June 1, 2022
All our wisdom is stored in the trees
Washington DC bike day
After yesterday's challenging day, I was surprised that other than a bit of fatigue, I felt good enough to go out on another ride. Even Don was up for a spin on the tandem, so he put together a loop that would take us to the National Arboretum on a different trail and a few roads.
We managed to get our butts in gear and were out the door a little after 8 as it was still going to be another hot one.
The first part of the ride was along the now familiar trails until we got to the soldier statue near Blandesburg Park. At this point, we turned onto a busy 4-6 lane highway that was most unpleasant. There were side roads but Don hadn't been able to locate any that went through to the arboretum.
Most of the time he kept us on the road, but sometimes we had to retreat to the sidewalk. Especially when we slowed down going up the hills. There were lots of lights to contend with along with plenty of vehicles. At least no one honked at us and most people pulled way around us when passing.
We had to be on this road for a couple of miles and both of us breathed a sigh of relief when we could finally turn off onto side streets. Those took us to one entrance into the arboretum where we finally relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings on mostly traffic-free roads.
We looped around the grounds, stopping now and then. It was a hilly part of town, and we did go up one that made us huff and puff. I was especially irritated when I found out that that loop just brought us back to where we started so there would have been no need to climb the hill! Sheesh!
There are a number of different gardens located here and we didn't see all of them. One of the more interesting ones was the Grove of State Trees. There are 50 state trees growing here and we spotted a few of them but didn't come across Colorado's which is a Blue Spruce.
The Capitol Columns was one of the sites I particularly wanted to see. These are 22 of the 24 columns that were originally placed at the East Portico of the US Capitol building in 1828. Quarried from Virginia sandstone, they were installed before the dome was completed. The remaining 2 columns are broken and can be found in other gardens in the arboretum.
Once the iron dome was finally installed, it appeared as if it was not adequately supported by the columns. That was because the dome that was ultimately built was larger than the one designer had envisioned.
In 1958, an addition was added to the east side of the capitol in an effort to correct the visual illusion. But the columns ended up being removed and placed in storage until the 1980's when they were moved to the arborteum. It would be interesting to know where they found the space to store these huge pieces!
We made one other stop at the bonsai garden which was also quite interesting. One tree had a sign that said it had been started in 1895!
Since we wanted to get back by noonish, we didn't linger any further in the gardens and retraced our steps back to the busy highway. It was easier going downhill to the river but we were both glad when we could get back on the quiet trail.
We stayed next to the river for a short way until we reached another trail called the NW Branch Trail. We'd been on the NE Branch Trail. (see what I mean about confusion?!).
Anyway, it was clearly signed and had red lines painted down the middle. So far, we've been on blue, orange and yellow painted trails. Really, the lines make it easy to know if you're on the correct trail.
We enjoyed this trail as it wound through the cool woods along a narrow creek. Not as many users were on it and we even saw a deer run across the trail in front of us.
After a few miles we came to the University of Maryland where we encountered a sign saying the trail was closed. Fortunately they had provided a detour which we were able to follow, except for one spot in the campus where there wasn't a sign indicating where we needed to go. A student was walking past and he was able to point us in the correct direction.
A short while later we got back onto the trail which we followed until we reached Highway 193/University which was our last busy road of the day. At least this one had a bike lane/shoulder to keep us out of traffic. That took us to our turnoff near a golf course next to the Paint Branch Trail which we rode back to the campground.
I was quite happy that we hadn't got lost this time - guess "third times the charm"! And we had finished a little after noon so we beat some of the heat.
The rest of the day was so hot that we just stayed inside the cool trailer. Even by 9 pm, it was still in the 80's! At least the weather gurus are saying that a storm is moving through tomorrow, bringing cooler temps for next week.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Today's ride: 26 miles (42 km)
Total: 626 miles (1,007 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 1 |
2 years ago