! No worries. Pedal, pedal.
I pulled into the Rootchopper Institute and rolled my bike to the backyard shed. It was so dark I had to fish my cell phone out of my panniers to shed some light the lock on the door. Fortunately, by this time, the rain had stopped. When I got inside the house, I noticed that most of the gnats had been washed off my skin.
In the house, home and wet. Nine o’clock. All is well.
Sockless Thursdays
The perils of bike commuting are without number. Today’s ride in and ride home were uneventful. In between I went sockless. I have no idea what happened to my socks. Since it was a pretty low key day, I didn’t sweat this wardrobe shortcoming.
The $800 Drink of Water
Monday dawned with more awesome fall weather, which is great considering we are still in the first week of August. My long ride yesterday resulted in some significant log sawing last night. As a result, I overslept by a good 20 minutes.
Out of the house late I board The Mule for a surprisingly spirited ride to work. I say surprisingly because I had a head wind and lots of hilly miles in my legs from yesterday. I passed the Hoppy Runner and Nancy “One Bag” “Crash Wave” “Bridge Troll” Duley en route.
I called the dentist about the veneer crown I lost yesterday. Not only would he see me today, but he moved my September cleaning appointment up. I left the office at noon for the unusual ride to the west end of Alexandria which might as well put up banners that say, “Welcome to Traffic Hell”.
I headed uphill out of Rosslyn into Arlington. Garbage trucks and city buses made for a less than enjoyable ride so I bailed from Wilson Boulevard and meandered through the side streets. I used to live near Ballston so I am pretty familiar with the streets. I was taken aback by all the new apartments in the Buckingham neighborhood near my old apartment. I hooked up with the Washington and Old Dominion trail and headed east on a slight downhill.
Near Shirlington I left the cozy confines of the W&OD (NOT the WO&D) and headed toward my date with traffic. This being a summer day, the traffic was light and I survived the mayhem long enough to find the Taylor Run Trail which took me within a few blocks of the dentist’s office.
The good news is my teeth are now clean. The bad news is that the old veneer crown cannot be re-used. A new one is going to set me back a cool $800. They offered to put a veneer on another tooth to even out my smile. Big of them, no?
After the appointment I headed for home via the not so magnificent Eisenhower Valley. I arrived home in time to do a little more work and contemplate how a sip of water is going to cost me $800. It’s what you would call a big, big thirst.
How I Found Jesus and Lost a Crown
You could not ask for a nice day to ride a bike. Warm, breezy, sunny and dry is an awesome combination. It’s a little bit of Vermont in DC. It was the perfect day to try out my new prescription sunglasses. I pulled Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist, out of mothballs and headed out for parts to be determined.
We headed up the Mount Vernon Trail. Traffic on the trail on nice summer weekend days is usually pretty heavy but it was tolerable today. I decided not to press my luck and left the trail to cross the Potomac River on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge trail. The bridge trail was very crowded but everybody was polite and considerate so I made good time. On the connecting trail in Maryland I passed an interesting tandem bike, a Hase, I think. The stoker sits in front on a recumbent seat. The captain steers from behind the stoker on a conventional bike saddle with conventional handlebars. The riders seemed to be having a blast.
I pedaled up the half mile hill to Oxon Hill Road which is being completely rebuilt to the south. Not wanting to ride through the construction site, I turned north. The intersection at Oxon Hill Farm has been redesigned to deny a left hand turn. I couldn’t figure out how to get to the farm any other way so I turned left anyway. Take that MDOT.
I rode back down the long hill in Oxon Hill Park to Oxon Hill Cove. The trail through this parkland, owned by the National Park Service, is a mess and really needs to be torn up and repaved. (I will refrain from bitching about Congress and how it seems hell bent on turning our public infrastructure into East Germany 1978.)
One mile and a big climb later I was on the streets of Anacostia. As usual, Sunday in Anacostia means church and church goers dressed in Sunday best. I took Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard (is that the longest street name in DC?) down and up and down through the neighborhood. Instead of taking the 11th Street bridge over the Anacostia River to Capitol Hill, I turned instead into Anacostia River Park. I headed north, up river, exploring side roads here and there. A nifty new bridge takes the park trail north toward Benning Road. Coming toward me on the bridge was a chatty pack of women on bikes. Nellie from the Washington Area Bicyclists Association was at the head of the group. I recognized one of the riders as a regular Mount Vernon Trail bike commuter. She has a blinky light that swivels on the top of her helmet and a very serious bike commuting demeanor.
Since none of the women said “What a man!” as I passed on continued onward. I spent a few minutes trying to find the entrance to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens but only succeeded in finding the solid waste disposal facility for DC. Fail.
I crossed the Benning Road bridge and took the Anacostia Trail downriver on the west side of the river. Next I meandered through Capitol Hill where I took a break at Eastern Market. After some food and drink, I headed to the Capitol (because it’s there) and then up the Metropolitan Branch Trail. A left put me on the contraflow bike lane on R Street. (Contras make good bike lanes.)
My wanderings took me through a street fair of sorts complete with a farmers market and bike repair, because you need some peaches with your new brake pads. Up U Street where all the people who can’t get to the beach were eating brunch. I turned up 15th Street and headed into Meridian Hill Park. The park is usually filled with people doing acroyoga, slack lining, and hula hooping, and a very entertaining drum circle. Sadly the only activity was a bunch of people having picnics and an ultimate Frisbee game.
Up 15th Street to 16th I rode. Traffic got a bit heavy so I started to zig zag to the east and the north. I managed somehow to ride past the Tacoma Park home of Mike, the world’s most loquacious randonneur. (He and his wife Lisa hosted a rest stop on the 50 States Ride last year.)
I pushed onward into the confusion of downtown Silver Spring. If there’s a silver spring anywhere about it’s probably paved over or built on. I spotted a sign for a bike trail that eventually led me to the Georgetown Branch Trail which meant it was time to head for home. After spending a few minutes enjoying the view and chatting with people on the Rock Creek Trestle, I headed toward Bethesda Row for a bit of iced tea. After refilling my water bottles, I hopped on the crowded Capital Crescent Trail and headed for Georgetown and the Potomac River waterfront. The trail is downhill the entire way and the downhill combined with the tailwind to make this a perfect ride.
The river north of Key Bridge was choked with kayaks and canoes and powerboats and other floating things. DC sure likes its water. All this activity made the going kind of slow on K Street which runs by the packed Georgetown Waterfront Park. I pedaled along and was soon at the beach volleyball courts near the Lincoln Memorial. A couple of Park Police officers cruised at 5 miles per hour on the trail making sure that none of the scantily clad volleyballers were drinking or evil doing. As he drove the driver of the cruiser sucked at a Slurpee. (Um, can we move along guys? Please.)
With the help of my tailwind, I rode down Ohio Drive past several softball games (I saw two batters hit frozen ropes in the process.) As I rode across the Potomac on the 14th Street bridge my tailwind became a cross wind strong enough to lean in to.
The Mount Vernon Trail was as crowded as I suspected but the trail users were generally well behaved (an abnormality on a nice summer day, to be sure). As I cleared Gravelly Point Park I went to take a drink from my water bottle. As I pulled on the valve with my teeth something clicked in my mouth. It was a porcelain veneer crown on one of my front teeth. Bummer. Luckily I didn’t swallow it. Hopefully my dentist can glue it back on. (It was put in about 20 years ago so I’ve got nothing to complain about.)
In Old Town I decided not to deal with Union Street which is usually teeming with touroids on days like today. I rode down Royal Street where, in front of Saint Mary’s Catholic church, a couple was setting up a series of long tables with carvings of various Christian people and scenes. I found Jesus on South Royal Street.
Not wanting to take a couple of mulchy detours on the MVT, I took the Park Terrace Drive hill instead. I rode up the hill in the saddle at 8 miles per hour, twice as fast as on my recumbent.
I pulled into my driveway with 62.9 miles on my odometer, a metric century (100 kilometers).
