Originally Posted by
JimF22003
Other than the scenery along the river, I've rarely had a pleasant experience on the CCT. It's impossibly crowded after work. And the surface is getting so rough that it shakes the spokes out of my wheels. Plus there's no real convenient way to get down to it from the Key Bridge. It's a shame, but it's getting so popular, nobody goes there anymore...
I like it but then my wife and I have the luxury of riding after rush hour on weekdays so it isn't crowded. We never venture over there on weekends.
Originally Posted by
kr32
I can not comment on the CCT but I have ridden on the Mount Vernon Trail and I can say that was so bad I got off and rode on the Parkway to Mount Vernon...
Yeah you can ride a bike there but expect to go 8 mph.
The few times I have ridden out to Mt Vernon I switched to the Parkway as well. But I like the trail from downtown to Old Town (again, after rush hour on weekdays). It is also a nice route to the network of Virginia trails that open us up to relatively unobstructed 30-40 mile rides. I like to ride without constant distractions from traffic signals and cars blasting by. Living in the heart of the city makes that difficult. For me it is either ride 5 miles to a MUP and then cruise as far as I want or pack up the bikes and drive out to more rural routes. Fortunately, I have a weekend house in Virginia's Northern Neck and get lots of rural road riding down there.