It was a beautiful spring Sunday in Washington, D.C. so I decided to pull my bike off the rack and go for a scenic bike ride. Bike trails in the D.C. area can be pretty congested on the weekends so I needed to go somewhere where it might be less crowded. I drove to Theodore Roosevelt Island just across the river from the Kennedy Center to look for a free place to park to start my ride. I was not the only one with this idea and there was a line of cars waiting for parking. I got lucky a few minutes after I arrived because a woman got into her car to leave right where I was waiting in line.
From the Teddy Roosevelt parking lot, I rode my bike upriver a short way to get to the Key Bridge, which would take me across the river to the C&O Canal where it starts in the Georgetown neighborhood of D.C.
I stopped on the bridge for this shot down river looking at the Washington Monument and the Kennedy Center. It was a great cloud day for photography.
After you cross the bridge, take the path on the right to get to the Canal path. This shot is looking into Georgetown from a footbridge that crosses over the canal.
You can ride the paved Capital Crescent trail for a few miles as it runs parallel to the canal path. The canal path is dirt and fine gravel so which you choose depends on what kind of bike you have. My Cannondale gravel bike does really well on uneven and loose surfaces, and the gravel path is less crowded, so I stayed off the paved path except for a short stretch where I wanted to get a picture of the river. There was a lot of activity on the river with power boaters, kayakers, stand up paddle boarders, and even some small sailboats.
Back on the canal path, it was hard not to stop occasionally and take photos of the wildflowers and scenery along the trail.
Every mile or two up the canal, there were locks, structures that lower a canal barge to a lower water level as the elevation drops closer and closer to sea level. With each lock, there was a lock keepers house, since someone had to operate the gates on the locks to lower the barges. They aren’t used now except by National Park rangers, but they were very photogenic.
The Potomac river was still high and got closer to the trail for a mile or two at the farthest point out.
I rode until I got to lock house 8 before turning around and heading back.
Couldn’t help but stop and take more pictures of the flowers and lock houses on the way back.
As I approached Georgetown on the way back, the curved arches of this bridge made an interesting frame for this view of the canal.
The ride ended up being a little over sixteen miles. That’s not a long ride by many standards, but it was such a beautiful Sunday ride with great scenery, I came home refreshed and ready for the week ahead.
I hope you had a great Sunday as well.
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