Section 2 Vienna/Metro 6/11/2010

I rode in to work for the second time this week. I had meetings out in Chantilly on Thursday and rode the 18 miles yesterday out and back. So together I rode 118.6 miles this week!!! So far June has been good for riding. We plan to do some riding this weekend as well, I know Keow wants to get out on the C&O canal path, but more on that later.

Section 2 of my ride is the first part where I feel that I am away from home. This section rolls 4.1 miles from the Fairfax Circle to the W&OD trail and runs along the signed Fairfax City Connector trail, which is more a designed bike route connecting several disjointed paths, and not a dedicated bike commuter route.

Crossing over Fairfax/Arlington Blvd (US 50) I head into the tall trees of the Towers Park, a dark sylvan adjacent to the Circle Towers Condominium complex. The trail quickly rises about 50 feet and dumps me out about 100 yards from a crosswalk on Lee Highway going in the wrong direction. If I can cross at the light I will quickly jump across the 4 laned road otherwise I must stride my bike along the broken sidewalk and wait at a busy bus stop to cross. On the other side of Lee Highway I descend into the East Blake Lane Park, a large wooded quadrangle that 4 town home communities back up to. Despite its proximity to major roads, it is usually very quiet through here. One morning I came within an arms lenght from an adult white tail doe. The trail gradually rises through the EBLP and outlets to a defunct parking lot for the Vienna/Fairfax/GMU Metro station. The metro station is my first out. If I breakdown or don't want to continue I can lock up my bike here, deposit 5 bucks for a train ticket and ride into the city.

The "connector trail" then continues on sidewalks over I-66 and past both the north and south parking garages for the metro station before it passes through Vaden street and into Nottoway park. Dog walkers are usually out in Nottaway as I zip through and make the sharp right onto Tapawingo and head up the hill into Vienna. This second major hill rises 80 feet and tops out at the Vienna watertower. Tapawingo rises up and down over the last 1.5 miles. As I cross over Park street, the houses get larger and the cars more plentiful. I round the "Knuckle" before which I was heading mosly to the north east, and after I travel primarily southeasterly. I turn right onto Glyndon and then Left onto Adahi. The W&OD trail and the start of section 3 is just up ahead.

Section 1 Mason/Fairfax 6/7/10

Monday morning was another opportunity to ride in. I thought I would use the next few entries to describe in detail my route. My 25 mile ride is easily broken up into 5 20-30 minute segmants. Each section has a different feel, and completing each gives me a sense of accomplishment and a better idea of how far I still have left to go.

I first segment "Mason/Fairfax" starts at my front door and rolls 4.8 miles through George Mason University, past Old Town Fairfax City, and then down to the Fairfax Circle. As I leave my development I turn left onto Braddock Road toward the main entrance of GMU. I cross the street with the light and head down into campus then I start up one of the six major hills of the entire ride. VADot has changed the traffic patterns on University just north of campus so what used to be a busy bus route now is a quiet disconnected street. At the bottom of the hill I jump back onto University Ave and into Fairfax City. As I pass the fire house I see that the fire fighters are up and washing their rigs. I check the time and temperature at the Sun Trust Bank, then with traffic I wait for the lights at Main Street and North Ave. I continue down University Ave past the Fairfax Library Garage, then Turn right into the Courthouse Plaza Safeway parking lot. I pass behind the shopping center, onto Democracy Road and follow through the office park to get down to Old Lee Highway. At Mile 2.7 I jump on to the side path and continue past Van Dyke Park. Keow and I like to take the kids here and I often meet them for a picnic here on my afternoon return trips. Near the Civil War era historic Blenhenm house I cross over onto the traffic lane in time to pass the Fairfax High School and then down the 4% grade hill. Early in the morning traffic is not bad here and I usually can get up to about 30 mph. I then turn right onto Old Picket and then left onto the Picket Road side path. Up ahead is the intersection of Route 50 and Picket, a block east of the Farifax Circle. I will have to wait a few minutes here to cross both lights so I take a nice rest and get a drink of water. This is the end of the first segment.

I am now at the point of no return. If I were to get a flat, or have to go back it is closer to continue ahead to the Vienna Metro just 1.7 miles ahead. The next segment is "Vienna Metro" because I pass up through a few wooded paths past the Vienna Station of the Metro, and then cross the city of Vienna, VA to the Washington and Old Dominion Trail. It looks like Friday will be the next day to ride in so I will describe segment 2 in more detail then.

June 2: 4th Ride to Work -- Getting Stronger

I rode in again on Tuesday. I left the house at 0610 and it was light enough to not need any lights, a nice change from January. Traffic was heavier on Old Lee Highway and I rolled down to the Accotink stream bridge. I wished I had brought my camera in that there were very many beautiful spots of sun rays shining through the leaves along the trail. Next Time I promise.

I made great time and arrived in the garage at 0810 exactly 2 hours. Not bad for 25.3 miles.

It was quite warm on the ride home. I like my two water bottle configuration but worried that I would have to reload before I made it home. The Custis hills were much easier and I actually found myself passing some people on the way home. My first water bottle ran out just before the Vienna Metro station so I knew that I would be okay for the last 6.5 miles. VDOT is doing some work in the East Blake Lane Park and they have updated the bike trail through this section. I saw a Mason bike cop clocking speeders at near the water tower on the GMU campus as I rolled through. I don't think I was exceeding the posted 25 though. Once in the development I did a quick run down to the community pool and then back home to see if the pool passes were in. Not yet.

Over the next few posts I will attempt to describe several of my favorite spots along the trail and post pictures.

Also Keow and I are getting excited for several bike supported camping trips this summer. We plan on riding down to Burke Lake Park, Lake Fairfax, and the C&O lock house 6. These trips at 7.5, 15, and 30 miles should be a fun way to spend an overnight with the kids. This type of camping trip is called an S24O or sub-24hr overnight. For more information check out Grant Peterson's page.

May 24-25: Two Meetings Out in Chantilly, First Back to Back Rides

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I had two meetings for work on back to back days out near Chantilly, VA on May 24 and 25th. I found a way to get out there, reusing much of the path out to Costco from earlier in the month. Unfortunately much of the ride is on a side path that follows the busy, and loud US 50 west from Fairfax. As you can see from the above shot, the path has several dangerous grade crossings of the acceleration ramps onto US 50 like this one from NB Fairfax County Parkway. The route also incorporated a fair weather crossing of the Rocky Run stream. I would not take the kids on this route but it was fun riding instead of sitting in traffic.

On the return trip the second day I took a detour to Home Depot to pick up some bamboo stakes for the church garden then I delivered them to church via the side path of VA-7100 before heading home. This added about 2.5 additional miles to the trip but it was a beautiful day to ride.

Bike To Work Day 5.21.2010

Today was Bike To Work Day and what a beautiful day it was. I decided not to join the Vienna commuter convoy. I figured that I probably could make it in faster by myself, and I was a little late to the W&OD to backtrack up to the Vienna Community Center to join them.

Dan and Mike at work had promised to ride in as well and I made arrangements to meet up with Dan at the Rosslyn pit stop at 0730.

The trail was pretty crowded but not overcrowded. I felt stronger on the hills and made it into Rosslyn a little past 7am. I figure if I didn't stop I could have made it in in just about 2 hours. I gathered as many freebies as I could -- t-shirt, bike bells, water bottle, maps -- and had some coffee and a banana. Dan showed up and we took another tour of the give away tables, then set off down the MVT. Just before the Memorial Bridge, Dan's former neighbor came up behind us and surprised him. Work on the Humpback bridge continues and the sidewalk was very narrow, and because of the day busy. I led Dan down through the city to M street and we made it into the garage to find no available spots on the rack. I never thought I would see this problem.

The afternoon return was uneventful. I made good time up to Vienna and pulled into the Fairfax BTWD afternoon "party" in a little over 2 hours and 15 minutes. I think that I was one of maybe 15 people who had visited the rally. They were offering free pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, and tortilla chips to riders. I grabbed a bag of chips, and refilled my water before heading back out on the road. For the first time I completed my return ride and met up with the Kids and Keow at home for dinner.

Running Errands in the Spring

Spring has hit Northern Virginia. Keow and I have used the beautiful and warm weather to get out by bike more. On the first day of spring, we racked up 6 miles riding to and from church. On the 7th of May, we converted two trips to bike trips and racked up 12 miles. I got up a little earlier and rode over to church to water the children's garden. Then in the afternoon, Keow hitched up the chariot and topeak seat and rode with all three kids down to her hair salon. I got home from work and rode down to meet her. We then both rode to church for the First Friday potluck, and then home in the dark along the trail. Our head lamps worked great and we tried out the new chariot cargo rack by toting a pan of lasagna back with us.

The best ride so far for our family was Saturday's ride out to REI, Costco, and Home Depot. I pulled the Ben and Jack, while Keow biked with Dougie in the bike seat. We both agreed that the new path along VA 123 at George Mason University was very nice. We cut through Fairfax city and found our way over to Route 29 then down Wapples Mill to Random Hills to get to REI. We celebrated our trip by loading up on bike gear! I picked up a TOPEAK rack (allowing us to swap the seat if necessary) and a rack top/ double pannier bag while Keow got a quick release basket for the front of her bike. We both also got adjustable water bottle cages that will fit our stainless steel water bottles. Yea!

After installing all of the gear we loaded up the kids and rode over to Costco. We picked up a few items and then moved down to Home Depot to pick up some items for the garden. Finally we headed back out down the Fairfax Countay Parkway path to Braddock Road and up the long long hill to home. In all, counting back tracking and wrong turns we put in 14.5 miles. This would be 14.5 miles toting 5 people in the Minivan. Almost a full gallon of Gas was saved and we all had a blast.

This Friday is Bike to Work Day in DC. I will be doing my normal route and picking up my t-shirt at Rosslyn. I think Keow will ride down to the Burke VRE station to get some freebies as well. See you out on the trail!

2nd Ride, Beauty Among the Cherry Blossoms

Second Ride was Good Friday. The weather was perfect, upper 50s in the morning, and near 80 in the afternoon. I made pretty good time in, 2 hours and 15 minutes. I still couldn't get out until nearly 6:30, so I will have to get better preparing for my ride during the night before. I left early around 2:15 to get a jump on the weekend and decided to take a swing around the Jefferson Memorial on the way home. The blossom peepers were thick around the tidal basin and I had to walk my bike from the fish market to the 14th street onramp. I shot this picture right before I headed out. I noticed many families riding along the MVT, parking at Roosevelt Island and traveling into the city. I can't wait to do this with Keow and the Boys this summer.

I felt stronger heading up the Custis and cranked pretty regularly up to Vienna. Keow called me when I was on the roads of Vienna and asked If I would meet hear at Van Dyke Park in Fairfax City. I said that I was about 45 min away. I passed the Home Depot that I bailed out at last time and headed up the OLD LEE hill. After a few minutes of pain I got to the top and coasted down to Van Dyke. The kids were surprised to see me. We loaded the bike in the minivan and went out to REI and Red Robin for dinner. Yes this was the second trip I didn't finish but I know that I could have. Some things are more important than 3 lousy miles. Over 100miles under my belt so far.