visiting Philadelphia on a bicycle

Michael Tordoff wrote
You may find my website useful. It has information for bicyclists
visiting Philadelphia, including links to local clubs, some featured
rides, routes in and out of the city, and relevent maps and books. The
link is http://home.comcast.net/~miketordoff/.

Yes it looks very useful. I especially liked the page of "classic" Philly
rides -- personal recommendations and descriptions of good routes is just
what I was looking for. I like the idea of connecting with the Main Line
area to the west -- where we've never thought of riding before.

I like that the riding is centered on Philadelphia -- because for Sharon and
me it's the city that offers something special in the riding. It's the key
"excuse" for making a bicycling visit to that region (rather than some other
northeast U.S. region with nice suburban or rural riding).

Ken

Over the weekend Sharon and I tried two "classic" Philly rides, out the Main
Line, and the Schuylkill River valley to Pottstown.
They were _too_ classic for us. Anybody know some non- classic routes
around Philadelphia?

Some of the scenery was indeed very pretty, with classic stone houses and
barns. But there were just too many _unrewarding_ hill climbs. And too
many steep unrewarding hill climbs. Sharon and I will gladly climb up a
hill -- if it has a reward ... a fun downhill with some interesting curves.
And some dips and rolls can be nice. A nice view somewhere along the way up
or down can also be a nice add. But too many of those roads were just a
climb straight up one side of the hill followed by a steep straight plunge
down the other side. Very authentic, very "classic".

So how about some suggestions for some routes around Philadelphia with a new
"mix": We'll acccept fewer stone barns, and more miles on high-traffic
roads, in return for fewer steep unrewarding climbs and more downhills that
are _interesting_ instead of just steep.

First we rode miles 20-77 of the "Scenic Schuylkill Century" cue sheet
linked from this page of "classic" Philly rides:
http://home.comcast.net/~miketordoff/Rides.htm
Highlights were seeing the twin steam towers with plumes around miles 40-50,
and lots of pretty farms and stone houses in miles 50-60. Sharon liked
riding the quiet roads thru Evansburg State Park 27-29. The section we did
was about the hilliest riding we've done this year. Somewhere around mile 54
or something, I said to Sharon, "This is combat". When we got to the
straight steep downhill, Sharon groaned and said, "Welcome to Pennsylvania".

Then we rode the "Main Line and Valley Forge" route ("Freedom Valley" on the
cue sheet) from that same page, though out of order, starting from Betzwood
with the flat Schuylkill River trail. Interesting there was an organized
supported ride that same Sunday with food stops and numbers on their
bikes -- appararently riding a similar route. After like 15 miles of flat
riding on the trail, we turned left to climb a hill on Shawmont, and we saw
two athletic guys with numbers on their bikes walking up the hill, one
looked pretty thrashed. After 15 miles of flat riding, we didn't understand.
Then we did the rest of the route.

I think I would change the title of the cue sheet to "Find the Valley?", and
change the route description to "nearly continuous hills from West River
Drive to Paoli, then a few more to Betzwood." Indeed also lots of very
interesting stone houses along the way. I don't want to be unfair: some the
climbs we did were rewarded with interesting fun downhills, and maybe only a
couple finished in the _truly_ classic Pennsylvania style: steep and
straight down into a stop sign.

So if you like that "classic" style of hill riding, I don't think you'll
find it hard to find some on a visit to southeast Pennsylvania.

We liked the rewards of the riding around Philadelphia -- just hoping
someone will point us to some routes with a different proportion of
punishments.

Ken

P.S. It might help if more route descriptions gave a _numerical_ estimate of
the vertical feet of climbing on the route, not just the horizontal distance
of the route.

"Ken Roberts" wrote in message
news
Over the weekend Sharon and I tried two "classic" Philly rides, out the
Main Line, and the Schuylkill River valley to Pottstown.
They were _too_ classic for us. Anybody know some non- classic routes
around Philadelphia?

Some of the scenery was indeed very pretty, with classic stone houses and
barns. But there were just too many _unrewarding_ hill climbs.

If you are looking for a flat route, there's the towpaths along the Delaware
River north of Philadelphia. They are on both the PA and NJ sides of the
river. Pretty scenery, nice towns to grab a bite in.