Apparently, she was considerate enough to yell out to everyone else to watch out for the dangerous storm grate that stretched completely across Haws Avenue as it ducks under the Schuylkill River Trail, but didn't take her own safety into account. Her front wheel lodged right into one of the perfect-width-of-a-bike-tire slots in the grate and sent her catapulting over the bars.
Maybe because she was just 100 meters from the start and not going particularly fast, it seemed she had gotten off pretty lightly. Most of the pain was in her upper chest, where she was impaled by her right shift lever. Although we all would have understood if she had decided to bail, there was no way she was having any of that, insisting, "I'll be fine." It now seemed the biggest obstacle to her continuing was the lever, which was twisted into a position that would make braking very difficult.
Mind you, several of us had tools that would normally help in minor repair situations, but nothing we had would fit into the semi-concealed position of the hex nut on the side of the lever. It then occurred to me that her need to brake on the trail would be minimal until we reached Manayunk and that there were a couple of bike shop options along the way.
With the Cannondale sorted out by a borrowed long-handle hex wrench at the Tricycle Café & Bicycle Shop in Conshohocken, we were back on the trail, spinning along at a comfortable, social pace. Although she didn't quite seem at 100% to me, Sue certainly didn't let it affect her performance among a crew that probably averaged a few miles per hour more than she would regularly ride on her own.
She pointed out later that it had been about five years since she had tackled the nasty little climbs in and out of Manayunk up Umbria Street, since we had been taking the low route along the canal towpath during recent Turkey Treks. She was rightly proud not be lagging behind much, and she credited it to regularly riding the hilly terrain on her commute between our house and school.
Although I prefer not to double back on the same route, we regretted the decision to ride along Kelly Drive on the way in, as it was mobbed with joggers who seemed to be amused by being an obstacle to our group. They really needed to stay out of the center of the trail and then consistently decide which direction and on which side they were going to be running!
It turns out we soon had to come to a complete stop at Boathouse Row when a crew team blocked the entire trail. They must have been inexperience with loading/unloading their boats, because they had parked too closely to the door and couldn't swing their shell (I checked the correct term - a scull is a boat propelled by rowers with an oar in each hand) through the tight space between the boathouse and their trailer.
In the photo below, you can see the woman on the left, in the white sweatshirt and dark vest, who had to duck the tip of the shell between the racks of the trailer in order to swing it clear. The operation was complicated by the fin sticking up in front of the guy in black.
After a quick bathroom and water refill break at Lloyd Hall Rec Center, we continued on past the Art Museum, around Eakins Oval and east, down the bike lane on Spring Garden Street. The stop/start routine at traffic lights across to Old City was a bit frustrating, but the destination of the wonderful dedicated bike path along Penn's Landing was well worth it!
I pointed out a few points of interest, as we rode under the Ben Franklin Bridge, past the River Rink, Great Plaza and the Seaport Museum. We talked about the in-progress project to cap I-95 with a park to improve access between the waterfront and center city. We eventually reached Spruce Street and briefly rode on the gentler brick-surfaced sidewalks, instead of the brutal cobbled streets around Foglietta Plaza.
I wanted to show the gang some of the pretty neighborhoods that I discovered during my City Cycling rides a few years ago, so before pedaling out of Society Hill, we made a left at American Street, which is barely the width of a compact car. We then posed for a photo at the corner of Delancey and Philip Streets:
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| American Street |
Back on the bike lane at Spruce Street, we passed near Washington Square and crossed the Avenue of the Arts (Broad Street), right by the Kimmel Center. Within a stone's throw of Rittenhouse Square, we turned left on 19th Street, passing General George Mead's home to reach Panama Street. This pretty lane has long been the home of musicians, artists and writers:
We returned to Spruce, soon reaching 25th Street and the link back to the SRT at Locust Street. The bridge at Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive is undergoing a major repair process, so we followed the detour over the Spring Garden Bridge and north on 31st Street/Mantua Avenue.
After turning right on 34th Street, we were doing a fast, slightly downhill run past the zoo to the intersection with Girard Avenue. From here it was an easy coast down Lansdowne and Sweetbriar Drives to reach the trail on the west bank of the Schuylkill. We laughed to ourselves to see a handful of people riding in the street, since the newly-laid asphalt on this trail was super-smooth and completely free of traffic!
The rest of the route was very familiar and, thankfully, free of any further incidents. Sue was expectedly sore the next morning, but not unbearably so. Unfortunately, her injuries seemed to be aggravated by a massage that she had scheduled ahead of time, so much so that the next morning she was wincing when taking deep breaths.
She decided to pay a visit to an Urgent Care facility near home, from which she returned with a sling for her sprained shoulder. A bruised chest wall also had her prescribed one of those little blowing (in her case, inhaling) exercise machines to help ward off pneumonia.
A couple of the guys called or sent emails to check up on her and were only more impressed that she had dug in and finished off the four hours or so in the saddle. "Whoa, she's hardcore!" ...indeed!
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