Adventure Bike!

   While my Bianchi Cross Concept is definitely a cyclocross bike, I hesitate to call it that, because I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I actually do any cyclocross racing. I also don’t want to refer to it as a gravel bike (a bit of a pretentious name, I think), which is a recently marketed bike design, with road geometry, disk brakes and clearance for a knobbier set of tires.

   Recently I’ve been trying to find more places to ride where I can combine streets and trails that are paved and/or unpaved. Not too long ago I actually took the Bianchi on a very mountain bike-specific trail, and although I got bounced around a bit more than I would have been on an MTB with fatter tires and suspension, the Cross Concept was quite nimble and faired relatively well. Since the bike can go pretty much anywhere, I’ve taken to calling it my “adventure bike”, and hope the phrase has only a positive connotation!

   With the remnants of a tropical storm due to come through the area, I had planned to ride on some of the area rail trails to stay sheltered from the wind. However, the forecast was WAY off – in fact, my son Carrick even went down to the shore for a few days, and was treated to some beautiful weather after an early storm that really wasn’t worse than any of the nor’easters that pound the surf every winter. Meanwhile in Royersford, we were supposed to have winds gusting up to 20 mph, but they never materialized.

   I was sitting around Monday morning watching the end of the day’s stage of the Vuelta a España, thinking about where I would ride, now that I didn’t have to consider getting blown all over the place. I then received a call from my friend Rich, who is a fellow member of the Anthracite Railroads Historical Society. Regular readers would know of my interest in railroads, as I am always looking into the history of the many rail trails I ride, and I also have a model railroad layout at home.

   Rich helped my decision on where to ride, as he informed me that one of Norfolk Southern Railway’s heritage locomotives was parked with a train in nearby Pottstown. In 2012, to mark the company’s 30th anniversary, Norfolk Southern had 20 new diesel-electric engines painted in schemes representing the predecessor railroads that eventually made up their current system. They even had a special event at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, where all of the units were posed at the turntable and roundhouse.

Norfolk Southern grouped some related railroads together around the turntable, in this case the anthracite-carriers - from left to right: Erie, Delaware Lackawanna & Western, New Jersey Central, Reading and Lehigh Valley.

   The heritage locomotive Rich mentioned was the Erie, and having seen the Lackawanna unit pass through Royersford, I would only have to see the Lehigh Valley engine to complete my personal “collection” - I model the Erie Lackawanna (the two companies merged in 1960) and Lehigh Valley Railroads. My plan was to link up the Schuylkill River Trail (SRT) with area roads in order to form a loop out and back to visit the small railroad yard in Pottstown.

   Much of the SRT, including the segment that runs through Spring City just across the river from my hometown, was built on the roadbed of the former Pennsylvania Railroad Schuylkill Division. The line had originally been built to compete for anthracite coal-hauling business with the rival Reading Railroad. Due in part to the collapse of coal traffic, but mostly from the growth of air and truck transportation, the complete network of eastern railroads was in crisis by the 1960s.

   The two railroads were eventually absorbed into Conrail in 1976, and because the Reading was the preferred route, having been first to build through the Schuylkill Valley on a course featuring less curvature and far fewer bridges to maintain, most PRR trackage was removed. Although I understand the advantages of diverting the trail through booming downtown Phoenixville, I was disappointed the SRT didn’t use the bridge across the river at Mont Clare or the tunnel under the north side of town (resulting in a very uncomfortable climb over the hill there). However, many other fantastic structures along the PRR route remain and have been developed for trail use.

The Pennsylvania Railroad bridge at Manayunk, once a key feature of the Schuylkill Division, is now part of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail.

   The SRT has a projected length of 130 miles, and construction is now in progress to finish a small segment between Parker Ford and Pottstown that will allow cyclists to ride all the way from Philadelphia to Reading. As it stands, after the short ride on the SRT from Spring City, I chose to avoid the busy Route 724, and take the parallel Old Schuylkill Road, which eventually meets back up with 724 near Kenilworth. Traffic is much lighter on the road beyond this point because a majority of it is diverted onto Route 422 at an interchange here.

   A right turn on Hanover Street took me into Pottstown, were I again hooked up with the SRT near Montgomery Community College’s West Campus. A good portion of the trail is paved at this point, but nearing Douglassville, the path becomes cinder. This segment is also known as the Thun (pronounced tune) Trail, named after the founder of the Textile Machine Works in Reading, and the surrounding woods are dense here, making you feel quite secluded at times. A couple of road crossings are the only breaks in the shady quiet, until you emerge on the PRR concrete bridge that arches high over the Schuylkill River west of Douglassville (photo below).

   I returned to on-road cycling as I crossed back over the river on Main Street into the town of Monocacy Station and followed Monocacy Creek Road across Route 422 into the small community of Amity Gardens. I then headed down Route 662 to reach Benjamin Franklin Highway/High Street, which parallels the railroad yard in Pottstown. There was a good amount of trees and growth blocking a full view of the Erie locomotive, but a couple of breaks allowed a decent enough view.

Not my photo - fresh from the Norfolk Southern paintshop

   The rest of my trip involved mostly roads, as I continued east on High Street onto Ridge Pike, then cut across Airport and Limerick Center Roads through Linfield to rejoin the SRT at Parker Ford for the ride back to Spring City. I enjoyed the ride and most of this circuit could become a regular route. In the future, without the railroad diversion and with a preference to avoid the heavy traffic through Pottstown, I would probably otherwise turn right from the Ben Franklin Highway at Squirrel Hollow Road to rejoin the SRT.

   Until the trail connection is finished between Pottstown and Parker Ford, I would probably use Industrial Highway and Moser Road around town and continue home down Ridge Pike much as I had on Monday. When that construction is complete, this route would be a relatively flat 33 mile ride - except for the nasty little climb up Main Street in Royersford to my home!