Sunday, February 12, 2012


Join us on Sunday, February 19th for a casual ride from the shop to DC.
The ride will be about 33 miles roundtrip according to the route map, with a stop in Eastern Market for lunch.  We’ll take mostly bike trails or streets with bike lanes, and we’ll stay off high-traffic roads.  We’ll go at a moderate pace (although we may break up into smaller groups that go different speeds – no one will be dropped).
We’d leave the shop at 1pm, have a lunch break probably around 2:30 at Eastern Market, and head back around 3pm or 3:30pm at the latest I’d think. We may split into groups of faster or slower riders, but no one would be dropped. The Metro (open for bikes on weekends) would be the bailout if the weather turned bad or for any other reason.
The route would highlight several area trails and connectors: The College Park trolley trail, the NE branch trail, the Paint Branch trail, the NW Branch trail, the Met Branch trail, the R street bike route, the 15th Street cycle track, the Pennsylvania Ave median bike lanes, and the fairly extensive one-direction bike lanes on Capitol Hill.
As with other rides we’ve done, it would be nice to meet up with others coming from different locations. Likewise, if anyone wanted to reverse the route and ride out to College Park in the morning and then join us for the ride back to DC and lunch, that would be cool. The shop opens at noon on Sundays.
Here are the most direct directions from DC to the shop:
From downtown DC, take the MBT to Monroe Street Bridge (bike lane)
Left at 12th (sharrows) and right at Newton (bike route)
Left at 18th, and right at Varnum (bike routes)
Cross Eastern Ave and the road becomes Arundel Road (bike route, bumpy road — beware unmarked speedbumps)
Jog one block to the right at 34th street (otherwise you’d be on a one-way Allison Street going the wrong way)
Left at 38th Street, over the bridge, and right on the NW branch trail
Cross Rhode Island at the crosswalk/trail alongside Armentrout Road (beware the construction/cyclocross challenge)
Down the ramp and up the NE Branch Trail to Lake Artemesia
Pick up the Paint Branch Trail at Lake Artemesia and go under the CSX track.
Take the College Park Trolley Trail/Rhode Island Ave (bike lane, sort of) across University Blvd (not a pleasant intersection)
Cross left to the outer road alongside Rhode Island
Left on Erie Street up the hill to the bike shop (Route 1 at Erie)
or:

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