wow, 17/14, where have all the years gone. Nice he likes to cycle. All of my kids ride, 1 is car free bikes to work everyday.

P.G is in the house with ya!!! Southern P.G. county here....

Bet you got some pretty nice trail riding down there

Nice, I grew up down there (in Croom).

Still in 21214

Moco here as well. between rockville and olney.

Ashton here too! hampshire greens to be exact. Been riding thru the neighborhood, mainly going down firestone the u-turning back up firestone (great uphill workout). Sometimes I'll turn on 198 and cruise down to 650, returning back to the development. Bought the burley child seat to lug my son around.

funny you mention catonsville, my wife is from there. But where do yall ride? I wouldnt dare ride on 40..too many crazies driving.

Yesterday I did a few loops where I go down NH to 198, then downhlll to Firestone. Then up Firestone, through Hampshire Greens to Ednor. Then over to Alexander Manor and through that development to Rt. 108 in Ashton, then back down NH to do it one more time.

I call that my Boring Loop - 20 miles or so I can sneak in at lunch or early in the day but I've done it a jillion times over the years!

When my daughter was little, I had a Winchester trailer but Hampshire Greens didn't exist! When she was older, I got one of those third wheel bikes and we'd bike to Cloverly Elementary school in the morning. We had a lot of fun with that trailer on vacation and on some of the local rail trails.

Back then, I wrote a book "Family Bicycling in the Baltimore Washington Area" - many of the routes haven't changed that much but many more choices now.

Boyds, md checking in. Lots of nice riding roads out here, always tons of bikers around the lake. Just bought my first road bike(21lb, Al, sora, no name pos) last November and been having a blast ever since.

Definitely great riding up your way - seems like I mostly get out there when doing Potomac Pedalers winter rides from the Soccerplex or whatever that park is called.

Hey, I just bought your book on amazon! Hopefully i can discover some new old trails around the cloverly/ashton area. I try my best to avoid riding on the main roads but prefer the wide sidewalks like that of 198 between norwood and 650.

its funny you say that, my fav ride is from my front door to the soccerplex passing by the rc flying park and back. its about 20 miles but can always do loops around the soccerplex to add distance.

Not many paved trails of any length in the Ashton/Cloverly area! My book mostly focuses on paved trails around the area that are fun to do with kids but not many very close to Ashton.

In Olney you can tie together neighborhood roads and some trail segments. My wife and her friends park at the Olney Theatre and bike Old Baltimore Road down to the Intercounty Connector Trail behind the Thistlebridge neighborhood and back for I think a 12 mile loop that they extend into Lake Norwood Park for extra miles and some hills.

I used to ride around olney and that general vicinity back when I was younger. This was both on the weekends and as a part of my commute from college park to rockville. I would take the long way home from work and head little north sometimes.

I was in Olde Towne Gaithersburg for over 10 years but really only rode to and from work near Shady Grove Hospital. I'm now in Adamstown/Buckeystown and looking forward to getting back from Central America so I can ride on the C&O and local roads. I just really hope they sort out the White's Ferry situation by next year.

Not sure how long you have been in Central America, but the C&O now has new stones on it. It is really nice riding on it up towards Shepherdstown. Soon will be even further.

Only real downside is it really puts on a lot of dust on the bike and drivetrain now.

You're right - really does get dusty - but boy did it improve the ride! Much more GAP-like - I'll take having to wipe down the bike and chain at the end of the day as the downside...

College Park to Rockville is an impressive bike commute. In the late 80s/early 90s I would occasionally bike commute from home in Ashton to work on Research Blvd. in Rockville - 12 miles. We had showers at work, so I could leave clothes at work and shower when I got there.

Back then, not a pleasant commute - much sharing of roads with car commuters vs. good shoulders, let alone paths. The Intercounty connector was being planned, which promised a contiguous bike path along its length and it would siphon off truck and car traffic from the E/W roads between 95 and 270

The latter happened, but the former promise was abandoned early on to save money in right of way acquisition and width of the bridges - we got some trail segments that are nice for recreational riding but pretty useless for commuting.

My neighbor used to do a similar commute, rockville to college park or something iirc. He worked at centurion in the 80s building bikes. Unfortunately put their house up for sale last week and moved out. Scooped a pretty mint 80s lotus eclair off him for $40.

Wait, Centurion had domestic production?

No, my mistake, it was Proteus. He just had a couple centurion bikes in his garage and I got mixed up. They both sound like constellations....

Well, I was in my 20s in the 90s so it didn't seem like a big deal to me then. It would kill me now. I do envision getting in mileage like that when I retire in a few years although it'll be much slower than back then... We also had showers and I had an office with a door/lock so I would get cleaned up then change in my office (carried tshirt/shorts on the bike).

I had a lot of options on the route that I worked out over time. I could largely avoid heavy traffic except on cherry hill rd and new hampshire ave. There are a lot of neighborhoods that I would use. It was in this period of time that I started writing local reps (for things like keeping or increasing the shoulder on roads like 650).

Now I live a mile from the C&O and a couple miles from the nice roads in Loudoun County and my riding is just recreational. I do miss the satisfaction of bike commuting but I was dumb and moved really, really far from work (work is on 650 north of the beltway).

Yep, I only moved down here last October a week after I finished my C&O ride. Got back, washed down the bike, and boxed it up the next day for the move. I actually like the dusty bike look, though. Makes it look like I actually accomplished something.

The surface around the Brunswick campground could use some nice gravel around it, though. That was a rough patch.

Agree about the shared road into that Brunswick campground - but it is actually lightyears better than it was before the crushed stone was put down on the Towpath around it and I think they did some repairs when the trucks were going in that way to put in the temporary bridge downstream where the culvert collapsed.

Gaithersburg, MD here.

Now that I'm retired I'm riding just about every other day when weather cooperates. I'll ride as much as I can through the winter. Did about 30 miles night before last in the cold on some local paved trails. Need to "alter" the cockpit of my roadbike. I set it up over 20 years ago. Not so comfortable anymore. Need to raise the bars with a stem with more rise. And some bars a bit wider.

If your retired and nearby, be interested in finding riding buddies. I'm about a Potomac peddlers "B/CC" rider.