entering the washington, d.c. area on a road bike tour
 

i am currently involved in a mid-atlantic bicycle tour on my felt f-65 road bike. i will be entering the D.C. area via the harpers ferry area, with georgetown as my destination. any suggestions on the road-less-traveled-by-autos?
p.s. the c&o canal path will not be feasible on my 700x23 tires.

You're probably right about the C&O. 23's not suited.
I don't have all my maps with me, but I can give you some direction.

This site has good info on routes around DC http://bikewashington.org/

If you can get to Brunswick (try Sandy Hook and Keep Tryst Roads, but you may have to take the C&O for a bit) I think you can cross the Potomac on the bridge there.
Once in Virginia, 287 goes to Lovettsville, but it's busy.
Better might be R on Tollhouse Rd, about a half mile from bridge.
L on Ducthman's Creek Rd at T
L on Irish Corner Rd at T
Continue straight through Lovettsville. Turns into Broad Way in town, and turns into Milltown Rd on the other side
Go several miles on Milltown. Rolling, but more down hill than up.
L on Wheatland Rd at T and into Waterford.
R on Clarks Gap Rd. (I think it's called High St in town)
About 3 miles and R at the T (at TL) at route 9. Watch for traffic.
First L on Simpson Circle.
The W&OD trail crosses after a short distance.
Go L on the trail headed south and east. This is around milepost 39
Through Leesburg, Sterling, Herndon, Reston, Vienna, Falls Church, into Arlington
If you want DC, go to milepost 4 and take the L trail to the Custis Trail. Should be a sign. Small covered shelter there.
Makes another L under I-66 after about a hundred yards.
Stay on Custis Trail to Rosslyn. Watch the signs, couple of places to get lost.
At the end of the trail you can cross into Georgetown on the Key Bridge or continue straight and down the ramp to the Mount Vernon Trail, then cross at the Memorial Bridge or go south to Alexandria.

That's the best way I can think of that I'm mostly familar with. Not too hilly and not too busy.

Roads to avoid on Virginia - Harper's Ferry Rd / 671 and Route 9. Both are suicide for bikes.

You can also take the Whites Ferry to cross the Potomac to get to the WOD trail. Something different.
Here's a link with some caution info:
http://bikewashington.org/routes/wodco/wodco.htm

Actually I was going to recommend route 9 and a couple small roads you can find from doing a maquest search. It's not too far from Harper's Ferry to Purcellville. I don't think it's all that adangerous and several of the organized rides use that route for weekends. There you can catch the W&OD trail, which is a paved former railroad bed that is smooth and wide and goes 55 miles. Yoi connecet qwith the Custis trail as someone mentioned and you are soon in DC with having to deal with very little traffic. Being a former rail line the hills are very gradual.

White's Ferry is a nice crossing, but I don't know how you'd get to it without taking the C&O for 30 miles. Except for route 28, many of those roads seem to go east, not south.


I bike and drive that part of Loudon County often. IMO route 9 is not bikeable.

Route 9 looks good on a map, and parts of it look bikeable in West Virginia. But route 9 is the main highway through that part of Loudon County. Approaching the WV/VA border and in Virginia, route 9 is one lane each way, with narrow lanes, no shoulder, ditches and walls, very fast and very heavy traffic. If you try to take the lane, you'll have 10 miles with a long line of 50 mph traffic trying to squeeze by, with no margin of safey and no bail-out zone. Plus there is the BIG climb over the mountain at the border.
I don't know which clubs ride route 9, but PPTC rides try to avoid it if at all possible. Where you have to cross it, you might have to wait several minutes for a gap in traffic. (Next weekend I'm riding many of these roads, around Waterford, Lovettsville, Purcelville, and the two little bits I have to go on route 9 are the only parts that I have to worry about. A quarter mile of nasty on a 44 mile loop.)

If you value you life, stay off of route 9.

Route 617 / Harpers Ferry Rd is not as bad as route 9, but it is still narrow and traffic is fast and heavy. And it dumps you onto route 9 several miles from safety.

If you want a fairly traffic free, not too hilly ride on quiet country roads and through some quaint old towns, my que should do it for you. I can vouch for all of it but the bit from Brunswick to Lovettsville. It's a very nice ride.

(added - If you end up taking route 9, and you survive to Hillsboro, there is a back road route that takes you away from the traffic. Involves going north on Mountain Rd, picking up Irish Corner to Lovettsville, and following my que the rest of the way. Might as well save 15 miles of traffic and 10 miles of backtracking and go through Brunswick to begin with.)

How's River Rd. in Maryland these days? There used to be some nice routes out to Poolesville, Point of Rocks, and out to Harper's Ferry. Don't know how much development there's been over the years. From River Rd. you could take Persimmon Tree to MacArthur Blvd. all the way in to Georgetown.

Unfortunately there has been a lot a developement in upper Montgomery County and lower Frederck county in the past few years. Clarksburg is almost a city now. Poolesville is sprawling. And because Montgomery county refuses to add any big road projects in the western county (fear of encouraging more development), Darnstown Rd and River Rd and the other small country roads are taking all of the load. The area's bikeable, but it not as pleasant as it used to be. Central and eastern county are somewhat better.

That's a shame. I rember lots of great rides out in that area. Dickerson, Poolesville, Barnesville, Sugarloaf Mtn., Burkittsville, Antietam, etc. It's been a few years though

There is still good biking in that area, around Sugarloaf, Barnesville. Antietam is still great. But if you are touring thru north to south instead of meandering east and west, I don't know of any good way that isn't thick with traffic.