Oh spit! What a great report and great photos to boot. Thanks NR.
BTW. who's roadchickie? Hubba, hubba. (http://twitpic.com/1717w0)

Thanks about the report.

LOL! She's a California girl--I believe from LA. I'm one out of 264 other people that she's following; I'm following her posts on Twitter as well--her and 170 others.

Charlie, I'd like to do a ride with you, but I wanted to sleep in, so I guess I'll have to catch you on another one some time. It does look like a great ride. Today's temps should be great for it. If you're still going, enjoy the day and be safe.

Hey Folks: Todays ride went quite well. Lots of sunshine, some wind, quite a few other cyclist, very little traffic and well paved roads. A friend of mine has described S. Maryland cycling as the Disneyland of road biking. Can't argue with him. There were enough hills to keep you cranking but not ehough to make you hurt.
Rode into Galesville(quaint town with a view), Deale and Churchton. Lots of Mac-mansions down there near Annapolis. Less so as you go further south. After 25 miles I was riding at 15.3 mph. I decided to try and keep the speed above 15 for the entire ride. I haven't ridden this long at that speed since my Lymes. Well the final numbers were:
59.22 miles @ 15.4!!!! This is the best I have felt i a long time:thumb:

NR next time.

Charlie,
I've done another ride from that P&R, a BBC Chesapeake Beach ride. An ideal cycling landscape. I rode today after running around NY yesterday. Lots and lots of cyclists on the roads. we stopped a lot as some in the group hadn't ridden in a while. I've got a light schedule this week, sort of home vacay, so should be able to get some rides in, weather is supposed to be good.

Charlie, NR, great ride reports (and pics, NR!) Many years ago I used to live in Edgewater (a bit south of Annapolis) and I really enjoyed the riding in that area, and points south. I have to get back there again, it's been too long. The Oxon Hill Club's "Southern Maryland Century / Indian Head 100" is in that neck of the woods; I did it a few years ago, and it was a great ride -- pretty, rural, quiet, rollers but no throw-up killer climbs.

I got out both Saturday and Sunday, but just short-ish local rides . . . have to work my way back up again, this was really a slothful winter!! :0

Charlie, I was looking at the calendar for the DC/C&O trip -- the first weekend in April (3/4) is Easter (and my mom's and grandmother's birthdays) so I wouldn't be able to make it then -- I'll be in PA. The following weekend (10/11), and surrounding weekdays, would work for me.

I'm supposed to meet some friends from Pittsburgh in DC and spend the weekend with them in two weeks. I was thinking of biking down to meet them -- I could steal pieces of the "Monument to Monument" route. :) The hotel we're staying at is in Georgetown, though -- on New Hampshire, very near the Foggy Bottom Metro stop. Any good tips for getting over to that part of town?

Maxine, WABA's bike map link is currently broken but DC is very tolerant of cyclists so specific routes does not matter much. I'll note that I've used Pennsylvania and K St a lot when I'm down there which can get you close to your destination. If you want some company on the ride I could see if my friends down there are available and join you for the trip.

Thanks, Barry. I'm not sure exactly when I would be heading to DC; my friends are coming in sometime in the afternoon/evening of Friday the 19th. I don't mind riding alone, though.

I am pretty familar (well, I used to be!) with the "tourist" parts around the Mall, but I never went to Georgetown much. Just to see what route it would pick compared to Bob's, I asked Google for "walking" directions from my house to the hotel. (I did that for my Ocean City trip last summer, and with a little tweaking it actually turned out to be a pretty good bike route.) I noticed that at one point the route line suddenly veered off the road and started going cross-country. I was scratching my head about that, until I looked over at the written route directions -- Google had put me onto the WB&A Trail! Cool! I didn't know that Google recognized anything other than motorized-vehicle roads. Is this new, or have I just been that clueless all this time??? :)

I rode down to DC last June for that three day mini tour. I managed to get from the mall to the beginning of the C&O in Georgetown by riding the bike path along the river.

That's the ride where Harry and I met. Super nice terrain, great organizing and great food. I'd happily carpool down there again wid' y'all.
pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/2797683...en/2008/09/07/

Did a "pre-ride" of the upcoming Rando Ramble. Great route and beautiful weather. A 103 mile monday.

I am trying to organize a trip with the wife to be taken in the next few weeks. Once that is done I will be able to confirm a date. The Easter wknd is bad for me as well. Should we be concerned about the nighttime temps for sleeping?? The earlier in April might be a tad chilly if the lockhouses don't have heat. Remember we will have some CC guys along;-) I'll check to see if they have heat, maybe a fireplace.

@Bob (or anyone else having some knowledge of the area) I might take the wife to the Fla. Keys...soon. She needs some sun and heat. Can you send me some info on your last trip. Best islands, motel or small house rentals, did you rent a car? can plane and taxis do it? Did you fly to Miami then rent car?..... etc. If this is too much to type perhaps we can meet for a beer after work to discuss. Where's the ramble going and when. I might have Sunday free. Thanks, Charlie

Basicallly, here: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/384035
Sunday March 21st. 8AM start from the Conservatory at MD Zoo

I'll PM you.

The bottom drops out at Harrisville Heights (elevation drops to -10 ft--USGS data dropout no doubt).

Looks like it'll be a nice ride.

I don't know why there are dropouts like that on bikely. I managed to "fix" it by scooting the points in that area around a bit.
Bikely says 5100ft, but I bet it's much more like 6500ft. Bikely is notoriously low.

The climbing is placed well in the ride. Lots of sharp hard climbs in the beginning (including Dogwood again!). The hills round off as you near Libertytown- still climbing, but gentler. The last 1/3 is a nice roll home.
There's a nice 1 mile unpaved in there too. I'll offer a detour for those who aren't up for the adventure.

Very nice route. I'm psyched to ride it with a group.

Charlie,
I had been planning a bike trip from Jacksonville FLA to Key West but read so many dreadful ride reports about the Florida coast that I bagged the idea, that and work killed the plan. I traded the idea for another trip to Tucson which I also canceled due to work.

When I was researching how to get back from Keywest this seemed the best alternative to doing all that driving up Rt 1a. Southwest to Ft. Lauderdale then Continental to Key West. I was only going north so was pretty cheap, both sub 100.00 tickets.

Rent bikes in Key West. or a scooter, great fun.

That rando ride is the day after I run the National half marathon in DC-that I haven't trained for. Might be a good suffer fest to do both.

It's about time! Thanks, Google Maps!

The last time I looked, the dropdown only had a selection for by Car or by Walking--now it has Bicycling:

http://twitpic.com/show/full/17qjxq.jpg

Hey. That is helpful.
I had noticed that most bike/ped paths worked for Googlemaps walking, but the biking feature is real nice.
I, too, would sketch out routes on googlemaps walking, but you run the risk of going down a 1way street the wrong way if you're not careful.
I assume this would not allow that.

Thanks Harry, scooter hmmm didn't think about that.

Nice. Someone told me it was League of American Bicyclist that contributed to the Google bike routes. I'm gonna check out a few of my routes to see how they match up.

Wrong wknd for me for the ride but we'll see.

Got the PM, thanks.

checked it out last night. It did a decent job with my regular commute routes. It did have some issues creating a route from my home to my moms home in the Towson area. Sent me south east to Washington(Wilkens) then onto MLK. I never thought MLK a great biking route through Balto. I drug the line over towards Franklintown and it setup a better route but not "my favorite" route. It did take me onto the Gwynn Falls bike trail for part of the ride which is good.

The city considers the sidewalks along MLK as sidepaths (even though they are not marked as such.) Even if I liked sidepaths with frequent intersections (in violation of AASHTO recommendations) the bricked surface with numerous missing bits is a horrendous surface to ride on. FWIW I sort of like MLK southbound as a "incentive training" route. :p

Anytime I've ridden MLK, I did it from the right traffic lane--usually wasn't very long--long enough to get me to Pratt.

I think I used it at times to get to the zoo. I don't recall it being very stressful, but I've never ridden it around rush-hour.

I recall riding that MLK sidewalk during the Tour Dem Parks or some such, quite bad. But why would anyone want to ride down MLK in the first place? Fumes, crazy traffic, and ugly bits of the city.

The worst thing about MLK is the ending of the right lane numerous times. At times the road has 5 lanes which drops to 2. Lots of pinch points. Barry's point about the city considering the sidewalks to be sidepaths is probably the reason google has it as a path. I think there are many other roads better for bike traffic. I will say it is a fast way to travel via bike or car but I have not ridden a bike on it during rush hour either. I hate driving a car on it during rush hour.