BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

does the fence run the entire length of sandcastle drive now(like all the way up to cost-co), or is it only a few hundred meters up from the western end of the sandcastle parking lot?

as far as the "jumpability", that relies heavily on ones own levels of personal dextreity and fence hopping experiance.

The other week the Major Taylor Ride was stuck behind a closed gate @ sandcastle, but there were some plastic jersey barriers that could be used to assist in the climb.

short answer: yes*

Word, I saw the picture. I've had to jump this one before to get out of Homestead- I'm glad nothing has changed.

afaik the fence is shorter down near the water slides, its more of jsut a gaurd rail to keep ppl from driving into the train tracks.

but down that far there is closer to around a half mile of crushed stone to walk down to the end of the tracks.

Pbeaver is correct. You have more ballast to walk cause the low fence is closer to the slides.

A month ago I scouted an alternate route between Homestead and the South Side. Avoids trespassing and ballast, and finds nice roads like Forest and Parkwood. Has some other deficiencies I'll admit. http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1621049

When is the trail supposed to be finished?

That's the million dollar question.

See thread GAP trail Homestead -> South Side, 2012 edition, esp page 2.

The very roughest of estimates is that construction may actually begin after Sandcastle closes for the season and may take several months for completion. If that turns out to be true then it could be open by the end of the year.

Maybe.

^yeah, but WHICH year?

2157: it shall be finished in the name of our new robot overlords.

I'm ok with robot overlords so long as they're willing to build us bike trails.

The thing that worries me is that there hasn't been anything official that said that work will begin on such and such a date. Just lots of maybes.

No one wants to put a date on anything because of a certain 11.11.11 plan. There are always delays and unexpected things in construction *and before* (like paperwork, liability, negotiations, etc.), so it's almost impossible to put a true final date out there because inevitably "something always comes up". I will say I'm quite optimistic these days that actual construction will be happening sooner than later.

I was just out there last Wednesday. Has it changed since then? I came from the bridge and got on the RR tracks so I didn't go through the Sandcastle parking lot...

However I am biking to DC next week and was planning on riding downtown first just to make it cool and "official" but if getting around Sandcastle involves climbing a fence now — I am not sure if I will feel like doing that at 6am with loaded panniers LMFAO.

the height of the fence you'll encounter depends how far down the tracks you're prepared to go on the crushed stone.

Its about 50-60 yards to the temporary "jersey barriers" and a 5 foot fence, or its closer to half a mile down to the lower 2 1/2 foot high guard railing.

Should you find the west gate of sandcastle locked & are transporting a loaded bike, i'd recommend the longer walk.

Personally i would reccomend bolt cutters but that is wrong and i know it. Im just sick and tired of there not being a connection there.

Pbeaver knows what's up!

If it's closed I recommend the longer walk.

yup, its my brain, its all big & stuff yo.

I need to make a macro for this reply. Where the lot ends at the access road under the railroad bride (where the slides end and the lot starts) the fence ends. The guard rail is gone and when it was there it had a five foot gap before the bridge pier for the rr bridge. There is never any need to pick your bike up over a fence at sandcastle ever. And getting onto the tracks at the east end of the lot only adds a couple hundred yards of ballast walking.

I was through there on Tuesday and the gate was open. At sandcastlewaterpark.com it says,

Sandcastle is open August 25 & 26, 11-6PM, and September 1, 2 & 3 11-5PM

So they're not shut down for the year in any way. Has anybody encountered a closed gate?

I noted no "12/12/12" promise was advertised... They're out of cute alliterative dates after this year, they'll have to open it up to some other form of numerically quirky and memorable date.

Some that I can think of that aren't depressingly far away:

1/3/13

3/1/13

3/10/2013

11/12/13 (at 9:10 AM or 2:15 PM, of course)

Or, like, now would be ok too.

We could use other types of calendars - Julian, Orthodox, Hebrew, Hijri, Baha'i, (not Mayan ).

@cburch You need not a macro. You need "An illustrated idiot's guide to fence avoiding at Sand Castle". And publish it here.

i just might do that!

cburch here's your cover:

+1 bill. Nice reference.

Look at the bones man!!!!