I Got Lost in Springfield

I wish there had been more of these.

Tonight I set out for a good length ride on the Cross Country Trail.  I haven't been too far south of where the CCT crosses the Fairfax County Parkway and Rolling Road.  I quickly reviewed the map before leaving from work to go home so I would have a pretty good idea how to follow the CCT.  Perhaps a big cup of ginko-biloba would have help my memory for when I needed to make a turn.

I needed real riding gear, plus arm warmers and a raincoat for this ride.  It was just over 60 degrees and raining.  It pretty much rained on me the entire 2 1/2 hours of this ride.  I was warm enough and very happy to be pedaling somewhere I've never been.

I did well on the part of the route where I've been before :-).  Then a bad move where the CCT crosses the Fairfax County Parkway.  I was thinking I'd follow the parkway out to Scott Kelly's house, have him cook me up a steak and potatoes, then ride home from there.  It would have helped if I'd gone west on the parkway instead of south.  I believe it takes a PHD to navigate around Springfield.  Has anyone noticed there are like 15 Hooes Roads in Springfield?

I got on Rolling Road which I'm familiar with, or so I thought.  At this point I was completely clueless as to where I was, where I was going, which way was up.  One thing I was sure of is that a Scott Kelly dinner was looking less and less likely.

I found Fullerton Road which I'm familiar with.  Well, at least the Fullerton Road near Allentown PA.  I rode through the industrial park looking for the start of the yellow brick road to guide me home.  No yellow bricks, but there were two ladies outside some warehouse that I rode up to and asked, "Where am I?"   She explained the mystery road I was on was Backlick, AHA!  I've heard of that, now which way will take me to Springfield Mall.  Her final words were "Good Luck".

The ~4 miles North on Backlick was tough riding.  Strong headwind, plenty of cars, and decent rain.  I was pretty happy to finally see something familiar.  From here it was a quick trip further North to where I could re-enter Accotink Park and ride on known trails.

Total soggy distance was ~24 miles, in 2.5 hours.  There were a lot of stop lights, so that's my excuse for a slow ride.  Here's a link showing my unplanned route: My Crazy Route

Posted in: bike