Ride In 3/8

A beautiful Tuesday morning meant that I should take longer to get into work, more by going a less direct way than usual rather than going slower than usual. It's still early in the week and I was still feeling adequately peppy (I'm gonna ride this pep horse until it dies, which I think it already has) to take on, once more, the Wisconsin Avenue Challenge. My previous bout started at M street and went up from there. Today I decided that I would start down on K street at the base on the hill and go all the way to Van Ness. It's something like, and I'm just guessing, a 13.8 km climb at a 7.9% grade with 21 hairpins. Or something close.  This is the first time I've taken the Cross Check this way and I figured that it'd be nice to compare the ride from the time I did it on the Trek. Of course, I have no real memory of that ride or how it felt so any real attempt at comparison is futile. Damn goldfish memory.
I rode the Custis down to the Mount Vernon and then over the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. Does no one bike to Foggy Bottom? Is is that you have to ride maybe 1/4 of a mile down the Mount Vernon and people would rather ride down M street? The Key Bridge is a bike highway by comparison. Is it that it's too narrow? Is it that you can only ride on one side of the bridge? (there's no way go follow route 50 onto the other side of the bridge- just for cars there. Thanks, NPS!) Here's a map (of sorts):

Limited access for bicycles from Arlington.

Anyway, after going over the bridge, I went past the Kennedy Center and then down Virginia Avenue to the weirdly blocked off intersection with the Rock Creek Parkway/Monodirectional During Rush Hour Winding Highway Through the Woods in the Middle of the City. Before I could even get there, I had to negotiate the turning traffic from 27th St that was either trying to get off a K street or on to K street or off of 66 or on to 66. I'm not totally sure. I biked down the wrong side of the street (because I'm badass?) up to where the motorcycle cop was adjusting the barriers they use to block cars from driving into the Monodirectional During Rush Hour Winding Highway Through the Woods in the Middle of the City. I crossed over and then followed the path to K street under the Whitehurst. THIS DESPERATELY NEEDS SOME BIKE INFRASTRUCTURE! Especially considering that this is where the CCT let's people out. I don't know if bicyclists are expected to get on the Canal Towpath rather than ride in the streets, but geez. Some bike lanes would go a long way here. Someone driving a car with the license plate CHOMPR (fierce, I know) decided that my being in the cross walk was hardly enough reason to stop. When I passed them after they were stopped behind a row of 5 cars waiting at a stop sign I wonder if they noticed. So anyway, I eschewed the CCT in favor of the Wisconsin Avenue Challenge (not a real thing/pending trademark) and made my way up through the Cupcake/Day Spa District, which I think used to be called Georgetown. I proceeded through Twee Restaurant-ville, which is also known as Glover Park  and then past Big Church-istan, which isn't called that at all, but what is there to say about Cathedral Heights really? McLean Gardens had some weird snooty banner out front  that's subtext essentially was "You don't live here because you're not snooty enough." The whole area north of Massachusetts on Wisconsin seems ripe for redevelopment (um, the Giant), but what do I know? It was nice to mix it up a little and while Wisconsin can get a little hairy at times (especially with trucks unloading their precious cargoes of mid-century modern furniture and Wingo's wings), it's not bad if you don't mind riding up hill.