cc_rider

I've been getting a ride in once (sometimes twice) a week since late April. With so many facilities closed, I have to plan my rides based around availability of toilets. Most of my rides have to start from home or my office, and if I want to do more than 1 1/2 hours I have to loop back and start a different loop. Or I drive somewhere close for a short ride and dash back for a toilet. I'm getting bored!
I keep waiting for the NPS and local facilities to reopen, but they're still locked up. Museums still closed. Fast food places doing curbside pickup only.
What have other people been doing on their rides? What facilities are open around DC? I'm tempted to plan my rides around open bike shops on the assumption that they would let me use their restrooms.

blazin

I’ve never had a problem finding a quiet spot to relieve myself on the side of the road. I tend to use the C&O to get out of the city and start my rides quite early, which helps. Actually, the C&O has porta-potties at several locations. So I’d consider that.

Otherwise, in 90 minutes you can get pretty far outside suburbia, at least on the MD side, where, again, I wouldn’t think twice about a quick nature break behind a tree.

Have never had to deposit solid waste during a ride, so don’t stop to use facilities anywhere. If that’s you’re concern. Try going before you leave the house? Caffeine helps.

cc_rider

[QUOTE=blazin;21531756]I’ve never had a problem finding a quiet spot to relieve myself on the side of the road. I tend to use the C&O to get out of the city and start my rides quite early, which helps. Actually, the C&O has porta-potties at several locations. So I’d consider that."
Not a good option for me. All my riding right now is in DC or close in suburbs, and midday or late afternoon. Few places are out of sight of public space or somebody's window. There is one construction site that have the door lock combo for in Alexandria where I've used an empty water bottle and poured it out on the edge of the site after.. Other than that, I may need to find a space between a dumpster and a commercial building that isn't in use, and even those I've found have had people nearby, or apartment windows over looking, or a security camera.
Still looking for facilities that are open to the public.

edit All of the places I usually ride that had portsjohns have had them removed or padlocked.

cc_rider

Report from yesterday's ride.
The only pertajohns I saw were padlocked or inside of locked construction fences.
NPS facilities around Haines Point still closed, but the wooded area behind the one on the west (Potomac) side is very private, as long as a golf cart doesn't ride by on the path behind it.
Fish market toilets open, but you'd have to wait in the long line to get into the market, then wait for the toilets.
This time I didn't stop to check to check at The Wharf or the Anacostia Waterfront. Both places were crowded, but it might have been customers only at the restaurants.
Eastern Market closed except for pickup.
Didn't stop to check, but Union station seemed to be open.
Convention Center closed.
The McDonalds at 13th and NY seemed to be open.
Nothing available around BLM Plaza. If things were open, I would have gone to the Renwick.
The places I might have used in Rosslyn or Courthouse were all closed or customer only. The Trek store in Clarendon was probably open, but I rode a different direction.

jpescatore

The restrooms along Beach Drive on the northern part of Rock Creek Park have been reopened.

balto charlie

Hey CC, been a long time. Hope you are well.
I hear ya on the restrooms. I have been peeing regularly in the woods.No way around it. I have also been semi-dehydrating myself. Keeping my drinking to a minimum. It is tough as I use to have an iron clad bladder. If you are sweating a lot then you wont be peeing as much, its a fine balance. Living in the western burbs of Baltimore I have the Patapsco park nearby, BWI trail as well as the B&A trail, lots of tree cover. I was just in DC a for a ride, visit the National Aquatic Gardens and even had a beer but was able to wait until I returned to a more woodland setting.
COme on up to B-more for a ride
Good Luck,
Charlie

jpescatore

Rest rooms have opened up in a lot of places, or porta-potties appeared. On one of my standard loops, Galesville waterfront was a porta potty stop, but last check that didn't return - had to water the bushes further down the road.

Bicicletta89

Biggest problem for me is in the city. With the pandemic on sometimes there are plenty of places open but sometimes I’ll be somewhere that everything has closed early. Generally I try to get an espresso and use the coffee shop’s bathroom. On trails or less urban areas usually just find a bush.

meb

Don't think bike shops can be counted on these days.
Taking a rain poncho and bottle can give your a portable outhouse.

commo_soulja

I've been riding local so I can have pee freedom. Mainly on the W&OD which had a couple porta potties and the ability to jump in the woods right off the trail-not so much closer into Shirlington..Also gravel rides in Loudon county where I can usually find a tree to duck behind to take care of business. Waiting until this pandemic ends and folks get vaccinated before getting back to normal.

jpescatore

There is a parking spot for the W&OD just outside the Beltway where I often park at to start westbound rides on the W&OD. It always had a porta-potty that I kinda depended on. Last time I parked there, the porta-potty was gone, so I went back in the trees behind where it had been and a passing cyclist saw me and I got a public shaming! But at least my shorts and seat stayed dry...

jpescatore

03/12/2021 update - I took advantage of yesterday's 80 degree weather to do a 38 mile Rock Creek/Hains Point/Capital Crescent/Bethesda Trolley/Ruins of White Flint loop I do a lot.

Facilities were random. At my usual starting point at Viers Mill Local Park in Kensington, the new porta potty was gone. But, 3/4 of a mile down Beach Drive there were 2 porta potties at Ken Gar Palisades Park. I didn't stop at any to check them out, but further down Beach Drive where some of the parking areas have rest rooms, some looked closed, others had people coming out of them.

Beach Drive was no longer closed to cars from Grosvenor to Knowles, but maybe it is on Fridays. The middle of Beach Drive was closed to cars, like on weekends. No progress on reopening the path around the tunnel south of the National Zoo - you either ride/walk through on the narrow trashed up walkway or claim the road. Saw an article in the post that they will start working that section, to be finished in 2022 I think.