Here's one of my favorite rides, we start in Santa Monica but stay on surface streets to Palos Verdes.

http://www.markreden.com/Cycling/Go-Pro-Videos/Go-Pro-Cycling-Videos/i-gPLW6Sg

You may have a point ... but I would rather deal with crowds and dogs and lots of beautiful people than the crazy drivers on surface streets in the area.
There are zillions of visitors who don't know where they are, where they are going or how to get there.
They do left turns from the right lane, stop in the middle of the street and are so busy looking at the GPS they dont see bike riders at all.
I'll take my chances with bikini clad women and volleyball chucking guys any time!

room for lots of different styles and opinions.

And to switch. I wouldn't dream of dissing anyone else's style.

Everything is so new to them, they end of seeing everything. On the other hand, it is drivers who do the route every day that you have to worry about. Every driver makes assumptions based on past experience, they then drive the routes they have driven on frequently based on those assumptions. This nature of man is best summed up in the old comment "Familiarity breeds Contempt". You go through a dangerous section of road every day for months, you learn why it is dangerous and come to think you can handle it. Throw something new into the mix, such a person falls back on his experience (Or training if you think that is a better word for what he or she had been doing for months before) and ends up ignoring the new thing, or treating it like he or she had treated other things in the past i.e. treat a cyclists like a truck for both go slow.

For the above reason, the greater danger is someone who frequents a road you are on, not someone new to the road. I give you a personal example. In my area of Western Pennsylvania I have to be careful on old country roads. The locals are use to little or no traffic on such roads, they end up driving in the middle of the road (and cutting to the ends of the roads at turns) at high speeds (55 mph and up). 99% of the time, do to the lack of traffic no one gets hit, but every so often someone else is on that road and you end up with a huge accident.

On a vehicles per mile travel basis these country roads are the most dangerous. They may see only one accident a year, but that is often the only time two cars were on that road. Thus you can have a very high accident per mile traveled on such country roads. For example, if only two people drive on a country road and it is 1/2 mile long and both drive on that road 200 times a year, but only one time a year are both drivers on that section of road, and that is when they hit each other, that is 1 accident per 200 miles driven (each driver drives that 1/2 mile, 200 times a year). On the other hand a "Dangerous" section of urban road may have that much travel in an hour, and only one accident every day. There is 24 hours to a day, thus you are looking at 4800 miles traveled per day in that urban section of road and one accident for every 4800 miles traveled. Thus you have an urban section of road with a much lower accident per mile traveled then the country road, every through the urban road has an accident every day, but the country road only has one accident every year.

The reason for the high per mile travel on such country roads is the low volume of traffic makes people think no one else is on that road and thus they can speed up and get where they are going faster. Most days that works out, but every so often another car is doing the same thing and you have something BOTH drivers are not expecting, another car on that section of road.

As to people new to those roads, not a problem. They may be lost, but they are careful for they are lost. They have no experience on that road to fall back on, so they fall back on caution. This is what people do all the time. Thus it is rare to have an accident where a person who is lost is at fault. People may yell at them, curse them, blame for the accident they themselves cause as they try to get back into their rut they are use to as to that road, but such accidents tend to be the fault of the people familiar with that road and trying to travel that road like they normally do NOT the person who is lost. The lost drivers just do not cause accidents for they are to caution. It is the regular drivers on that road you have to be careful, for they are use to do certain things on that road, and get upset when they can NOT do it, or worse, driver as they normally would ignoring anything new, including lost drivers and cyclists. It is these regular drivers I have had the most problems with NOT lost drivers.

Great Allegheny Passage:
http://www.atatrail.org/

From Pittsburgh to Washington DC: 350 miles, 125 miles up hill then 225 downhill

If you are careful you can make it all downhill, 225 or 125 miles all downhill, on its own right of way, through the Appalachians Mountains with almost no cross traffic:


Fall foliage photos on the trail:
http://www.michaelmccumber.com/subjects/greatalleghenypassagetrail/

but my excuse is I am almost 62!
Flat, only for me, thank you!
The point I try to make in the video is that it is not JUST the 22 miles of concrete.
It is
1) accessible even on Christmas Day! the climate in SoCal is so benign we have beach weather all year 'round, and
2) it is NEVER the same twice. What's different? The PEOPLE.
It is wonderful to ogle the guys and gals clad in as little as they can get away with!
But, what I haven't figured out is this: does the beach attract "beautiful people" or are "beautiful people" attracted to the beach?
Got an answer?

Last edited Mon Oct 21, 2013, 09:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Deal and the Mount Salvage Tunnel is the peak of the trail, for Deal it is all down hill either way you go. Thus if you plan it right, a trip on the trail can be all down hill.

If you do decide to go up hill, the grade is gradual, mostly less then 1% (i.e. 1 foot raise every 100 feet in length). East bound, the steepest grade is .8% as you climb Allegheny Mountain (The Eastern Continental Divide). It is steeper going west up the same mountain (Allegheny) but only 1.75% (and if you go on a weekend, you can take a steam locomotive 2/3rds of the way up. The train leaves at 11:30 am from Cumberland Maryland.

Trail Grade and Surface
The trail has a packed crushed limestone surface for a smooth ride. Built mainly on abandoned rail beds, the trail is nearly level with the average grade of less than 1%. The steepest eastbound grade - 0.8% - is from Harnedsville to Markleton and Garrett to Deal. The steepest westbound grade is from Cumberland to Deal at 1.75%. Near the Big Savage Tunnel, the trail crosses the Eastern Continental Divide. From that point going east, the trail drops 1,754 feet in 24 miles to reach Cumberland and, going west, it drops 1,664 feet in 126 miles to reach Pittsburgh.

http://www.atatrail.org/tmi/about.cfm#trailgrade

This rail line was built in 1912, so the coal mine barons of Pittsburgh could ship coal to Virginia and Maryland for export and by pass both the Pennsylvania Railroad line to Philadelphia and the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad to Maryland. It is a very gradual grade going East. The rail line was so successful that in the 1960s it purchased the B&O and moved its trains to those tracks and in the 1980s sold the 1912 track to the Rail to Trails group (The chief reason the railroad went with the B&O tracks it that the B&O tracks were already double and tripled tracked while the 1912 line was mostly single track and with diesels grade was less of a concern then it had been with Steam Locomotives).

The elevation in Cumberland is 625 feet, in Frostburg, Mount Salvage Tunnel is 2392 and the city of Frostburg is listed at 2070 feet above sea level, but the Station is at 1931 feet. When the Railroad ran, they ran two tracks in that area, one to Frostburg and the railroad station in Frostburg, and one bypassing Frostburg. The Great Allegheny Passage bike route uses the bypass of Frostburg and it bypasses Frostburg at an elevation of only

Cumberland to Frostburg is only 16 miles, but an increase in elevation of 1780 feet. Thus the Railroad saves you 16 miles in distance, but 1155 feet in elevation. You still have to climb 220 feet over the next 2.2 miles to get to Mount Salvage tunnel. You then climb another six miles in length and 393 feet elevation to reach the height of the trail in Deal Pennsylvania. The grade is 1.6-1.7% in that area. Total increase in elevation from Frostburg to Deal is thus 613 feet. I have biked it, it is NOT an easy grade.

The train saves you 1155 feet out of a total increase in elevation of 1757 feet, or 65% of the increase in elevation. Just shy of 2/3rds of the total increase in elevation.

The Western Maryland Railroad provides a scenic rail STEAM rail line in the summer months between Cumberland and Frostburg. The train runs Friday through Sunday May through December (it peak in October Tuesday through Sunday, for the fall foliage, Diesel run the rails except in the weekends:

http://www.wmsr.com/calendar

For our guests that enjoy biking, you may choose to take along your bike for a small fee and ride one way on the train and take advantage of the Allegheny Highland Bike Trail. Call for additional information and to place your reservations. - See more at:

The train goes from Cumberland:


Through the "Narrows" which it shares with two other rail lines:


Helmstetter’s Curve


Woodcock Hollow:


Till you get to Frostburg and its turntable:

but, can you do it on Christmas Day?
I am waiting for a (typical) Southern California Christmas Day (or a day or two either side) to go do my third video in the sequence: I will call it "THE PROOF!"
I was there last weekend and it was 80 degrees!
Tomorrow I am going to cycle from Newport Beach to Huntington Beach ... 12. 9 miles of oceanfront. It is forecast to be 72 degrees.
Watch for the video!

Last edited Sat Nov 9, 2013, 01:29 AM - Edit history (1)

Last year, we did not get hammered by snow till January. In the Record Snow fall of 2009-2010, the snow did not fall till December 19, then tampered off after December 25, then hit again in January 20- February 23, 2010:

http://capitalclimate.blogspot.com/2010/03/winter-2009-2010-snowfall-review.html

Now, the Mount Salvage Tunnel is closed from November through March, the trial is open on both sides and it is still all down hill. You have to dress for the weather, but the trail is more then passable most winters.

Now, the winter of 2009-2010 was an exception (as may be the upcoming winter, based on the lack of Solar flares, it looks like a bad winter, the more solar storms/Flares that occur the hotter the temperature on the earth, why is not exactingly known, but some sort of cause and affect occurs).

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/activity-on-the-sun-flatlinesbitterly-cold-winters-ahead_092013
http://www.almanac.com/sunspotupdate

Now, why we are in a solar Minimum is unknown, we should be in a Solar Peak and a Solar Reversal, then a slow several year decline to a Solar Minimum (The Solar cycle used to be viewed as about once every 11 years, more recent research indicates it is about a 22 year cycle with a solar reversal at the 11 year mark. Thus this strengthened the connection between Sun spots and drought in the US. Such droughts tends to hit the US about every 22 years, the early to mid 1930s, the mid 1970s, the since 2000 (1935 plus 22 is 1957, plus 22 is 1979, plus 22 is 2001, please note the connection between sun spots and drought seems to be related, but no one knows the why).

This dropping sun spots may be semi-permanent:
http://phys.org/news203746768.html

Side note: Some of the worse predicted aspects of Global Warming may have been off set by this drop in sun spit activities. The problem is the drop in sun spots may be masking the full affect of Global warming, i.e. summers are NOT as hot as they should be do to the drop in Solar Activity.

AS you can see we should NOT be in a Drought do to the sun spot cycle, On the other hand the mid west is in a drought, one of the worse in history. This drought seems to be related to Global Warming not the sun spot cycle.


Now, that does not mean you can not bike in snow, I have done it for almost 20 years. Conventional slicks are good enough for snow, even packed snow. For ice you need studded tires (which are available at Peter White wheels).

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/

My point was to say that yes you can bike on the Great Allegheny Passage on Christmas day. You have to dress for the weather, but it is a good day to bike, with or without snow.

And it is November 2013, time for the annual issue of what to wear in cold weather while biking:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1207182

http://www.democraticunderground.com/120742

Other articles on biking in cold weather:


http://www.icebike.org/

http://bikewinter.org/

http://www.allweathersports.com/winter/winter.html

http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/winter+bicycling.html

http://www.active.com/cycling/Articles/Cold-weather_riding__Tips_to_stay_warm_on_the_bike.htm

http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-764373.html

http://kbcyclewerks.hubpages.com/hub/What-to-Wear-when-Cycling-in-Cold-Weather--bicycling

But my son, an avider cyclist and a freshman at UCLA has been riding it. He's starting to like the concept of flat rides; he opted to leave his road bike home and took his fixie to simplify his life.

he MUST go ride the Marvin Braude bike path!!!
I have to drive 30 miles to get there from Pasadena ... and it is worth it every time.
Whenever there is no fog at the beach, I jump in the car and GO!
He will become addicted to it ... like I am, and I'm three times his age, at least!

and the UCLA Marching Band has been eating most of his spare time, but he did ride that route (Santa Monica and south) on his first ride. He connected with two other serious UCLA riders, so after the football season, his world will expand as he puts down the miles (He's a century rider just like his pops who IS well over three times his age and admits a good ride with female scenery and no hills does have genuine appeal ).