A couple weeks ago I attempted Port Royal Avenue on my Cannondale, figuring (equipment-wise) that the pros ride road bikes up such climbs in Belgium, so mine should be able to handle it. Yes, the gearing on my bike would have gotten me over the hill, but in the needed low gear, the slack in the chain was bouncing around too much. About halfway up, my chain popped off the small chainring.
The road was so narrow and steep, I doubted I was going to be able to get both my feet back into the pedals in order to get climbing again, and the thought of missing the pedal with no momentum had me quite worried. I was barely getting any traction on the cobbles in my delta-cleated shoes while I was at a calm standstill, and I didn’t think a hard, panicked plant of my foot was going to stick, should I miss engaging the pedal with my shoe. I envisioned a slide, followed by a slow, hard summersault down the bumpy stones!
I angled my bike so that I could ride across the path as much as possible, made sure the pedal was rotated in the proper position and went for it. Snap, a miracle - right in! Unfortunately, I only got a handful of pedal strokes further, when the chain again bounced off the small chainring. Well, I used my brain and decided not to push my luck.
Disappointed, but more importantly, uninjured, I slowly turned downhill, which actually was no easy feat. I had the brakes squeezed hard all the way down, gently weaving down some of the more broken sections near the bottom that have obviously been eroded by decades of precipitation. The most dangerous part of the experience was at the bottom, when putting the chain back on, some guy in his geeky time trial equipment buzzed within a foot of me without any notice that he was passing. Sorry I may have interfered with your chances of a medal in the Schuylkill Trail Olympics, asshat!
Knowing that the rear derailleur on my Bianchi has a clutch to maintain chain tension and eliminate that bouncy slack, I was convinced that Port Royal Avenue shouldn’t be an unreasonable obstacle. I sent out an invitation to the usual suspects for an exploration of Philadelphia’s “Forbidden Trails”. My ominous title was partly playing on the five-mile section of the Wissahickon Trail called Forbidden Drive, so-named because automobiles were banned from using the carriage road in the 1920s.
We started our ride at Fort Washington State Park, and I laughed when I saw the parking lot that is usually empty to me during weekday rides but was now absolutely packed with cars belonging to hikers and some visitors using the nearby hawk-watching platform. There was also a Saturday morning Tai Chi group meeting on the lawn next to the platform! My friend Dan and I continued on about a half mile to reach another parking area adjacent to a picnic pavilion/playground spot and rode our bikes back to meet the rest of the group who had squeezed into a couple of spaces in the upper lot.
The initial section of the trail seemed to be undergoing some development and was broken up with coarse stone segments, but we were soon on a nice paved surface that parallels the winding path of the Wissahickon Creek. After a few miles, we exited the park on Stenton Avenue and pedaled past the beautiful horse farms in that area, as well as the entrance to the Morris Arboretum on Northwestern Avenue. We soon crossed Germantown Avenue, near the attractive campus of Chestnut Hill College (photo below) and reached the trail head in Wissahickon Valley Park.
The road was so narrow and steep, I doubted I was going to be able to get both my feet back into the pedals in order to get climbing again, and the thought of missing the pedal with no momentum had me quite worried. I was barely getting any traction on the cobbles in my delta-cleated shoes while I was at a calm standstill, and I didn’t think a hard, panicked plant of my foot was going to stick, should I miss engaging the pedal with my shoe. I envisioned a slide, followed by a slow, hard summersault down the bumpy stones!
I angled my bike so that I could ride across the path as much as possible, made sure the pedal was rotated in the proper position and went for it. Snap, a miracle - right in! Unfortunately, I only got a handful of pedal strokes further, when the chain again bounced off the small chainring. Well, I used my brain and decided not to push my luck.
Disappointed, but more importantly, uninjured, I slowly turned downhill, which actually was no easy feat. I had the brakes squeezed hard all the way down, gently weaving down some of the more broken sections near the bottom that have obviously been eroded by decades of precipitation. The most dangerous part of the experience was at the bottom, when putting the chain back on, some guy in his geeky time trial equipment buzzed within a foot of me without any notice that he was passing. Sorry I may have interfered with your chances of a medal in the Schuylkill Trail Olympics, asshat!
Knowing that the rear derailleur on my Bianchi has a clutch to maintain chain tension and eliminate that bouncy slack, I was convinced that Port Royal Avenue shouldn’t be an unreasonable obstacle. I sent out an invitation to the usual suspects for an exploration of Philadelphia’s “Forbidden Trails”. My ominous title was partly playing on the five-mile section of the Wissahickon Trail called Forbidden Drive, so-named because automobiles were banned from using the carriage road in the 1920s.
We started our ride at Fort Washington State Park, and I laughed when I saw the parking lot that is usually empty to me during weekday rides but was now absolutely packed with cars belonging to hikers and some visitors using the nearby hawk-watching platform. There was also a Saturday morning Tai Chi group meeting on the lawn next to the platform! My friend Dan and I continued on about a half mile to reach another parking area adjacent to a picnic pavilion/playground spot and rode our bikes back to meet the rest of the group who had squeezed into a couple of spaces in the upper lot.
The initial section of the trail seemed to be undergoing some development and was broken up with coarse stone segments, but we were soon on a nice paved surface that parallels the winding path of the Wissahickon Creek. After a few miles, we exited the park on Stenton Avenue and pedaled past the beautiful horse farms in that area, as well as the entrance to the Morris Arboretum on Northwestern Avenue. We soon crossed Germantown Avenue, near the attractive campus of Chestnut Hill College (photo below) and reached the trail head in Wissahickon Valley Park.
I’m always amazed to think that the first time Sue and I cycled on Forbidden Drive (YIKES, going on 30 years ago!), we were on our road bikes and didn’t get a flat. The trail is very rocky in spots and the size of the gravel isn’t very regular, going from finely crushed rock in spots, to railroad ballast-sized chunks in others – and you have to be alert, since the mottled sunlight that filters through the branches plays tricks on your eyes.
Our crew had little worries, since we were all wide-tire equipped, but we did have to be sure to avoid the smelly obstacles left behind by the horseback riders! The trail was also a bit busier than expected with foot traffic, if only because it was an absolutely beautiful September morning and people were maxing-out the last of their summer mornings.
We left the Wissahickon Trail at Ridge Avenue and followed the Schuylkill River Trail (SRT) along Kelly Drive to East Falls Bridge. Martin Luther King Jr. (West River) Drive has been closed to auto traffic since the spring in order to accommodate regular exercise during the pandemic, which has been a good thing, but the asphalt has seen absolutely no maintenance during this period, either. The severe flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Sally, plus a series of heavy summer storms have left sections of the road badly broken and/or potholed.
Luckily, the road is a four-lane, undivided surface, so there is plenty of room to maneuver around the bad patches. We made our way to W. Strawberry Mansion Drive and then took Greenland and Chamounix Drives, which wind at a reasonable incline up out of the Schuylkill Valley. We took Ford Road to reach Wynnefield Heights, then connected with Conshohocken State Road to reach the trailhead of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail.
The 1.5-mile coast down the trail was quite welcome, especially in light of what was ahead of us in a short time, and many of our crew had never previously crossed the Manayunk arch bridge high over the river and adjacent Schuylkill Expressway. We then zigzagged down to the canal towpath entrance near Green Lane. This section of the SRT is mostly packed dirt with maybe some very fine crushed stone mixed in, and ends with a very short cobbled climb up to the Shawmont railroad station, for just a taste of what was to come.
A little flat run on Nixon Street led us to the bottom of Port Royal Avenue, and not wanting to have to pass slower traffic I made sure to hit the cobbles first. My Bianchi is not quite as generously geared as my road bike, and about halfway up, I was starting to have a hard time keeping the pedals turning over. At this late point of the summer, I was in good enough condition – my breathing was good and my legs weren’t fatiguing. The incline was just super difficult!
The complete climb is just under 400 feet in 1.5 miles, but the section we were on heads up 150 feet in just under a quarter mile! Right behind me, I heard Dan say in between breaths, “Running...out...of...gears – tapping out!” He told me later at the top that he actually started running it, cyclocross style, so that I he wasn’t feeling so much that he had given up. He certainly had nothing to be ashamed of, as he is a couple inches taller and more powerfully built than me, yet he had the same exact gearing as I do. Physics simply caught up to him!
I grinded it out until the cobbles started to level out then cut back on the pace severely in order to catch my breath. Dave (of broken Emonda fame) was the first to catch up, spinning rather easily in the climb-friendly gearing on that bike. He is also a regular mountain biker, very used to extreme inclines – he wears us out with the way he powers over some of the hills on our regular rides.
Sometimes, even though such a challenge is a bit agonizing, there is something strangely fun about it, and we all stopped at the top to share our opinions on the experience. The word “brutal” was used often, but so were the words “next time...”, which made me feel good about including the climb on our route.
We were now in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia, and after a short trip east on Henry Avenue, we made a left on Wises Mill Road to enter back into Wissahickon Valley Park. The downhill to Forbidden Drive was fast, and I knew the turn onto the trail near the Valley Green Inn (photo below) was rather sharp, so keeping the speed under control was important.
Back now at just about the midpoint of the park trail, we were simply retracing our outgoing route back to Fort Washington State Park. The upper part of the trail was noticeably less crowded, but we did have a couple of friendly interactions with hikers, who also seemed to be ending their day’s exertion – though I doubt they had faced anything like we did!
Knowing that I would want to do that route again, I starting thinking about improvements to my gearing. I remember even back to our Nova Scotia trip, wishing I had just a bit more “climbability” in my cassette, and I decided it was finally time to do something about it. My rear derailleur allows a maximum cog of 36t, which I already had, so I had to add a derailleur hanger extender. Just to provide a bit of “flash”, I bought a Wolf Tooth brand extender and 40t cog, both in red.
Next time up Port Royal Avenue should be a bit easier!
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