My proposed routes to commute to the Potomac Boat Club from Columbia Heights

Like I proposed yesterday, I will try to spend a lot more time at the Potomac Boat Club boathouse in DC and I propose to get there and back on my Surly Steamroller. 

There are three routes that I have been able to come up with for this trip that I might choose between or try and then choose one or maybe choose which one to use depending on time and weather.

This first one is the route I take whenever I volunteered at Miriam's Kitchen. It's 5.16 miles and has only 82.1 feet of elevation. It goes along route 27, Washington Boulevard, and scoots right alongside the Pentagon:

The next route is direct but there aren't any vistas of the Potomac or any fly-bys of the Pentagon, just straight through, almost as the crow flies, right across town. It's only 4.6 miles:

Finally, the DC Family Biking Group on Facebook hooked me up with a creative way of getting around the Pentagon and to the trails near the River by going offroad and off trail a little bit. Thanks, Larry Miller! I call it the River Shortcut but it's much longer at 7.05 miles, though it is the most scenic:

So, I don't know what time I am going to leave the nest tomorrow. It might be after 1PM, after I have a bunch of calls. I can ride there and then get back to work. I really don't need to work there from 0800-1800 every day. I can head over anywhere from 5AM to 3PM and head back anywhere from 3PM to 9PM—it's really just 1/2 hour of riding, at the end of the day. It's really not that far. It doesn't need to become a thing. It's not like the poor suckers who are in their cars for an hour or two each way.