Washington DC Riding?
 

Thinking of taking our kids to DC the first week of April. That will be the focus, but wondering if there is anywhere we might target staying that is both a reasonable distance to the main museums, yet might let me get a decent ride in a couple of hours each day?

Appreciate any advice.

Since you're only going to be here a short time, there's a lot of trail systems around. The W&OD system goes out to Purcelville. The C&O goes to PA. The Mt Vernon trail goes to... Mt Vernon. Just be careful on the bridges on the Mt Vernon trail. They're SLICK when they're wet

There's the Haynes Pt lunch rides and the Sat AM Rock Creek ride.

There's probably more rides, but I live 40mi out so don't get to the City often.

M

Staying closer to Georgetown lets you easily get out of town by Macarthur Blvd. Once on Macarthur, you're on the main path out to where people ride. Go out to Angler's Hill and Great Falls, and from there onto Falls road out to River, and from there you have a ton of routes at your disposal.

There is also the option of lunch rides at Hains Pt (East Potomac Park) which are quick and generally organized (my right tibia may disagree with me on that) and in the shadow of the monuments. I don't know how cherry blossom season timing works this year but avoid Hains in peak cherry blossom season.

If you bring a gravel bike, you can go out the C&O Canal for miles and miles, and then hit the Blockhouse Trails out by Lock 22.

You can stay pretty much anywhere on the metro lines and have easy access to the tourist attractions. I'd recommend staying somewhere along the red or orange lines - https://www.wmata.com/schedules/maps...system-map.cfm - that you can park the car and hop on the metro to get around and, its just the easiest way to do it and it goes more or less anywhere that you'd want to go - except for Georgetown and probably best to avoid that during a weekend. North or West is going to give you the best riding options.

If you dont mind a 10-20 min train ride to get to where you're going to see the tourist stuff you have lots of riding options going northwest (C&O canal, capital crescent trail, rock creek park, montgomery county) or west on the orange/silver line (W&OD, Custis Trail, Mount Vernon Trail). All of these routes link up to more stuff outside of the city if you want but if you've only got a week you wont get bored.

Riding with the kids? C&O canal is the easy button. It’s crushed stone, but smooth enough for road bikes. Passes by Great Falls a short distance out of downtown (nice views of falls and river).

Thanks for the suggestions all. Keep them coming!

These rides will probably be morning by myself before the family gets moving.

I guess I should mention, I'm hoping to find a couple of routes in the 25-40 mile range that are decent. I can bring a road/all-road/gravel bike as necessary.

Option 1: Ride from or into arlington and do a loop of the W&OD/Custis/Mt Vernon Trail. Its a ~17 mile loop, can add length in a lot of places (like continue west on the W&OD or do a hilly route in north arlington) if you want more miles.

Option 2: Ride from or into arlington and ride south on the mt vernon trail, its scenic and along the river. Its paved but the pavement is narrow and frost/root heaved in a lot of spots.

Option 3: Ride north through rock creek park (beach drive) and there are options heading north/west or riding out of the park valley and coming back on loops from there.

Option 4: Ride out the C&O and either come back the way you came or make a loop through potomac md and back on macarthur blvd.

I'd recommend a gravel bike more for the **** pavement than the C&O.

I can pull ride with gps links for any of these if you need.

RJ covered it.

The Mt Vernon trail to the southern end and back is worth it - just be prepared for a casual pace - between the frost heaving, joggers, and dog walkers, it can be slow going - though getting out early on a week day avoids the worst of it.

Same for the other trails (C&O, W&OD), though they're a bit wider, so flow a hair better when busy.

A lot depends on if you're trying to workout, or just spin your legs and enjoy the fresh scenery. You could just slow jam around the monuments/mall area too - won't be a workout, but that area is pretty at sunrise and sunset.

Bring the all-road bike for max flexibility.

Thanks. This is great. We still don't have firm plans but I may hit you up for some routes if this comes together.

Thanks. All-road is usually my go-to when I don't know exactly what I'll encounter. I'd like to ride steady state, avoiding touristy areas and traffic as much as possible.

Then RJ's 1, 3, 4 options will work well. I'd probably pick 4 - if you stay on the C&O, there's no auto traffic.

I'm not sure what McArthur is like during rush hour - in Maryland, there's a parallel path for bikes, but most cyclists will want to use the main road. I don't think the trail goes all the way into Georgetown either. G'town to Great Falls is ~15 miles each way (C&O or MacArthur - they're mostly parallel), flat and mostly straight, so pretty solid steady state. You'll hit the GF park area at the turn-around but AM rush hour shouldn't have (m)any tourists and the view is nice (snap a selfie and head home).

C&O runs the entire way from Georgetown, and it's mostly dirt with occasional gravel section. The bike path alongside MacArthur is from the DC/MD border only and runs to Angler's Inn by Great Falls.

Past May, C&O gets quite muddy past Fletcher's Cove though, though still doable even on 23 mm tires. I usually prefer taking MacArthur back into Georgetown though, as 23 mm tires fishtail on the gravel grades by the locks.

Yup, C&O goes all the way into the city - I was referring to the MacArthur Blvd trail (which I haven't used). I also haven't tried to ride MacArthur on a weekday at rush hour - no idea if that's doable.

The C&O was absolutely made for steady state. File tread gravel tires are golden for that. Pick it up at the boathouse underneath the key bridge and go.

I haven't lived there for 10 years but Macarthur used to be fine during busy times. I used to ride it +/- 4 evenings a week +/- 7 months a year. Macarthur gets less crazy past the Goldsboro rotary, and less crazy again past the one lane bridge at Cabin John. Coming from DC, I'd go Capital Crescent out to Macarthur if riding solo.

You'll get some of the standard vitriol from people who are pissed to be stuck in traffic, many of whom will yell at you to use the f-ing bike path. I would recommend against using the bike path out/westbound on Macarthur. It's on the south side of the road, so cars driving out/westbound have no awareness of you. Almost been smashed a few times by outbound cars making lefts. Would much rather get yelled at by a driver than hit by one.

But it sounds like the OP would have an awesome time just riding on the C&O.

I didn't ride when we went in 2022 for a week for family vacation.. but I would strongly support the idea of staying right near the metro so you can avoid the car.

We got an AirBNB about a block from the capitol building that had a weird alley parking lot. PITA to get my car into the parking lot but once we put it there we never used again till it was time to leave. Made for a very nice vacation to not sit in any of the traffic. (It was pretty terrible on the way in and out, and that's coming from Boston where we are used to it)