Ever had a death wish? Go biking in the city! With honking cars zooming past you, being sure to avoid potholes, and trying to figure out if you’re on 34th Street (which leads downtown) or 34th Place (which does NOT lead downtown!!) biking in DC is definitely a fun gamble to play with life. 

With the ingenious creation of Jump Bikes, which I used for the first time last week, biking among students has gotten more and more popular. Biking is also an easy way to get outside after spending all day sitting in front of a computer. Feeling the wind in your hair and panting as you struggle up a hill, well, it can all be quite enjoyable. 

DC is located along a geographical ‘fall line,’ basically meaning we have a lot of hills. My arch nemesis is the hill on Nebraska leading up to Comet Pizza (I mean, it really sucks). If you go biking as an exercise often, you know the burning feeling you get in your legs just as you reach the peak. After I go biking, I’m usually so sore that it hurts to go up the stairs in my house.

Rock Creek Park is an underappreciated route. If you know your trails, you can create a loop that minimizes hillage and maximizes biking on Beach Drive (the love of my life). Beach, while sometimes busy, is mostly flat and nicely paved, plus it’s around 4.5 miles top to bottom. 

To sum it up, biking in DC is fun if you are looking for a near-death experience to tell at storytime. In fact, right before I sat down to write this, I was Jump-Biking home from getting lunch. While crossing an intersection, I had the right of way and began biking across. This car (whose driver was looking at their phone), rolled through the stop sign and almost hit me. Luckily, I was paying attention and used my amazing, stunning biking skills to swerve to the side. The person began rolling down their window but I was not in the mood to get blamed for something that was not my fault and sped away.

So please, in all seriousness, be careful when you are biking. Drivers in DC do not know how to react to bikers and you need to be cautious. Now, be sure to get outside and go biking sometime, especially in the park. Have fun exploring this beautiful city!