Exploring the Trails Around Our Nation's Capitol
by John Wente

Last week (July 8-12, 2002), my job required me to travel to the Washington, D.C. area. A couple weeks prior to the trip, I was given a map of the area in which I would be staying showing the location of hotels in the area in relation to the office where I would be working. Upon close examination of this map, I noticed some dotted lines which were labeled "bike trail". I did some research on the Internet and found that I would be staying only a few blocks from three of the D.C. area's major multi-use trails: the Capitol Crescent Trail, the Mt. Vernon Trail and the C & O Canal Towpath Trail.

I began to think about ways I might take advantage of these trails during my visit. I knew the airlines do all they can to discourage taking a bike on a plane by charging from $50 to $70 EACH WAY to transport a bike. This is totally ridiculous since they don't charge a cent extra for golf clubs, snow skis, tennis racquets, etc., but it's their policy and they aren't very flexible on it. I did some more checking on-line and found there were bike shops not too far from my hotel that had bikes for rent. The going rate seemed to be $15 for three hours. I figured that wouldn't be too bad, but then it occurred to me that my friend Jim Foreman has a nice folding bike. I immediately e-mailed Jim and asked if he'd be willing to loan me his bike for a week. He agreed to let me use it, so I was all set. The airlines checked the bike in its ballistic nylon bag without even questioning what was inside (although I'm sure they could have guessed).

I found the Capitol Crescent trail with no problem. All I had to do was cross Key Bridge over the Potamac (on the pedestrian walkway), go down through a little park, cross over the C & O Canal on a foot bridge and then down a flight of stairs to street level and there it was. (Fortunatley, I had found these instructions on the Internet.) The Capitol Crescent trail is paved, about 7-8 feet wide and marked with a center line, much like the Lake Hefner Trail here in OKC. It follows along the C & O Canal for a distance, then curves around and ends up in Georgetown. Much of the trail is through heavily wooded areas, so there is a lot of shade. After about 6:00 P.M., this trail gets a lot of heavy use from cyclists, runners, walkers and roller-bladers, but they are all accustomed to sharing the trail and the somewhat crowded conditions, so everyone seems to be satisfied.

The Capitol Crescent hooks up with the Rock Creek trail which follows the banks of Rock Creek, a major tributary of the Potomac, all the way to Silver Spring, MD, some 30 miles from D.C. I didn't have time to explore Rock Creek.

Since Jim's little folder has fairly wide tires, I also rode a few miles on the C & O Canal Towpath Trail. This trail is not paved. The surface is fine crushed rock; not as smooth or tightly packed as Missouri's Katy Trail. The C & O Canal is a National Historic Park which runs all the way to Cumberland, MD (185 miles). The trail was once the towpath on which mules pulled the barges up and down the canal. The C & O, not being paved, is not nearly as busy as the Capitol Crescent.

The Mt. Vernon Trail, another nicely paved trail, follows the Potomac downstream on the opposite side from the Capitol Crescent Trail, so I didn't even have to cross Key Bridge to get to it. This trail, as it's name implies, goes all the way to Mt. Vernon, VA, George Washington's private home and plantation. I only rode this trail as far as the Fourteenth Street Bridge where I crossed over the Potomac into the Capitol Mall area. I had visited the Capitol Mall area twice before and both times lamented the fact that I didn't have a bike. This is the ONLY way to get around Capitol Mall! The distances are misleading because of the grand scale of things. It's all of a mile from the Capitol building to the Washington Monument, then another mile from there to the Lincoln Memorial. And it must also be a mile from the Washington Monument over to the Jefferson Memorial. That adds up to a LOT of walking if one is afoot. I guess the main problem with the bike would be securing it if one was going up into the Washington Monument or visiting any of the many museums along the Mall. I didn't have time for any of those things, so that was not a problem for me.