Missed Blogortunity

Melarie Julia and Robert went for a bike ride this morning to try out a new bike stroller that we got for Julia earlier this month. Melarie has been using it often as a jogging stroller but this was our first experiment as a bike stroller.

Unfortunately we forgot to bring a camera or either of our cell phones along to take any pictures (hence the missed blogortunity). Take our word for it though, it was an experience. We started out by heading north to 4 Mile Run Trail (which is actually 7.5 miles long). The plan was to continue north west (uphill) along 4 mile run trail and then take a short loop before returning home. All together the ride was supposed to be 10 miles.


Here you can see our intended path. Since it was supposed to be rather warm today, we wanted to try and finish before the heat set in. We planned on waking up around 7:30 so that we were out the door before 8:00. Julia decided that she needed more sleep this morning so we did not start getting things ready until 8:15 and probably got out of the house around 9:00. In our rush, we forgot both of our phones, the GPS, and a camera.

We did not think much of it as we continued up 4 mile run trail. We took our first break after 5.5 miles as things were going smoothly and Julia was content in her little stroller. It is actually a two person stroller so it is quite spacious for some of her books, sippy cups, and a teddy bear.

After the first break we turned North east on the Curtis Trail. Everything was well marked so the lack of a phone / GPS had not become an issue yet. Julia was still content when we arrived at what we thought was our cuttoff trail that would take us back to 4 mile run trail. It was not marked like all of the other trails had been up to that point so we were not sure. He took the trail a short distance and then the trail turned into a city sidewalk with "Bike Trail" signs. This confused us so we decided to stop, turn around, and continue up the Curtis trail till we found the next junction and hope it was marked.

At this point we probably would have checked our phone or GPS to get a better idea of where we were. Had we done this, we would have discovered that the trail continued just on the opposite side of the road. To get a better idea, all we needed to do was cross the street and ride back down one block of city streets before finding the trail that would take us south, back to 4 mile run trail.


Well we did not do that, we simply continued up curtis trail for a couple miles before deciding that we had definetly missed our cutoff trail. We knew that we could continue on the Curtis trail until it became the Mt Vernon trail and follow a much larger loop all the way back to 4 mile run trail. We decided to do that because we were already so far up curtis trail that it would be about the same distance either way (back track vs. take the full loop). All though it was not our intention at the beginning of the day, nor on our maiden voyage with Dad pulling Julia along, we figured why not.


We continued along a the Potomac River and passed the Reagen airport before finally reconnecting with the 4 mile run trail and returning home. In total the 10 mile trip turned out to be almost 18 miles and took a little longer than we expected but we still got home before it really got hot, so all in all, mission accomplished.

O and by the way, Go Cougars (Picture is from a fellow poster on Cougarboard)