Cycling around Philly

[Kalidurga]

I may be heading up to Philly for a long weekend at the end of July and, of course, figured I might take my bike with me. I've heard about the Wissahickon (sp?) Trail and Kelly Drive. Can anyone give me more info about those, or suggest any other areas for a casual 25-30 mile ride? Anything within 50 miles of the city is worth considering.

Thanks!

[NJBikeGal]

Kalidurga,

Feel free to join in on one of the rides hosted by my club/team! The website lists rides, which happen nearly every day. For a great maximum 40+ mile round trip (you can always shorten it down), you can always hop on the Schuylkill River Path that goes from the city out to Valley Forge and back. Also, there is a biker's map of Philadelphia that I'd be happy to send you if you feel comfortable PMing me an address. That way, you'll have an idea of some of the roads worth riding.

Let me know if you need a riding buddy or any more help!

[Kalidurga]

Feel free to join in on one of the rides hosted by my club/team!

Bahahahaha!! Sarah, you must not have read my ride report from the 17th, in which I dragged Regina's average speed down by at least 5mph... Thank you for the invitation, though, it's great to get such a friendly offer from a fellow TE-er (and please don't take offense at my sarcasm!)

That Schuykill River Path sounds right up my alley, thank you also for the tip on that. I think I have a vague memory that there's also a canal towpath somewhere out in the direction of Valley Forge. From the sound of it, it'll be harder to make a choice than it will be to find places to ride up thataways.

[NJBikeGal]

Hey Kali! The towpath is very nice to ride (I do it occasionally with a teammate who likes to give her roadbike a little 'cross training!)...again, it will lead you to the same path out to Valley Forge. The path is great to ride, although a little boring if you do it too many days in a row!

You should take a look at the website anyway (smiling as I ignore your sarcasm )...we have a great early morning club (not race team!) ride on Wednesdays!

[Kalidurga]

Hey Kali! The towpath is very nice to ride (I do it occasionally with a teammate who likes to give her roadbike a little 'cross training!)...again, it will lead you to the same path out to Valley Forge. The path is great to ride, although a little boring if you do it too many days in a row!

You should take a look at the website anyway (smiling as I ignore your sarcasm )...we have a great early morning club (not race team!) ride on Wednesdays!

That Wednesday Morning Meander does look right up my alley. It's a shame I'll only be there from Sat-Mon. Your club has a great variety of rides and clinics, I wish we had something like that around here. We have Ride Like A Girl, but that seems to be purely mtb-oriented.

At this point, I'm leaning towards the Schuykill Trail &/or the towpath the weekend I'm up there. Thanks very much for the suggestions, Sarah!

[Kimmyt]

Well like RR said you could take the Schuylkill Trail from the Art Museum out towards Manayunk which is a trendy little town with some nice sidewalk cafes and a brewery and a (!!) ice cream shoppe on mainstreet. We like to ride out there for lunch some times. If you want further distances, wend your way through Manayunk to where the trail continues westward (this can be a bit confusing as you have to make a few turns and there are some hills and much traffic on a weekend) and take the trail all the way out past Norristown and Conshahocken to the Valley Forge connector trail and check out the historic sites. Not sure if that's too much distance though, It would be probably at least 30 miles each way (can you tell I never ride with a computer?). Alternately, from Manayunk if you have knobby tires you could go up the hill to your right and past the bus station, cross the street and get onto the packed gravel trails of Wissahickon and ride on those too.

K.

[Kalidurga]

Manayunk sounds like a cool little town. I assume that's where they Manayunk Wall is?

I've got some Googling to do between now and the end of July to figure out routes to ride! I'm figuring I'll drive up early Saturday morning and do an easy ride that afternoon, then sightseeing and a show on Sunday, and another ride on Monday before heading home.

[Kalidurga]

Well, I got myself all psyched to ride the Schuykill (how do you pronounce that, anyways?) Trail this coming Saturday, and now the forecast for Philly is predicting scattered thunderstorms. Can anyone up there in Philly give me an idea of what the weather's like so far this week? Should I bother hauling my bike up there if there's a chance of getting rained on?

[Zen]

The only thing I can tell you for sure is it's pronounced "school kill". Eee. Kind of macabre when I see it written like that.