Saturday, June 6 – I finally made time to grab both my bikes off their storage rack, and clean them up from top to bottom. It doesn’t take long for a bike to show signs of neglect, and mine had spent three weeks outdoors – two weeks strapped to the back of my car or under a tarp at my campsite, and a week on the back deck of my hovel. It took two hours, but I scrubbed and re-oiled the chains, and cleaned everything as well as I could. To celebrate, I decided to explore the Capital Crescent Trail (Link HERE)
It is permissible to bring your bike on the Metro, as long as it is not during rush hours (7 AM to 10AM and 4 PM to 7 PM on weekdays), so I biked to the station near me, dragged my bike on to the train (you can use the handicapped elevators for access, rather than trying to manhandle your bike up and down the escalators), and hopped off in Silver Spring. There is a mile or two of side roads to negotiate before you get to the top end of the Trail, but, as soon as I made it I was SO happy I did.
I can’t say enough good things about the Trail. It is fabulous. For the first couple of miles, the surface is crushed gravel, and not suitable for a true road bike. I rode my mountain bike. Once you reach Bethesda, it is fully paved from there to Georgetown. I hadn’t ridden in a long time, and it was a beautiful day. Tons of people use the Trail for walking, running, biking or just hanging out. There are many historical sites and other points of interest along the way (Link HERE), and, once it curves around and follows the Potomac, it offers terrific scenery and views. One of my previous entries had a link to the photo page of the Capital Crescent Trail website, and if you didn't view the page then, I recommend doing it now (Link HERE).
After riding all the way down to Georgetown (about 11 or 12 miles), I wandered around for a while (Georgetown itself is amazing, and will most certainly be the subject of future blog entries), and stopped in the Daily Grill inside the Georgetown Inn (Link HERE) for a glass of wine. It was the perfect end to the afternoon.
A short ride up P Street brought me to the Metro station at Dupont Circle for the trip home...
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