Trail Blazer: Biking Around the Borderline

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DAVID CRANOR faced a conundrum. The idea was to take the state-spanning rides held in Virginia and Maryland and apply the concept to D.C. Too bad pedaling across the city, he says, "is more of a sprint than a weeklong ride." But that got his wheels turning. "What if you tried to ride around D.C., but only on the actual border?" he mused.

That's how Washcycle's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Around DC (WAGBRAD) was born. Cranor — who writes popular D.C.-area blog the WashCycle (Thewashcycle.com) — has been covering local cycling since he created the site in September 2005. Topics range from bike parking at Wolf Trap to debates about cycling safety. Yet WAGBRAD is the first public bike ride the 36-year-old NASA employee has planned.

The 47.3-mile trip starts at the Jones Point Lighthouse in Alexandria at 8 a.m. Saturday and will follow the District's boundary markers from start to finish. Cranor estimates it will take four and a half hours (there's a stop in Rock Creek Park for lunch — bring your own food). "I'll be surprised if a half-dozen make it all the way to the end," he says. Sounds like a challenge, Washingtonians.

Photo courtesy David Cranor