W&OD at night

[JimF22003]

@reji 118071 wrote:

The biggest safety concern during those times is those pesky ninja pedestrians.

And ninja deer.

[PotomacCyclist]

@jrenaut 118076 wrote:

Yeah, that’s who I was thinking of. I bought a set of fenders from him, seemed like a nice guy. i think he drove in to either Ashburn or Reston, depending on how he was feeling, and biked the rest of the way. Pretty crazy commute regardless. Hope he’s doing well, wherever he is now.

I think Lt Dan knows him and he still posts on the forum.

[vern]

@reji 118071 wrote:

I commute in the dark both ways in the winter, usually the 6am hour and the 5pm hour when, in the stretch I ride on the WOD, it’s rare to ride for a minute without seeing another pedestrian/cyclist. The biggest safety concern during those times is those pesky ninja pedestrians.

And I agree with Tania, it really does piss me off that women have to even consider this. I’m perhaps a little more risk-adverse than some since I’ve had a good bit of martial arts training. 😎

I think the WOD is generally safe at any time East of Reston with abundant nearby residences and road crossings. But I’d think twice riding in the middle of night west of Reston since it is less densely populated.

When I’m commuting home in the Winter traffic is pretty sparse west of Vienna. It’s not unusual for me to not see anyone between Vienna and Reston on my way home. In the mornings I usually see a few runners, and Hozn.

[Boomer Cycles]

I regularly ride west from DC to WOD mile marker 8.0 in the dark after 9pm and have never been hassled or asked to get off the trail by any authority.

However, I have been blinded by the light of many other cyclists riding toward me with high beam blazing. So please be courteous and click down to low beams, or better yet, cover your light beam with your hand, so that you do not blind any oncoming cyclists or walkers out after dark.

[valoflyby]

@JimF22003 118085 wrote:

And ninja deer.

And cars.

Seriously – when Herndon installed streetlights on the W&OD this winter, I encountered two oncoming cars between 6-7pm, just west of town center. High-beams, of course, so finding the edge of the trail (to GTFO) was challenging. In the winter, at night, west of Reston, yeah – can be pretty sparse. I suspect that I was the first trail user they encountered.

Probably less of a problem @ 2AM, summertime.

[creadinger]

So, I guess the final takeaway is that I should give it a go and not expect any interference from the police. If I do get questioned by police, what can they do? I can say I’m commuting or riding home or something. I mean I will be riding home…. via Marshall, VA, but will definitely end up at home. If they make me turn around, I’d still be riding on the trail.

I’m not really concerned about safety, but I will certainly keep an eye out for deer……. and cars.

[Kolohe]

this was the state of things a few years ago. But the things laid out there are still in the press release near the top of the NVRPA W&OD home page.

[creadinger]

@Kolohe 118198 wrote:

this was the state of things a few years ago. But the things laid out there are still in the press release near the top of the NVRPA W&OD home page.

I think I’ll ignore the detailed page and just go with this from the webpage:

W&OD Trail Hours: The park is open all year.

That’s pretty unambiguous to me.

[creadinger]

Recap!

So, on Thursday evening around 8:30 I left Alexandria, and headed out the W&OD toward Marshall, VA to test out a bit of night riding and my new dynamo lighting system.

After a brief stop in Vienna to shelter from the weird thunderstorm that blew up, I rode virtually all of the W&OD after “closing time” and didn’t get hassled at all. I only saw a few people period. There were a few pedestrians and joggers until Reston where I saw a ninja cyclist who I only spotted because of the built in reflectors on his pedals. I thought, “wow those fireflies are flying in perfect formation, wait, that’s a bike!” There was a cyclist in Ashburn who looked like he had a car headlight attached to his bars. It was MEGA bright, but going in my direction at least. And the last person I passed was a jogger east of Leesburg, around 11pm.

The rest of the night went pretty well too. It is SO damn dark out there in the sticks! A couple of times I had to consciously not think about how my world consisted only of the cone of light from my headlight, about 100 fireflies at any one time and not the rest of the world that was pitch black and would remain that way for several hours. It’s like having mild cases of claustrophobia and agoraphobia all at once…

The cool part was taking the lane the whole time because I only saw like 6 cars and you could see/hear them coming from a mile away. Descending hills was terrifying because you really can’t see far enough ahead. You just have to ride the brakes. Out on the roads I used a helmet light to supplement my fork crown mounted headlight to see around turns and generally farther up the road.

As I mentioned on my strava activity the worst part was a run-in with a Opossum at 2:30AM, but it’s actually pretty funny already. I got back to Purcellville at 5am and started back east on the W&OD in the partial daylight. By the time I got to Clarks Gap I was surprised to see tons of cyclists heading west already. I guess a lot of people just had the day off and went for a nice early morning bike ride.

Now I need to clean up my bike and fix a flat tire. I guess I picked up a slow leak late in the ride because it was flat on Friday evening. I’m not surprised given the amount of glass these tires have absorbed in the past 4 months. I’m just glad I didn’t get a flat in the pitch blackness of rural, VA! All in all, it was a good night to get in a 150 miles of riding.

Another bonus – I didn’t get sunburn or need any sunscreen, and the temps stayed below 75 for almost the whole ride.

[trailrunner]

I’m a little late to this, but regarding being on NVRPA trails after dark – I used to run around Lake Accotink with a small group. We would do this run from around October through March, and would start around 6pm. We gat hassled a few times by park workers for being in the park after night. I used to commute (bike and run) through there in the dark in morning and was concerned that one day I would get in trouble.

I also used to run a lot on the Bull Run – Occoquon trail, and often wanted to run it at night, but felt certain that if I was there at night that I would get cited. The policy of parks being closed when the sun goes down is a bit of a shame, since some of us want to enjoy them even when it is dark. One of the neatest things to do is to run through the woods on a snowy night.

[wheelswings]

I’ve been riding the WOD at night for years and I’ve never had any problems. A couple of times at BAC meetings, I’ve asked the ACPD about crime on the WOD at night, and they’ve never had much to report. Some of the side trails, like those in Glencarlyn Park, put me ill at ease in the midnight hour, but probably they’re still safer than riding amongst drunken texters on the roads.

[Dirt]

I regularly ride the W&OD at all hours. Deer are the biggest danger that I’ve encountered.

[hozn]

The only time I have been stopped by police on the W&OD in evening hours was when they were closing down a section of the trail so they could shoot deer. (I was there before the scheduled closing time, so they let me through when I promised I would ride quickly.)

[dkel]

@hozn 119127 wrote:

The only time I have been stopped by police on the W&OD in evening hours was when they were closing down a section of the trail so they could shoot deer. (I was there before the scheduled closing time, so they let me through when I promised I would ride quickly.)

Wait—what? They actually do that??

[hozn]

@dkel 119132 wrote:

Wait—what? They actually do that??

yeah — at least they used to (or did once). This was probably 3 or 4 years ago, the long stretch between Vienna and Hunter Mill. I think they closed it at 5:30, though that was almost dark (fall). It was noted by signs beforehand, which was why I knee to get there by 5:15. Not an easy stretch to detour around (esp. at rush hour).

I can’t remember seeing any closure notices for deer population control since then.

[Author]

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