Sunday, October 15th rides

[aicabsolut]

The three of us met in the 9 a.m. chill at Riley's Lock along the C&O Canal towpath and pedaled a bumpy yet comfortable 13 miles or so to White's Ferry and then back. This was my first non-solo ride, and the gorgeous fall weather and good company made it really very pleasant. Next time, we hit the roads!

Can you take C&O from Rock Creek to Key Bridge? My trail map makes it look like you can but I dunno.. I'm thinking it comes up on the left side of the bridge (facing VA).and I think it's paved. If you know if that's right or not, please let me know.


I took a trip out to a rural area outside of Charlottesville yesterday. Only about 20-25miles, but that's longer than I've been going around the city lately. It was very hilly, I have a cold, and it was freezing..low 50s when I started. So the first few hills, my leg muscles just said "what?" as I huffed and puffed.

There's one great section in that loop where you can get in the big ring and just fly. A few dangerous descents in other places, which I took very slow (the girl who told me about the loop had removed most of the skin from her torso on one of them...the pavement isnt in such good shape). But she didn't warn me about the brutal climbs that you can't see coming until you're already going too slow.

Still shopping around for a computer, but I managed to do it in about 1hr45, which included a pit stop at a convenience store to eat a granola bar and chug water (not good with handling the water bottle in the cage yet) and blow my nose. Given how many slow hills I took, this was better than I expected. I thought I'd be lucky to make 10mph.

The things I improved upon was moving between hoods and drops, standing, and doing things like pushing my sunglasses up (need better ones for cycling than the sporty ones I already had). I stood for a few more steps each time I tried, but it wound up slowing me down..need to work on doing that while getting some good power transfer. So I stayed seated for most climbs and just tried to keep on spinning and not weave around the road.


Would've been nice to add another loop onto that one and to have a buddy--I saw lots of pairs out riding, but I was all alone. Not too bad once my muscles got warm ...would've been nice to breathe through my nose too..

[Kalidurga]

Can you take C&O from Rock Creek to Key Bridge? My trail map makes it look like you can but I dunno.. I'm thinking it comes up on the left side of the bridge (facing VA).and I think it's paved. If you know if that's right or not, please let me know.

aicabsolut, the towpath begins just downstream from Thompson's Boat Center, near the intersection of Rock Creek Pkwy and Virginia Ave at the edge of Georgetown. It then runs through G'town between M St and Water St, under Key Bridge, and on to Cumberland, in between the river and what's left of the canal. I've actually never ridden it that close to the city, but I used to walk along it on my lunch breaks when I worked in G'town years ago. I know some construction work has been done under Key Bridge, but I don't know how they may have changed the towpath through there. If you ride it from Georgetown, it's worth noting that the towpath joins up with the Capital Crescent trail near where Arizona Ave hits Canal Rd.

At 184.5 miles from G'town to Cumberland, the C&O Canal is the longest linear park in the National Park system, and well worth exploring by anyone in the DC area. Definitely one of my favorite places

[PinkBike]

unlike all the cold weather beings, here in the great southwest our riding season begins, and lasts til march. did the 70-mile tour de scottsdale sunday. beautiful day, very little wind, about 800 riders, no major mishaps, didnt even see a lot of flats being repaired on the side of the road, the weather and biking gods got together and shined today!!!!!!!!!! a little disappointed in 3:40 but it IS the first of the season. gotta love it

[aicabsolut]

Kalidurga-
Ok, I know where Thompson's is. I saw a trail-like thing that comes up by this little brick park/median thing next to Key Bridge and wondered if there's a way you can exit off C&O there to get up to the VA trails.

I can't take C&O very far, because my bike doesn't doo off-road, but I thought that maybe in town there between Rock Creek and Capital Crescent it would probably be paved...though Arizona is pretty far up there... know anything about the paved status?

I live on Virginia, and it seemed like skipping M to get to the Virginia trails or Capital Crescent (and skipping the construction on Memorial Bridge) would be ideal. I can't stand taking my car on M...I don't know how commuters do it.

[Kalidurga]

I can't take C&O very far, because my bike doesn't doo off-road, but I thought that maybe in town there between Rock Creek and Capital Crescent it would probably be paved...though Arizona is pretty far up there... know anything about the paved status?

As far as I know, the towpath isn't paved anywhere along it's length. It's a National Historical Park, so I believe the intent is to keep it as authentic to its original 19th/early 20th century aspect as possible.

That's exactly the reason that I bought a cyclocross bike this year instead of a road bike. I wanted to be able to do longer distances and pick up my speed a bit, but I'm addicted to the C&O so I needed a bike rugged enough for that surface. If you really want to experience it, aicabsolut, you might perhaps consider renting a bike from Big Wheel in G'town.