MLK Bike Ride

 Since first becoming a bike commuter in 2015 I have frequented the BikeArlington "Coffee Club" groups - cyclists who meet in the morning for coffee on their way to work (or these days, just meet then ride home again, plenty of people no longer commute to an office every day). Since the pandemic I have attended less frequently, as without a commute I can't always motivate myself to get out the door at 6:30 AM. Anyway, on Monday holidays the coffee club gathering starts later, moves from its normal location to Lazy Mikes in Falls Church, and is known as "Monday Pancakes". None of which is quite germane to this story, except to say that SteveO planned an MLK-themed bike ride for the day. The ride would start at Lazy Mike's at the end of Monday Pancakes, but there were other places specified where one could meet up with the group along the route, as follows:

Ride details:
Depart Lazy Mike's: 9:50 am
(intermediate pickup points, estimated times):

• Bluemont caboose - 10:15-10:25
• MVT at Crystal City Connector - 10:45 - 11:00
• etc.

I chose not to go to pancakes - other things to do in the AM, plus I knew I would be eating dinner out and don't like to eat multiple restaurant meals in one day (too much fat, too many calories ...). Instead, I showed up at te Bluemont caboose just ahead of 10:15. A few minutes later another rider pulled up at the caboose. It was Chris R, who can see the bike trail from his house. He said, "they've already gone past here - I saw them go by from my house a few minutes ago." Just then Nadine showed up, also intending to meet the group at the caboose. The three of us spent a couple of minutes grumbling that if someone posts a meeting place and time for a ride, they should honor it - and then we decided we'd follow after them (we knew they were headed for the MLK Memorial). If we caught up with them, fine; if not, the three of us would have a nice ride of our own.

We did indeed catch up with the group down near Crystal City. While SteveO had completely ignored the stop at the Bluemont caboose (grumble, grumble), he did briefly stop at the Crystal City Connector. We caught the group there and continued together to the MLK Memorial.

Me, two Chris's, and Nadine at the MLK Memorial

At the memorial we gave SteveO a hard time about the fact that he had blown off the Bluemont meeting point, which he attempted to make our fault. He said, "well, you know is someone lists a flyby time that you should be there at least five minutes early." But it wasn't listed as a flyby time, it was listed as a ten minute window, and there is no such understanding about needing to be there early (which we were - just not early enough). He also tried to slough off responsibility by saying that he didn't even remember what time he was supposed to be where anyway - again, not really a valid defense for a ride leader. I like SteveO, but I think I lost a little respect for him on Monday.

As expected, the MLK Memorial was crowded on MLK Day. Slowly, members of our group began to drift away. It turns out the plan was to regroup outside the nearby bathrooms, though that hadn't been well communicated across the group of 15-ish cyclists. Thankfully, someone spread the word and we made it over there before the group left.

From there the ride continued over Douglas Bridge into Southeast DC where the plan was to visit a mural of Martin Luther King painted on the side of a convenience store on Martin Luther King Avenue. Except the mural was no longer there. After having been vandalized (who would vandalize an MLK mural?) it had been painted over. SteveO knew this, but he had already planned the route, so we rode there to see a grey wall where once upon a time there had been a mural. We also had another incident along the way where SteveO - the guy who knew the route - was riding near the back of the group so a bunch of people missed a turn. Thank goodness for cell phones. He texted the people and they soon returned.

SteveO talks about the blank wall

As we approached the convenience store we had ridden around two police cars which were blocking off traffic on Martin Luther King Avenue. We didn't think much about this - someone mentioned that there was a parade, but we didn't see any signs of it. At that point we probably should have just have doubled-back the way we came, but SteveO decided to push ahead with his planned route up Martin Luther King Avenue which would eventually take us back over the Anacostia River to the Navy Yard area and a planned lunch stop at BlueJacket Brewing.

Except, as I have already mentioned, we were on a parade route. As we rode we caught up with the parade. First it was a drum line and some twirlers off on a side street. We had to go up on the sidewalk to get around the onlookers, but the full parade-iness of the situation still didn't hit us. Then we started catching up with floats and marching bands. Now, this is a very home-grown kind of parade, so it wouldn't have been completely out of line for a group of cyclists to have been part of the parade, except for the fact that roughly 100% of the parade onlookers and participants were African American, and we were roughly fifteen mostly white people with our fancy bikes and "kit". Apparently, some parade-goers did mistake us for participants and even asked what group we were with. No one seemed to mind that we were there, but we did stick out like something of a sore thumb. 

We pressed on up the parade route, riding past a Coast Guard honor guard and their RHIB boat, some more bands, and other floats. It kept getting harder and harder to make progress as we got deeper into the parade and its crowds. Finally, we gave up and turned right onto Stanton Road, hoping to go a block and continue on a street parallel to MLK Avenue - except Suitland Parkway runs through there and messes up the street grid, so we turned north onto Sheridan Rd. and had to cross the parade route again. We continued on Sheridan Road and made it to Anacostia Park. At that point we could see the Anacostia River Trail but couldn't quite figure out how to get to it. We tried one street, which turned out to be a dead end. We backtracked. We saw a road leading into the park, but it was gated. Someone tried the gate - it was open! - and there were no "keep out" signs, so we went through the gate, gingerly rode past the Park Police headquarters, and - voila! - made it onto the Anacostia River Trail at last. From there it was a quick hop over the river to Navy Yard.

The group (minus a few who had already peeled off) arrives at BlueJacket

Neither Nadine nor I were really interested in hanging out for lunch. She's still not dining indoors at restaurants, and I know the menu is composed of nothing but bar food that's not on my diet, so the two of us took a quick snack break outside then headed for Arlington. Our ride home was pretty uneventful, except for having to stop to take layers off before we made the climb from Rosslyn. It was an unusually warm day for January, and we both knew we'd overheat on the steep hill up from the Potomac into Arlington if we didn't remove some of our layers. Nadine's style is to wear loud, colorful, and generally clashing bike gear, and she had kind of outdone herself that day in level of clothing loudness and clashing; however, she hesitated to take off her bright orange safety vest because she felt that without it her outfit would look too loud. I assured her that nothing was going to make that outfit look any louder (well, I didn't quite phrase it that way).

Back home we went. As a friend said to me during the ride, "SteveO's rides are fun because you always come home with some chaos story to tell." Indeed.

 

First paddle of the year - Duck Season

For the last few years I've bought access to Bull Run Marina, which is a public facility but with essentially members-only access. You pay an annual fee to get the key to the locked entry gate. I go there only in the winter, which makes the annual fee ($65 for a parking pass plus $25 for the key) a little bit of an extravagance, but it's still a lot cheaper than golf or skiing, and it provides me with a very protected place to safely kayak in the winter. Plus, the parking pass is valid at a number of other regional parks, so I generally get my money's worth out of it.

I headed there today, an unseasonably warm (high of 60 degrees!) early January day. I would have kayaked yesterday, New Year's Day, but I had a gig in the evening and didn't want my fingers all tight from having paddled. I expected the place to be empty, but there were quite a few cars there, plus people passing through on the hiking trail which crosses the facility.

I headed up the creek and immediately realized I was out of paddling shape - it took me a little while to find my paddling groove. The water was quiet. Not much wildlife, though there were a lot of kingfishers around, a few of the smarter turtles had figured out that this was a great day for sunning themselves, and I did see one eagle. I was wearing my contact lenses, which leave me with slightly fuzzier distance vision than when I wear glasses (I wear contacts infrequently so my eyes just aren't used to them). At one point I spotted an egret by the shore - bright white and standing motionless as they tend to do. I paddled slowly, taking care not to disturb it (egrets and herons are particularly skittish). It allowed me to approach it and when I finally got close I realized it was actually a white plastic bag hanging from a branch. Like I said, my vision with contacts is less than perfect 😳

Out on the water!

I started hearing gunshots as I was paddling. The creek passes along the boundary of both the Fairfax Rod and Gun Club and the Bull Run Shooting Range and so gun noise isn't unusual - though this was too loud too soon. I realized what was going on when I rounded a corner and saw some hunters in a motorized duck blind (a heavily camouflaged boat) sitting and waiting with their decoys out. I was glad I was wearing my usual garish collection of bright colors - yellow boat, bright orange dry suit, orange PFD, orange paddle. As long as I stand out and look other-than-duck colored I'm pretty safe. I passed a second group of hunters, These guys had cool motorized decoys which would occasionally flap their wings (actually the wings would spin, but with my poorly corrected vision the effect was pretty good). I presume birds fall for it too.

At one point I pulled over to the shore to check something and in the distance I saw a deer bound by. I swear, it was an albino deer - or at least a very very light-colored one. It looked like some sort of magical creature - a Harry Potter animagus animal, or something. It went by so fast I wasn't sure what I saw - maybe it was just the white tail that looked so white - but I it looked to me like a magical white deer. I swear, wearing contact lenses is the best - I can imagine I saw all sort of things 

Not far past the abandoned car which marks the turnaround for a five mile paddle (how did that thing wind up in the woods?) I spotted something I had never noticed before - a dirt road leading down to the water. On a low bluff above the spot there was a level site with a picnic table and a fire ring. It looked to be a campsite with water access. I got out and looked around. I was getting excited about having discovered this little campsite, but after looking on the map I'm pretty sure it's private - on the property of the Rod & Gun Club property. Bummer. Since I was already ashore I took a break and ate one of the last of Valerie's Christmas cookies before relaunching and heading back. Here's the location of the road/campsite.

The mystery boat launch/campsite

Cherry Pecan cookies

On my way back the duck hunters were all gone, but I did spot a single decoy which had been left behind (I should have grabbed it as a souvenier!) and I ran into one guy still loading his camo boat onto its trailer back at the marina. In general, Elmer Fudd's progeny aren't particularly friendly to kayakers, but this guy was very personable. He even helped me load my kayak onto my car. He said the hunters leave at about that time of day because the ducks stop coming by then.

Not a real goose

My total paddling mileage was five and change miles - thought it felt like much more. I think I need to start doing some paddling-focused workouts.