ATTN: Philly riders

[Kimmyt]

This was brought to my attention today from a cycling distribution list that I am on and I thought I should pass along the warning.

A guy recently got chased and pulled down off his bike while cycling on the SRT (the email said Schuylkill river trail, but I think it meant Perkiomen Trail?) near Norristown, PA. He was chased by a group of kids, age 11-13. KIDS. They caught him while was riding and pulled him down, but he managed to get unclipped and when he went down they started running away. He got up and ran after them and managed to catch one and grab him but the kid ran away again. He filed a report with the police. There was some damage to his wheel/spokes but I think the bike and him were both okay.

I'm going to seriously consider carrying mace with me on my rides, but I thought I'd pass the warning out for anyone else who rides the trail (this all happened around 6 pm on a weeknight... I'd imagine with how crowded the trail gets on the weekend that something like this wouldn't happen then...)

K.

[susiej]

The Schulkyll River Trail sounds equally plausible. Runs behind some residential and industrial areas and has more walkers. Perkiomen is mostly bikers and runs through parks (and that's why I ride Perkiomen).

That just sucks.

[CycleChic06]

That's so sad. I was just on the Schulkyll River path last weekend while visiting me parents. It was packed with bikers! I hadn't been on that path for about 10 years and I can't believe how much has changed, a lot of condos being built. Good to see some of the old industrial parks turning over, but still so far to go, obviously.

Where does the Perkiomen trail go?

[Kimmyt]

I'm getting the PT and the SRT confused. The SRT runs down past NTown, not the PT. :) We usually start from the Oaks, PA parking lot and ride down to Norristown, Conshohocken or Manayunk. So I think that might be the Schuylkill (it runs along the river... duh kimmy). The Perkiomen Trail is more packed gravel (though there are paved sections?) and runs Trooper/Collegeville type area up to Schwenksville and Spring Mountain and such. It's a nice ride on a bike with knobbies (the gravel in sections gets a bit much for a bike with slicks on it) so if you're looking for a different ride that's a bit less crowded some weekend, check it out.

Perkiomen Trail info (http://www.montcopa.org/parks/perkiomentrail/)