DC->RVA
DC to Richmond, according to adventurecycling’s Atlantic Coastal Route maps is on about 200 miles. There was some debate that if we had stayed with a friend in Alexandria — about fifteen miles closer to RVA than where we were staying with the good man Max Gigle — that we could have made it a two day trip , stopping only in Fredericksburg along the way.
We encountered our first bit of weather on our way out of DC and opted instead to cut the distance to Fredericksburg in half and wait out the rain. Naturally, I forgot my toiletries at Max’s and he saved the day as we were afforded the opportunity to catch up with a friend in Alexandria — over a “burrito mojado” which was roughly the size of an average new born child.
Having opted to take the half day plus the toiletry snafu, we were racing the sun in earnest, especially as we encountered a handful of bike lane closures and detours around some northern Virginia suburbs. We arrived at the gorgeous Prince William Forest park in Dumfries just after sundown.
On Sunday, we took our shortest day yet, riding forty miles from the park due south through more idyllic rolling hills to our second warm showers host of the trip in South Fredericksburg. Bruce Michael White had been highly recommended on the warm showers community and was no doubt one of the most impressive men I’ve ever met, with an equally lovely family. The man has likely well on a third of a million miles of cycling under his belt and he and his wife and two sons have shaped the community around their love for cycling and adventure sports. BMW is the head of a boyscout troop who has an above average retention rate, because, he believes, the kids are encouraged to engage via enticing activities like cycling. They do weeklong tours yearly throughout the Northeast and have already taken a troop of scouts on a San Francisco->Fredericksburg cross country tour. Suffice to say, it was fascinating to hear their stories and we are deeply grateful for their hospitality — they managed to host us even amongst a full day that included an early morning century ride.
Our third day of travel, Fredericksburg to Richmond, we took Bruce’s advice, perhaps defying otherwise conventional wisdom and biked forty plus miles along route one. For most of the trip it was perfectly fine and saved us probably an hour of travel on a 90° day, minutes we were happy to have been spared. We ditched route one about ten miles from Richmond after experiencing some verbal abuse from aggressive motorists as the route got busier near Ashland. Remember folks, cyclists aren’t always right, but they are always fragile.
As we approached the Richmond city limits, we enjoyed some great cycling infrastructure — evidently recently completed to accommodate an international bike race hosted recently in Richmond — alongside some stunning revolutionary-era homes. Richmond is a city rich with history occupying an important place both as crucial during the American Revolution and as the seat of the confederacy during the civil war.
We cruised along a bike trail and then up some staggering hills, arriving at the good man James Kohler’s house, greeted by his lovely fiancée Audie.
We had a beautiful dinner at the Roosevelt and recounted our first, foolhardy leg of the journey, having arrived, essentially, at the start of the Transamerica trail. So it begins.
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First leg rough statistics — these are based almost exclusively on Google fit stats. I have forgone the use of Strava and it’s accuracy so as to reduce phone-stress. Fit stats in my estimation have been historically somewhere in the neighborhood of 8% wrong, but this should offer some idea of what we’ve accomplished. The numbers listed reflect only active days. We left NYC April fifteen and arrived RVA on the 25th with days off in Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Richmond, VA. Going forward, our average daily place should decrease, but we will likely space out our days off. For those keeping score at home, we are about three days behind the initial rough itinerary, but there is opportunity, Lord willing, to make those three days up over the course of the next few weeks.
Total active bike time: 57 hrs & 26 minutes
Total miles: 541.2* mi number from Google fit has historically been 8% low (+8% = 584.496)
Total Days Travel: 9
Average Miles/day: 60.13 (65.6)
Average speed: 9.43 mph (10.18)
Average calories burned: 3,355* (rough average generated by Google fit. Does not factor in weight of bikes. Does include average resting metabolic rate.)
