Route 3: Ridge Road and Beyond

We rode Route 3 on Sunday, October 15th, as planned. The entire route took little less than an hour (maybe even more like half an hour), and was about 5.35 miles long. It took us down Ridge Road, which has a nice wide striped shoulder/bike lane for most of it, and then on into the neighborhoods north of the Quail Ridge Shopping Center.

We started our ride at the intersection of Ridge Road and Leonard Street, where we all posed for the camera:














Not shortly thereafter, we encountered this:



















Cars ARE allowed to park in the bike lane/shoulder/whatever it is on the weekends, but you can imagine what it must be like if it were a weekday.

Overall, the ride took us through some beautiful neighborhoods, and was quite pleasant. There was some debris in the bike lane/shoulder on Ridge Road, and also some bumps in the road where the asphalt was heaving that were pretty jarring to ride over. Nothing too dangerous, just surprising. The ride along Banbury Road next to the linear park was particularly pleasant, especially because it was shaded and had some greenery, although there might have been some better signage to indicate which bike route we were on if we didn't have a handy map.

At the end of the ride, some of us headed to Whole Foods for some healthy refreshments. Compared to Bike Route 2, this ride was a piece of cake!