If you access the Jones Falls Trail at the switchback (where Wyman and Druid Hill parks meet), be careful — if what you are doing there involves anything but leaping.  Turns out that someone thought it would be in everyone’s interest to put a huge pipe across the trail.  It’s not painted orange or surrounded by warning tape or a even a sign down on office paper with a Sharpie.  No.  Nothing.  So when someone like me was running late for work Monday morning and barreling downtown a little bit, such an obstacle came as a shock.  I mean, I wasn’t exactly going full steam because there’s a sharp (i.e. 120 degree) turn to make to start the descent down the embankment.  But I still almost crashed into it and credit the large amounts of coffee I drink with fueling my reflexes into not smashing my front wheel over it and falling down the hill.

Big surprise: it’s not hooked up to anything, and no one’s doing anything with the frikkin thing.

You have two options if you still wanna use the trail here:

1) Stop, lift your bike over the pipe and get going (and it’s pretty high, if you carry weight on your bike).

2) Use the bridge, where you have to go half way across to get through the weird curb thing there and turn around.  I choose this because I am too lazy to get off the bike, and — you know — you do get a nice view of Horseshoe Falls from the bridge, which was a nice surprise to me yesterday while I was cussing under my breath.

If it’s still there and still not used Friday, I say we get together and dismantle the part that is in the way.

Better coverage, with a photo at Cyclosity.

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