Looking for a Rental (Road)

[Terpfan]

First off. Thank you so much for the tips! Its always good to get some feedback when riding somewhere new.


I had planned on bringing all of my own stuff (light,watch,flat-fix,multi-tool). Some of the places advertise speed plays, I would rather not have to take off my pedals, but I could if I have to.

My goal is to put in about 60-70, I was looking at riding to Chesapeake Bay and back. That looks to be the right amount of distance.

Is this possible? Are their sufficient bike lanes?

Do you suggest an alternate ride of similar distance?

Thanks for the help thus far!

It is doable, but I'm not necessarily sure I would classify it as bike-friendly (bikewashington.org has some of these routes). Essentially the routes take you through Prince George's County and follow closely to Rt. 50, the main road to Annapolis/Chesapeake Bay Bridge (and onward all the way down the Eastern Shore to Ocean City). I have never tried this ride, but I have driven many of those roads and I'm not sure I would be too comfortable on a bike knowing the other cyclists.

Conversely, if you have the ability to get to somewhere by vehicle and then ride, well there are plenty of nice scenic type roads/trails along the Eastern Shore or even on this side down in Southern, MD that would let you see great scenery along safer routes. (I'm thinking some of the roads/trails in St. Mary's County, over by Blackwater Wildlife Refuge, etc).

[creadinger]

If you want to see the Bay from DC, this is probably the best route... I've done it a few times and parts of it are very nice. However it does have areas of very poor road design with respect to cyclists. These are mostly around Bowie.
http://www.bikewashington.org/routes...obay/index.htm

It's a decent ride, but definitely not the best in terms of scenery and pleasureableness. As other people mentioned the best bike routes in the area tend to be to the west past the outer suburbs, and usually the safest way to get there is via the W&OD trail toward Purcellville, VA or out to Poolsville, MD via River Rd.

[Greenbelt]

Greenbelt has a nice route that goes from College Park up to Baltimore's Inner Harbor (on the Chesapeake Bay) which is, from what I hear, a very nice route. So if he's intent on visiting "The Chesapeake Bay" and isn't particular about which part of the bay that might be a good route to follow. If, however, he wishes to visit another part of the bay then it's a different ballpark as you mention (PG county, etc).

Anyway, here's Greenbelt's College Park to Inner Harbor route:
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=9...&lci=bike&z=12



and he may have a ridewithgps or mapmyride route as well, hopefully he'll see this and chime in. It's a ~36 mile ride, so would be a bit longer from inside DC but the Metro options could shorten the ride either way and there are MARC trains if he runs in to an issue on the bike that would get him back to DC safely.

We're doing the Baltimore ride this Sunday, leaving Proteus at 8am and heading to the Tour du Port festivities!

[Nemisys]

Hey Thanks for the great response! I'm a little shocked.

Let me be a little more specific about the ride. I'm primarily am looking for a training ride, but would like to get some scenery at the same time. Lets be honest, anything different than the desert I normally ride in will be awesome.

In Arizona, I use the canals as much as possible (they're paved) and are dedicated to pedestrians. I try to avoid surface streets as much as possible an rarely ride non-bike-lane shoulders. I don't want to become another statistic if you know what I mean.

Ok so I found a bike. Thanks Tim for the link to Revolution! I rented a Madone, and having only ridden my Scattante (ever), i'm pretty stoaked lol.

I'm picking it up in Crystal City, so I'm probably going to abandon the Chesapeake bay idea and head up into Virginia instead. I'm looking at the "Washington and Old Dominion Trail", is this truly dedicated path? Completely Paved?

It looks like a good perimeter loop would be head up that from crystal city towards Leesburg and back down following the Potomac river. Is there a path along the river?? Maybe the "Chesapeake and Ohio Canal"?


The links to google maps is by far the most helpful, since I don't know the area at all.

Thanks for the help so far. I wish we had this type of community in AZ.

[mstone]

I'm picking it up in Crystal City, so I'm probably going to abandon the Chesapeake bay idea and head up into Virginia instead. I'm looking at the "Washington and Old Dominion Trail", is this truly dedicated path? Completely Paved?

Yup. Can be crowded near the city, but go out far enough and the crowd thins out a lot and you get some nice hill country which should be quite a contrast from AZ.

[DismalScientist]

It looks like a good perimeter loop would be head up that from crystal city towards Leesburg and back down following the Potomac river. Is there a path along the river?? Maybe the "Chesapeake and Ohio Canal"?

That would be the towpath along the canal. Definitely not paved, but flat. But you have a rental bike... Put some 32 mm tires on it and trash the hell out of it.

[OutsideTheLaw]

The C&O is, as Dismal says, unpaved. It's also on the other (Maryland) side of the River. You can get there via Leesburg (off the WOD, up US Route 15) or, far nicer, via White's Ferry (also accessed via Leesburg). And if you want to stay paved, you can ride the Maryland roads out of Whites Ferry back south to Washington/Georgetown, and finish in Crystal City, but now you're up in the 80-90 miles area.

[PotomacCyclist]

Sections of the Mt. Vernon Trail run along the Potomac River. The trail also veers over into wooded areas but never too far from the river. You could get most of your miles on the W&OD and the more scenic part of the ride on the MVT.

Both are paved. As I noted above, much of the MVT in Alexandria is on local streets, either with bike lanes or sharrows. In off-peak hours, the traffic conditions are safe for cyclists. (I haven't ridden through there during peak hours too often, so I don't know what the traffic patterns are like then. I still don't think it would be too bad.) The eastern part of the W&OD does have a few grade intersections where you'll have to stop and wait for traffic lights or car traffic to clear. It's not that bad though.

You can do out-and-backs to add up as many miles as you want to ride. You can easily ride a century by combining the W&OD, the MVT and perhaps East Potomac Park (Hains Point).

[Amalitza]

Sections of the Mt. Vernon Trail run along the Potomac River. The trail also veers over into wooded areas but never too far from the river. You could get most of your miles on the W&OD and the more scenic part of the ride on the MVT.

Both are paved. As I noted above, much of the MVT in Alexandria is on local streets, either with bike lanes or sharrows. In off-peak hours, the traffic conditions are safe for cyclists. (I haven't ridden through there during peak hours too often, so I don't know what the traffic patterns are like then. I still don't think it would be too bad.) The eastern part of the W&OD does have a few grade intersections where you'll have to stop and wait for traffic lights or car traffic to clear. It's not that bad though.

You can do out-and-backs to add up as many miles as you want to ride. You can easily ride a century by combining the W&OD, the MVT and perhaps East Potomac Park (Hains Point).

The MVT can be pretty crowded on weekends, so if you're looking to enjoy scenery rather than ride an obstacle course (its own kind of fun, but maybe not what you're looking for), I recommend a weekday if you have the choice (it is a nice scenic trail, both for river views and woods, which I'm sure you don't have much of in AZ). Old Town Alexandria is safe to bike through any time of day, just stay off of Patrick, Henry, and Washington streets. The MVT has two official routes through old town; Union Street and Royal Street. Union is better marked (both as part of the trail and with sharrows) but a little more heavily trafficked-- if you *really* want to avoid cars, you can ride up Royal. Just check the map first and don't expect trail signs.

[americancyclo]

You cloud do a ride like this, from Crystal City, head north to the Custis Trail, West out to Vienna, VA (Whole Foods or Vienna Inn for refreshment), East on the W&OD, South on the MVT to Mount Vernon, then back North to Crystal City. That would get you a solid 60 miles with all off-street, paved trails
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1777437