National Arboretum training commute

Trying to ride 200+ miles a week means you end up seeing the same roads, a lot. So this morning I decided for a change of pace and rode to the National Arboretum on my way to work. Plus it makes for a much more interesting blog post than just how many kilometers I rode. At left is a view from the top of one of hills looking west.

The National Arboretum is located on 446 acres in Northeast DC and is bounded by New York Avenue, Bladensburg Road, and the Anacostia River. Inside there 9.6 miles of roads that wind around the Arboretum which makes for some great riding. Their mission is "To serve the public need for scientific research, education, and gardens that conserve and showcase plants to enhance the environment." Check out the garden list from their website:

Single-genus groupings include: azalea, boxwood, daffodil, daylily, dogwood, holly, magnolia, maple, and peony. Major garden features include: aquatic plants, the Asian Collections, the Fern Valley Native Plant Collections, the Flowering Tree Collection, the Flowering Tree Walk, the Friendship Garden, the Gotelli Dwarf and Slow-Growing Conifer Collection, the Introduction Garden, the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, the National Capitol Columns, the National Grove of State Trees, and the National Herb Garden.

The National Arboretum also contains Corinthian columns from the original East Portico of the Capitol.

The columns began their life on the East Portico of the Capitol in 1828. They were quarried from sandstone near Aquia Creek in Virginia and were barged to Washington in the early days of our country, before the familiar Capitol dome was completed. Their stay at the Capitol was to be limited by an oversight. The dome of the Capitol, completed in 1864, appeared as if it was not adequately supported by the columns because the iron dome that was ultimately built was significantly larger than the dome that the designer envisioned. An addition to the east side of the Capitol was proposed to eliminate this unsettling illusion, but it was not constructed until 1958.

The rolling hills made for a great morning ride and I wish I could have spent the morning there walking through some of the gardens. I didn't quite get in the 40k I wanted, but it's close enough. The are even some hills there but they are all pretty short. This weekend I plan to get out west and do some riding on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. We'll see how my hill legs are coming along.