sch

I visited WashDC in June 2yrs ago and stayed with a friend who was about 1mi from Rock Creek park about 2-3mi outside the DC border. I rode all up and down Rock Creek both onthe bike trail and the road, and then discovered a couple of other rails to trails corridors and did a 40mile loop down to the ?Erie canal tow path, into the city and up Rock Creek. It was very nice, shady and relatively cool with almost no traffic on the bike paths. I was out during the day, and in certain areas the traffic did increase as people got off work. Google on Washington DC bicycle clubs, and adjacent cities same way for lists of bike clubs and go to their web sites for posted rides. Some are exclusive: you have to be a member to get access but others are public. Once you make contact with a group you can usually cross reference to other groups. I got the impression from my researches that somebody somewhere in DC metro has an organized ride almost every day of the week from now til weather closes down in October. The number of rides was HUGE and that was 2yrs ago.
Steve