Capital Crescent Trail

There are so many bike trails in and around DC. Every time I think I know all of them, I learn about another one. On Sunday, we went down to DC to ride the Capital Crescent Trail with Zach and Sarah. Adding in the Rock Creek Parkway makes this a 20 mile loop with a variety of terrain.

From what I can tell, the Capital Crescent Trail is still in the process of being developed. Like the W&OD, it's a converted railway line. There actually seems to be a sizable initiative to transform rail lines into biking/hiking trails around the area, which is pretty neat. This one starts in Silver Spring and runs in an arch to Georgetown, along the proposed purple line route. Not that the purple line will exist in my lifetime, but it's a cool bit of forward thinking to tie these together like the orange line is for the end (beginning?) of the W&OD trail.

The trail itself is more dirt than asphalt.This made for a harder ride, though it wasn't as bad as the Accotink Trail. The Rock Creek Parkway was bumpy enough that I lost my water bottle at one point, but the Crescent Creek trail was packed pretty well. It was more difficult than I'm used to, and I was definitely bringing up the rear of the group for most of the ride. Probably because I haven't actually been on my bike for a few weeks. Stupid summer sapping my energy and motivation (we've reached the part of the year where I come home from work and basically collapse on the couch).

Through Georgetown (maybe? I didn't have the clearest idea of where we were for most of the ride), the trail got very crowded. I got stuck behind a child who was wobbling all over the place on his bike because I couldn't figure out how to safely pass him. Once the crowd cleared up a bit, Kevin asked the kid's dad to let us by, and we were able to pick our speed back up, but it was frustrating for a while.

All in all, it wasn't my favorite trail ever. It's narrower and bumpier than the W&OD, which isn't really fair since it's still under construction and the W&OD is one of the best maintained trails out there. But I can see it getting easier with more rides. Who knows, it may even be the step I need to work up to the Accotink Trail (although something closer to a mountain bike will probably help more there).