Good Craic: a winter ride to DC for a Guinness

However silly they might be, I like to have proper reasons to go on long bike rides. The Good Craic century ride is, at its core, just a bike ride to get a beer. The intended beer is Guinness (“for health”) and the tap is at Fado in Washington, DC.

 

Good Craic is a perfect ride for late fall/early winter. I’m good for a ride to DC any time of the year, but during the cold, dark months, a visit to an Irish bar seems more appropriate than a visit to the mall and the Washington Monument. This ride is further development of Barry Childress’s attempt at new safe bike routes between the two cities. The route is a loop. We use a variation of Barry’s routing to DC- Frederick rd through Ellicott City, southwest skirting Columbia, down Layhill rd and onto the scenic Matthew Henson trail, connecting to Beach ave which, along the north, is lightly trafficked and to the south is closed to cars. It’s a great way to get into the city.

 

After a pint and a fish and chips, we’ll try a new route home than we rode in 2010, heading up the Sligo and Anacostia Northwest branch trails to College Park. From there, we use scenic and dependable Brock Bridge rd up to Jessup, then another variation over to the BWI trail. The last stretch takes us up through Brooklyn and back to our start through southeast Baltimore.

 

I love using bike trails this time of year. They’re not covered with snow yet and they offer many miles of easy car-free riding during harsh weather months.

 

We’ll meet at the south corner of Carroll Park for this ride. Meetup is at 7:15AM and a prompt push off at 7:30AM. We’ve got 9 1/2 hours of sunlight for this ride. What little climbing there is on this ride is in the beginning. Bring strong dependable lights, appropriate adaptable clothing for the season and a lock for our lunch stop. For long winter rides, you’ll want to be extra sure of your bike’s condition and mount your most flat-proof tires.

The hard facts:
Ride Date: Sunday, Dec. 4th
Start Location: Carroll Park, south corner at Washington and Monroe.
Start Time: 7:30AM firm  (meet up at 7:15)
Cue sheet: GoodCraic2011
Map and metrics: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/821840
(for gpx and tcx files click “export” tab along right column)

I hope to get you on this one.       -Bob