Next Ride: Saturday, August 25: St. Elizabeths Bike Carnival

St. Elizabeths East--site of the former St. Elizabeths Hospital and a designated National Historical Landmark--is hosting a Bike Carnival as part of its "Season of Discovery" during summer 2012. The festival will feature a kids' bike rodeo, a bike decoration station, the chance to take a self-guided tour on campus streets that have been shut down especially for this event, and a family bike parade to wrap up the festivities.

We will follow a similar route to our "Tour de Fat" ride from June--heading south from Brookland (Edgewood, really) along the Met Branch Trail  to 4th Street and then 11th Street, which we'll follow to the Southeast Waterfront. There, we'll cross the Anacostia River on the 11th Street Bridge and spend a short time on the beautiful, peaceful Anacostia Riverfront Trail before cutting through the heart of Historic Anacostia. If you've never seen the "Big Chair" in person, now's your chance!

We'll be aiming to arrive at the Carnival around 12:00 noon. I will lead a return biketrain at a time to be determined by the group, probably after some of the afternoon festivities such as the bike raffle and Family Bike Parade.

You can catch up with the group in:

• Edgewood at 10:45am (8th St. NE & Franklin St. NE near Chocolate City Brewing Company)
• Eckington, 11:00am (R Street NE @ Met Branch Trail)
  
• NoMa, 11:15am (M Street NE @ Met Branch Trail)
• Capitol Hill 11:30pm (Stanton Park @ 4th Street NE)

Estimated arrival at St. Elizabeths: 12:00pm
Route map with meetups is here; more information about the Bike Carnival is here; learn more about the fascinating (and creepy) history of St. Elizabeths here.

This ride will be almost 7 miles one-way, so I'm rating it as advanced (best suited for adults and older children, with little kids as passengers); however, the route itself is fairly easy, relying mainly on bike lanes and paved, separated trails.