Asphalt adventure with a touch of mud

What a turn of events, fun but different from the original plan.

The original plan was for Moe and I to drive out to Schaeffer Farms in Germantown, Maryland. But that required having a vehicle, which we realized that morning we did not have access to. So, we decided to bike from my house (near Seven Corners in Arlington) out to the Centerville Power Lines mountain bike trail and eventually to Moe’s house in Manassas.

When we started, there was a light rain, almost a drizzle. It was in the 50s, so we had to wear extra clothing. And turn around for something else. And something else. After the third take, we were actually past the end of the first block from my house! Things didn’t seem all too great for a bike ride along Route 50 (technically US 50) to get to Fairfax Circle. We took as many of the service roads as possible, even taking time to go on a few rocky piles and construction areas along the way.

We stopped to take pictures along the way, especially getting through the area around the Beltway. Merging across lanes can get pretty dicey! As we got farther west, the storm system in the area was letting up, and so the weather improved drastically. After getting through Merrifield, the sun was out and the weather was up to the 60s.

Upon entering Fairfax Circle, we stopped for lunch ($5 for a footlong sub? We’re in!) and randomly ran into Moe’s dad who was there at the exact same time as us. Getting a quick bit of food in our stomachs, we set off again, this time onto Lee Highway (US 29). We took the highway all the way to Centreville Road (Route 28), then after I inadvertently played chicken with oncoming traffic, we took that to the beginning of the Centerville Power Lines.

I had my map of the trail, but no map could even find the path very well. The trail we came to was overgrown, hard to see in some areas (the trail was nowhere to be found in more than just a few places), and generally full of neglect. It was also weird that we were completely surrounded by neighborhoods and felt like maybe we were trespassing. We pushed on, determined to make the trail as fun as possible.

In a few areas there were water crossings, all of which were much deeper than at first glance. A couple of mud puddles were fun to splash through, and the trail split to the left at one point around a substation. But it was really hard to find the trail in some places. Luckily with the name, it was easy to follow the power lines. Unluckily, it was hard to find the exact trail we were supposed to be on, with many instances of us having to get off our bikes and walk through tall grass. My left knee started acting up again, causing great pain at certain parts, but I didn’t want to stop. Also, passing through a split tree almost ended the ride since I managed to bend my back derailleur almost to the point of breaking. I bent it back and it proved no problem for the rest of the ride, luckily.

Eventually the trail came up to Braddock Road and we were supposed to follow the road for a portion of the trail from one set of power lines to another. Not much as far as challenge goes, since asphalt is probably the flattest thing you could be biking on at any time! Needless to say, we anxiously awaited the power lines again, each of us almost running into a tree because we weren’t really paying attention to our surroundings.

Reaching the power lines again, the mountain biking began again. Since many had gone off-roading in their vehicles and the trail generally in bad maintenance, some of the slopes were much more difficult. That was actually a good thing, inserting some challenge into a rather hum-drum trail. Near the end, we came across a stream, about 20 feet across, shallow enough to entice us to try and ford the river. We each tried to get across, but if any of you have ever played Oregon Trail, fording rivers is impossible! We both made it almost to the other end until our momentum was just shot and we had to take a dip in the shin-high water. Did wash off some of that mud, though!

After getting back to the trailhead (if you can really call it that, it’s more like the power line tower next to Centerville Road), we set off to Moe’s. We were both getting really tired, and the rush hour traffic notorious on Centerville Road got dangerous when our sidewalk ended and we were forced to go along the roadway. Also having made plans for later that evening, we determined that we were never going to make it on time and had to stop about 4.2 miles from Moe’s house, getting a ride from his dad.

All in all, together we had done 20.5 miles of biking on the roadway, and about 7 miles biking on the trail. Moe himself had biked to my house before we began, so he ended up with an additional 8 miles for a total of 28.5 road miles. We had taken advantage of the many muddy areas, so we were pretty well covered.

My last thoughts on Centerville Power Lines: it’s easier to appreciate good, well-maintained trails when you try riding on a badly maintained trail like this one.