Riding in Greenbelt?

[bigbadbrad]

Anybody familiar with the above? Long time ago, I used to ride in what I think were called "the Greenbelt woods". This was accessed via pedestrian bridge from the E. side of the BW Pkwy. (some apts., just N. of Greenbelt Rd.) After crossing the BW, made an imm. right into the woods, and trail system ran from there north, along the west side of the BW, between it & "old Greenbelt".

Is this still copacetic/open to bikes? I seem to remember more recently seeing a bummer of a sign about "no bikes in woods".

Alternately, are there any dirt trails in that big Greenbelt Agricultural Area or whatever it's called? I think I've heard the President rides out there occasionally.

Please advise.
Thanks,
--Brad

[cloughja]

From what I've heard, those trails are still closed to bikes, but I don't have any first-hand experience there. The agricultural area is great for road rides, and I have seen a couple fireroads snaking off, but they all have big "No trespassing" signs posted. I thought about the same thing when I read that Bush rides there, but do you really want to be barreling down on the President in the woods? I've also heard that the Secret Service has some training grounds around there, so I'm guessing that's where he rides. Either way, I don't think it's a civilian-friendly area.

If you do find someplace to ride around there, I'd love to know... I hate having to drive 30 minutes to ride my bike. Seems pretty backwards to me.

-Josh

[dan_hudson]

Short answer is "no legal dirt in/around Greenbelt."

Slightly longer answer...

Northway: The trails "BigBadBrad" mentioned originally are on Greenbelt City land behind the Northway ballfields. These were closed to bikes in the early 90's, with City gov't citing the usual "kick MTBs out" reasons - erode trails, attract outsiders, not friendly to other users, etc. Real reason (IMHO) is a few dedicated locals didn't like sharing the woods and put in the time to convince the elected officials to kick bikes out. The city was also made uptight by the increasing number of UofM students who rode over to Greenbelt to use the trails. A few folks still poach it, mainly neighborhood kids who don't see that signs apply to them - ah... great to be a kid!

Greenbelt Park: It's a NPS-unit and, as such, has all the associated access issues. There is a dandy 10k-ish perimeter trail open to hikers & horses that would be very fun to ride. Perhaps someday if the IMBA/NPS agreement yields fruit. FWIW, don't even think about poaching it - the NPS folks take this pretty seriously if they nab you.

BARC (aka The Farm): Great road riding but no trails to speak of really. And as stated by another, the Dept of Ag strongly discourages folks from leaving the roads in The Farm. It is an experimental center after all. Who knows what's been sprayed in the woods & fields?

Pres Bush Riding Area: Pres Bush doesn't ride in The Farm, but in the Secret Service training facility just off Powder Mill Rd where it intersects BW Pkwy. No public access of any kind.


General Greenbelt trails comments... No MTB access in this part of the world really is sad, especially seeing how good of an area it is to be a road cyclist. The most likely candidate are the Northway Trails managed by Greenbelt City. Be great if a G'belt resident approached the appropriate officials to try to get it reopened - they don't care too much what Beltsville, College Park, etc residents want! And please don't poach any of this - then we'll never make it legal.

Final comment - closest legal riding to G'belt is Fairland. Not easy to bike to with all the Interstate crossings involved but a short drive, maybe 10-ish min by car? Austin really has done an amazing job transforming the place. If you haven't been in a couple of years, you won't recognize the place - highly recommend for north PG locals.

[drevil]

College Park/Greenbelt/UofM folks, come out of hiding! (Brad, Cloughja, rpiontek, etc.)

I work at UM and live in Berwyn Heights (up the road from Lake Artemesia). I ride down at Wakefield about 3 times a week and wouldn't mind carpooling and sharing gas. Also, now that it's getting darker later, I'd like to hit Schaeffer more often. It's much, much faster if I could hit the HOV-2 lane. I'm going to start going north to Avalon as well.

I get off about 4:30-5 every day, so if you have a similar schedule and want to start taking turns carpooling to different places after work, hit me up so we can coordinate things: rdeleyos AT glue DOT umd D0T edu.