Getting Around

You may have noticed a new Routes page here on the Bike Washington County site. It will become a repository for road routes that I like. Right now it contains two of mine and one from Jimmy Scharrer, each with a simple map and cuesheet, plus GPX files that you can download for your GPS-enabled cycling computers. I will add more routes over time but not on a regular schedule, so check periodically and feel free to direct me to routes that you have created and think would be good additions, as Jimmy did.

Publishing a collection of routes is something I considered for a long time. My most recent upload, the “Evening Standard” ride, got a mention here way back in April 2011. One of the reasons I’m finally taking on this project is my concern for the safety of the Thursday group rides that are organizing in the Washington County Bicyclists group on Facebook. I’ve seen too many routes that include state and county highways where the riders are sharing the road with high-speed motor vehicle traffic, and too many routes that include long stretches into a setting sun. With the incredible road density we enjoy, there’s simply no reason to create routes that exacerbate those dangers. Thursday group rides start at 6 p.m. early in the season and then shift to 5:30 p.m. as the days get shorter with the approach of autumn. They are designed to use all of the available daylight, so they inevitably contend with sunset. And yet so many of them finish into the sun when they might have finished from the north, south, or west. As my collection of routes grows, it will include options from all directions. By next spring, perhaps I will have published enough routes that the Facebook group can just choose from them instead of generating new routes each week. While I appreciate the efforts of the group’s route creators, it’s common for them to publish their routes so late in the week that there is insufficient time for riders to conduct a review and suggest safer alternatives. A repository from which routes can be chosen to match wind direction and available daylight seems like a better and more sustainable choice.

I won’t publish any route that I wouldn’t ride myself. I consider them safe enough, but no route is 100% safe. (A couple of the worst crashes I’ve ever had were on car-free recreation trails!) Know your own limits, respect the weather, always consider how the position of the sun affects visibility, and use good judgment if you want to try one of these routes for yourself.