6.19.2005
mid-morning ride to the airport
distance: ~ 12 miles
time: 1 hr of riding, 5 minutes of resting
Saturday I woke up early and decided to finally go out for a ride. It's been so hot here that I haven't been out on Pearl since Memorial Day, and I'd really been wanting to get down by the water again. I thought about going on the Captitol Crescent trail again, but that imperceptible incline tires me out and it's not the most interesting ride around. Instead, I decided to go down by the river and see how long it took to get to the airport.
From my house, I went down to P, around the circle, and across the bridge to jump on the Rock Creek trail, which is almost exactly 1 mile. I followed the trail around to the bridge, about another 2 miles, and even went the circuitous route up through the construction at the Lincoln rather than dashing across 4 lanes of traffic (I didn't feel like getting off my bike, and I'm not the best dasher in the world, I prefer to stroll). Once over the bridge, I headed south toward the airport along the Mt. Vernon trail, unwittingly joining lots of other folks participating in the Clean Air Ride. Which is fine, I'm all for Clean Air. I stopped for a break at the airport parking lot (it's not really the airport parking lot, but rather the parking lot by the trail where lots of people come to sit and watch the planes take off from the airport), about 3 miles further along (according to the driving directions at yahoo maps, at least!).
From the airport, I followed the trail back up past the bridges all the way to the Key Bridge and back over into Georgetown, about 3.7 miles (they really need to make a mapping program just for the bike trails, because it's a pain in the arse to try to extrapolate from the parallel roads. I'm just sayin...). Back home from there was another 2.5 miles, bringing the ride total to just about 12 miles.
I really need to get a new battery for my bike computer and save myself all this yahoo mapping. But there you have it.
On a more qualitative note, I saw not much out of the ordinary. The trail really filled up by the time I was heading back, between 10-10:30am, with lots of walkers and kids and strollers and people with headphones on. It was a good reminder to go out earlier in the day if I don't want to be braking and swerving all the time. I remember the same being true of the Capitol Crescent trail, especially the tip by Bethesda (walkers tend to go along the Canal towpath on the Georgetown end, at least when I've been there).
All this mapping has been good for one thing, though: it appears there's a waterfowl sanctuary just there at the parking lot where everyone stops to look at the planes, so I'll have to check that out. Just maybe not today.
time: 1 hr of riding, 5 minutes of resting
Saturday I woke up early and decided to finally go out for a ride. It's been so hot here that I haven't been out on Pearl since Memorial Day, and I'd really been wanting to get down by the water again. I thought about going on the Captitol Crescent trail again, but that imperceptible incline tires me out and it's not the most interesting ride around. Instead, I decided to go down by the river and see how long it took to get to the airport.
From my house, I went down to P, around the circle, and across the bridge to jump on the Rock Creek trail, which is almost exactly 1 mile. I followed the trail around to the bridge, about another 2 miles, and even went the circuitous route up through the construction at the Lincoln rather than dashing across 4 lanes of traffic (I didn't feel like getting off my bike, and I'm not the best dasher in the world, I prefer to stroll). Once over the bridge, I headed south toward the airport along the Mt. Vernon trail, unwittingly joining lots of other folks participating in the Clean Air Ride. Which is fine, I'm all for Clean Air. I stopped for a break at the airport parking lot (it's not really the airport parking lot, but rather the parking lot by the trail where lots of people come to sit and watch the planes take off from the airport), about 3 miles further along (according to the driving directions at yahoo maps, at least!).
From the airport, I followed the trail back up past the bridges all the way to the Key Bridge and back over into Georgetown, about 3.7 miles (they really need to make a mapping program just for the bike trails, because it's a pain in the arse to try to extrapolate from the parallel roads. I'm just sayin...). Back home from there was another 2.5 miles, bringing the ride total to just about 12 miles.
I really need to get a new battery for my bike computer and save myself all this yahoo mapping. But there you have it.
On a more qualitative note, I saw not much out of the ordinary. The trail really filled up by the time I was heading back, between 10-10:30am, with lots of walkers and kids and strollers and people with headphones on. It was a good reminder to go out earlier in the day if I don't want to be braking and swerving all the time. I remember the same being true of the Capitol Crescent trail, especially the tip by Bethesda (walkers tend to go along the Canal towpath on the Georgetown end, at least when I've been there).
All this mapping has been good for one thing, though: it appears there's a waterfowl sanctuary just there at the parking lot where everyone stops to look at the planes, so I'll have to check that out. Just maybe not today.
