Baby Do You Wanna To Take A Ride Into Philadelphia

    Once again my title is making reference to a song, in this case one by my friend John Faye, a supremely talented local musician, who had his "brush with greatness" with some national air play and an opening gig for Bon Jovi, though everyone who has heard his music and/or met John knows he is pretty great, musically and as a person! Check John out when you have a chance, or his early band The Caulfields, the John Faye Power Trip or the group IKE, for whom my sons were patrons back in the late-2000s.

   My friend Mark does an annual 100-mile ride from his home in Douglassville into Philadelphia and back. Last year he "picked me up" on the Schuylkill Trail, just down the hill from my home and across the river in Spring City. During the 70 miles of the ride we shared together, a variety of topics were covered and many laughs were had.

   He kindly asked me along again this year, and I met him on an early, chilly Friday morning a couple of weeks ago. As he greeted me on the trail, we immediately started questioning our apparel, as the sun was quickly warming up the day - it is difficult to dress for rides that have a 30-degree temparature swing, but we agreed it is always better to be a bit too warm than too cold!

   I remembered that Mark told me that he always had to tack a couple of extra miles onto the end of his route in order to reach the 100-mile mark, and I asked him if he might like to change up the return leg a bit, as I had a fun detour in mind. We both have ridden the Schuylkill Trail more times than we can count, and mixing things up a little appealed to him. "I trust you," he replied.

   He already had about 18 miles in his legs by the time he reached me, so it wasn't quite as much of a factor for him, but I don't enjoy not being warmed up when hitting the brutal climb the trail takes from just past the Cromby Trailhead up to the north side of Phoenixville. Anyone who has ridden in the area with me knows how much it bothers me that the powers-that-be did not put the funds into reopening the tunnel. Rails To Trails advocates are always pointing out how features like tunnels and bridges are big draws to tourists using these cycling routes...and that big hill is a major obstacle to the casual pedaler!

   Later on we would employ the strategy that I regularly use to avoid returning up that hill, as it's often on the tail end of my rides, and I would still have the incline up Main Street in Royersford to contend with before reaching home. Instead of following the trail through Phoenixville, where the hill would start down at the level of French Creek and head steeply up over the north side, we rode the gentle climb downtown on Bridge Street then turned right on Gay Street to use the more gradual ascent on the big concrete arch bridge. My friends enjoy the neighborhood we cut through to rejoin the summit of the Schuylkill Trail, as the streets are all named after former Phillies.

   Because Mark regularly joins my Tuesday night crew during the summers, I was aware that he was at a high level of fitness, so I wasn't too surprised that he opted for the hilly route up Umbria Street into Roxborough, instead of the canal towpath into Manayunk. I imagine they were added as a speed control for traffic, but I warned him of some new stop signs along the street, as a couple weeks ago Sue had an unexpected surprise when a driver nosed out towards her from one of these intersections - a delivery truck has completely obscured her vision of the new stop sign there!

   It isn't too often that I'm riding far enough with my friends that I need to refuel, but this was certainly the case, and after we rejoined the trail along Kelly Drive, we cut back the speed a bit to snack on the go. The bicycle and foot traffic increased as we neared the city, so slowing down is usually a good idea anyway.

   We passed the usual landmarks, such as Boathouse Row, the waterworks and art museum, then ducked under the newly-completed renovation of the MLK Bridge, which includes a bike lane over to West River Drive. We'll be taking that route next weekend during the 11th Annual Tech Turkey Trek (see details below).

   Heading out over the Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk, we came to the recently-opened cable-stay bridge connection to the Grays Ferry Crescent park. The $48 million project improves access to the southwestern part of the city that was cut off by the river, parallel railroad lines and Schuylkill Expressway.

A view back at the city skline from the bridge

   After ducking under Grays Ferry Avenue, we took a left turn and looped back over the bridge there. Although it has a nice bike lane, a plan is in place to renovate an existing railroad swing bridge that exists just downstream. Trail users will be able to join up with a section of the SRT on the west bank over to Bartram's Garden.

   I've been over to the Kingsessing section of the city a few times since the new Crescent connection was opened, and I've finally figured out the best way to avoid the nasty paving and dangerous trolley tracks that lie along 49th Street. After crossing the bridge, we turned right at the traffic light onto Paschall Avenue, then left on 47th. We pedaled a couple of blocks, including a short climb up over the Septa rail line, then turned left to reach a protected bike lane along 48th Street.

   

   As shown in the above photo from this location, many of the bike lanes in the city have been moved inside of the parked cars, preventing accidents with drivers opening their car doors and providing a safer barrier from traffic. This is really a pretty, shaded neighorbood, and the bike lane stretches across Baltimore Pike into West Philadelphia, under the Market Street L to reach the east-west bike lane at Haverford Avenue.

   However, we continued north on 48th, and although the bike lane was gone, there was significantly less traffic on this street, so we didn't feel very stressed on our way to Girard Avenue. A short ride to the east on bike lanes took us over to Belmont Avenue, where there is a bit of a tricky crossing because of the trolley tracks in the center. A wise move is to simply use the crosswalks with the aid of the traffic light and then rejoin the northbound bike lane up Belmont.

   I often mention the really nice protected bike lane along Parkside, near the Please Touch Museum (in the 1876 Centennial Exposition's Memorial Hall), not only because it is an underused resource, but because the parks department often leaves it covered in lawn clippings and tree cuttings. Neighborhood residents and visitors then feel free to add their litter to the mess - it is just a shame!

   Circling to the northwest on this route, we met the bike lane on Bryn Mawr Avenue, which took us through another nice neighborhood out to Bala Cynwyd. We zigzagged over Union and Bala Avenues to reach the train station at the southern end of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail. I recently discovered a shortcut over to the station via the entrance to the parking garage at the BMW dealer, which nicely avoided the busy intersection at Montgomery Avenue and Conshohocken State Road.

   We enjoyed the mostly downhill coast on the two-mile trail, and Mark stopped to take the photo below from the Manayunk Bridge. I mentioned to him that, if you crop the Expressway out of the right side, with the Gothic church and blocky, Euro-looking housing, it looks like we had been instead riding along the Rhine or Danube!

   A few days later, I would be returning to Manayunk to drop off my friend Robert's Somec bicycle. He had provided the Campagnolo Nuovo Record group and Cinelli bar/stem combo, while I supplied from my stock a nice wheelset built up with C-Record hubs and Mavic MA40 rims.

   Speaking of Nuovo Record, because I recently found a similar groupset in really nice condition, I shifted around my build queue a bit to complete the Gitane Trophee de France 1848 that I had purchased Christmastime last year. The French classic is just like it appears in the company's 1978 catalog, accept for the nicks and scrapes on the frame from 47 years of use! I found sets of brand new Campagnolo cable clips and guides to give it real sparkle. The bicycle is now available on my For Sale page!

   This year's Cycle Tech Turkey Trek will be taking place on Saturday, November 8th. We're going to visit the two new Schuylkill Trail features mentioned in this blog entry, so we'll be starting a bit further along the way at Riverfront Park, at the end of Haws Avenue in Norristown. Our 40-mile loop will follow our traditional route into Philadelphia but will continue onto the Schuylkill Banks section of the trail, then onto the connection with the Grays Ferry Crescent. We'll turn around at the park there, then veer west at the Art Museum onto the MLK, Jr. Drive bridge and head back towards Manayunk on the other side of the river. All are welcome - hope you and maybe some friends can join us!