Route Library: Where to Ride

As 2023 was drawing to a close I decided that one of my 2024 resolutions was to re-visit as many of the destinations I have documented in my regional Cycling guides. Before doing that, however, I had to make sure that I first curated my Ride With GPS (RWGPS) Route Library. I had created tons of routes over the years and I wanted to make sure that those I went back to were as accurate as possible. Weeding out the bad took a lot of effort…

Writing each of my books was a monumental endeavor and RWGPS was a tool I used (and continue to use) as soon as it became available around 2007/08. I had used a GPS unit in the first editions, but the route creation capabilities of RWGPS were not available then. The new tool, was a game changer when I started to work on the fifth edition of Mountain Biking the Washington Baltimore Area and the first edition of Best Bike Rides Washington DC and my most recent two books Mountain Biking Virginia and Best Easy Bike Rides Washington DC.

I continue to use it to plan routes and outings to share with friends so the next natural step was cataloguing everything I had into shareable logical collections that could be easily updated, something that is considerably more difficult with my printed guides.

Because of my early adoption of the tool I have been able to work with the RWGPS team and have become an Area Ambassador and have secured a Best Bike Rides DC Club account, which you can join for free.

I’m augmenting my work on RWGPS with a new section of BestRidesDC.com: Where to Ride. I have an initial offering of popular routes and, as I re-visit some old favorites and new regional destinations, will be expanding it.

I hope you join my RWGPS club and visit the Where to Ride Section of BestRidesDC.com regularly . I have lots of plans to update it and can’t wait to share it with you…