Biked out of the neighborhood for the first time

Today is a holiday so I thought it was time to try riding my bike to the Mount Vernon Trail, even though I knew I wasn't ready, skill-wise to do the ride without some kind of an accident.

To get to the trail requires that I bike on a street or sidewalk, as there is no dedicated bike lane or bike path.  Because of my fear of cars, I opted to bike on the sidewalk.  I reached the MVT without incident, although I had to dismount several times to let pedestrians pass by, or to get around obstacles that I could not maneuver around on my bike.

After a fun little ride in just a short section of the MVT, I biked back.  My first accident happened on the bike path leaving the MVT towards my neighborhood.  I saw two cyclists coming down the path the other way and overcompensated by riding too far to the right, bruising my arm against the wall.  My next couple of accidents happened while biking on the sidewalk.  The main problems I encountered with sidewalk biking:

• Trash cans and other obstacles require some tricky maneuvering
• You get in the way of pedestrians 
• You may even have to dismount to let pedestrians, dogs, baby strollers, etc. pass by
• You end up dismounting so much you might as well walk instead of ride your bike.

My control of the bike was still not good enough to handle the obstacles so I ended up falling several times. 

Despite the falls, cuts and bruises, it was a fun exploratory ride overall.