Chris & Jack & Tom's Perkiomen Adventure

As most of the regulars know riding with Chris is always an adventure especially if you are on a mountain bike. The last time we were out on mountain bikes together it was to Pennypack park and although we both made it back undamaged there were a few adventures( bike and ice problems) along the way. Chris has been wanting to do the Perkiomen trail for a couple of years and asked me to set up a ride. Even though this trail is in my Best Bike Rides Philadelphia book I had never actual done it since it was one of the rides my co-author did.

So Saturday morning I picked up Chris and drove down to a parking lot where the Schuylkill river trail meets the Perkiomen trail. I also convinced Jack to join us. The Philadelphia area has a really amazing variety of trails between the Schuylkill, Pennypack, Perkiomen, Skippack, and many other small trails there are plenty of places to ride safely off road. Some of these trails like the Schuylkill are paved and can be done on a road or mountain bike.

The Perkiomen trail mostly follows the Perkiomen river and goes through the towns of Collegeville, Schwenksville and ends in the town of Green Lane in the park by the lake. Even though it follows a river the terrain is not entirely flat like the D&R canal path. For the first 6 miles the path is relatively flat as you make your way to and through Collegeville.. Just north of there we found a outdoor model train set.

This isn't your normal small train model but one actually big enough to ride. You actually sit on top of the train or in the beach chair on the flat bed car. Cool but weird.

Near Schwenksville the path went from mostly straight to a grand prix track with a lot of twist and turns on both paved and gravel surfaces. It was fun twisting through the course and pushing the mountain bike a little beyond what is safe.

In this part of the path we crossed the Perkiomen 4 or 5 times. I didn't stop for a picture at every crossing but the picture below is what most of the views looked like.

Although the northern park of trail has some rolling hills there is one notable hill of a 10% for a half mile that had Jack had to really push to get up. I didn't realize the cross bike he was riding had a single chain ring on the front (42T) and probably an 11-25T cassette on the back. It really not meant for hills. The good new is he made it up the 10% grade (barely) the bad news was that on the way back the grade coming up this hill would be 12%. I did a quick calculation in my head which looked like this

     42T front chain ring  X 25T rear gear with 27 inch wheel = 45 gear inches
     45 gear inches divided by the SumOf(12% Over 0.5 miles) = Jack is walking up the hill.

There was some margin of error in the calculation but the general conclusion was PAIN for Jack.

After another 5 miles we had 20 miles total with a couple of wrong turns thrown in. We ended up in Green Lane park and took a break before heading back. There are 10-15 miles of paths around the lake that we didn't do but I think I may try them in the future as it would be a scenic ride,

The way back was just as much fun as the way up. (Except for the 12% climb which I spun up in my triple as Jack gutted it out and made it with out walking.). This a very scenic and well maintained trail.

10% or so of the path is paved the rest is mostly fine crushed gravel so it is a smooth ride although hillier than your normal rail trail. Its too bad I didn't get more people to join me but may try to do this one again in the fall.

Rainy Riding

Looking through my posts for this spring I realized that rain has been a supporting character in most of them. It seems like this year has been rainier than other years, at least on the weekends. Last weekend I did a ride out of Mansfield down to Chatsworth and back. We didn't get wet but I did have to move the ride to Sunday instead of Saturday because of an all day rain storm.

Because the ride was on mother's day I didn't get a lot of people joining me. Only Jack and Laura showed up. Before the ride we were stopped by a cop in the parking lot to get advice for what kind of road bike to buy. Its hard to give someone everything they need to know to buy a good bike in a few minutes but hopefully we gave him some good pointers.

The ride itself was long and windy mostly out of the west. It was sunny but mid 50s and didn't really warm up much during the ride. We made our way through Pemberton and eventually to a quick bathroom stop at Lebanon state forest where we meet a retired gentleman who had an interesting story about his dog accidentally getting high.

From there we made a quick stop in Chatsworth at general store that has been open for 151 years. I have never stopped here because it was a real general store where you buy grocery and household items but wanted to see it before it closes down in a month.  It was then 10 miles into a stiff breeze to get the Nixon's. The one and only please to stop in the deep pinelands. At Nixon's we ran into Mary and Tru who were doing a 70 mile loop. 

On the way back I went on some different roads to try them out and add miles. One of them lead us past an airport/playground/hotel which is were airplane geeks spend their weekends. In Smithville I uncharacteristically went around a bridge out. It felt wrong but wanted to prove I don't have to go over every bridge out I see.

By the time we got back we had 68 miles. It felt good to do a long ride after the hills of Danville.

This past Saturday the weather report looked good. Laura was planning a long ride to Belmar to take advantage of the weather. I couldn't go because I had to get home early. I could of  went with them and then turned around after 25 miles but wanted to do some hills to be in better shape for Ithaca.

I planned to go to Rocky hill and do a quick 40 miles in the Sourlands. On Saturday morning when I woke up it was cloudy which was some what expected but when I looked at the radar there was some light rain to the west. It looked north of where I was going and was moving north east and looked light so I thought I would be OK. I got Pete to join me and he meet me in the parking lot at 518 and Canal.

It was getting darker and there were a few sprits of rain as we when over the new bridge on 518. By the time we crossed 206 it was a little steadier. I hopped it would stay light and we would just punch through it. As we climbed up Hollow Rd it was getting heavier and the road and my shoes were getting very wet. We meet someone coming down from Lindbergh who said it was a sluice up ahead.  That's when Pete turned for home. I decide to keep going because at this point I was already wet and it looked a little better to the south.

I continued along the ridge south where the rain lighten up a little. Riding in the rain is not a good feeling because your shorts feel like wet diapers and your feet feel like you are wearing cold wet rags. Still if you aren't too cold and the visibility isn't too bad you can accept the fact that you are going to be riding wet and just keep going.

Obviously many people were surprised by the weather because I saw a LOT of bikers riding and everyone I passed was like WTF is with this weather.

I made my way to Stony Brook and down into Hopewell. I then made my way to Bayberry and around Princeton on Pretty Brook, Stuart, Cherry Valley and Terhune eventually making my way back to Rocky Hill. After I came down Stony Brook the rain had mostly let up but the roads were still wet. I ended up doing a totally different route than planned but did manage 37 miles and 2000 feet of climbing.

I did get the miles and climbing I wanted but the ride totally sucked. Hopefully I have paid my dues to the rain gods and I won't have to worry about the rain for my next few rides.

Don't Let Ombrophobia Ruin Your Weekend

Rain can ruin a biking trip.......if you let it.

Ombrophobia is fear of rain and looking at this weekends weather forecast of 80-90% chance of rain each day made me fear that the spring's Philly Bike Club(BCP) would be filled with raining days and no riding. Ed, Jack and I exchanged emails about the weather and final driving arrangements. Because of the 100% chance of raging thunderstorms on Friday we decided to leave later in the morning. Ed and I would meet at Jacks at 10am and drive to Danville. Or that was a least the plan until Ed called at 9:55 am and said he was just leaving his place. Jack and I said we would wait for him since it was pouring rain and there wasn't any reason to hurry out there but Ed decided to just drive himself out there.

When we left it was raining really hard which made the drive slow as we made our way up 31 on our way to 78 and then up to 80. About a hour into the ride I got a call from Ed. He said he was turning around and going home because he forgot money, medicine and some other important things. A half hour later I got a text from Jim and TEW that they had car troubles and were turning around. So the five people going to Danville was now down to 2.

A half hour out of Danville the rain slowly stopped. Jack and I stopped in the town of Blomsburg for a nice lunch in a local deli. This area is filled with small college towns from the 1800s that are well preserved. After lunch we made our way the last 10 miles to Danville and the hotel. The rain had stopped the roads were drying. A quick look at the radar showed we had a few hours before it might rain again. Despite the forecast we were actually going to get a ride in. A few minutes later I got another text from Jim that they had not actually turned around and were about 20 mins away.

Once Jim got there we quickly jumped on the bikes and headed north. I had picked out a ride to the Montour preserve because it seemed like an interesting place to go see. I had not really studied the route that much but it was a typical Tom ride. There was a steep climb a mile from the start, we had to go around a bridge out, and some dirt was involved. PERFECT. The Montour preserve was a small reservoir and nature preserve that made a good picture stop even with overcast skies.

During the ride we crossed paths a young woman who was following the same route. When we got to a gravel road that the cue sheet had told us to take she caught up to us. Going down gravel road to a river didn't seem like a good idea with all the rail we just had so I looked at the map and found another way. The woman, who's name turned out to be Laura, came along. She was a good substitute for the real Laura and a little nicer. She had just started biking a couple of years ago and didn't think she could keep up with us but she was stronger than she thought as she push over the last climb in the middle of the pack. 

We got back to the hotel with 26 miles and 1800 ft of climbing and didn't get wet.

Other bikers had arrived and were riding. As is usual for a BCP trip the meeting room of the hotel was turned into a room full of snacks and drinks and a general gathering place for all the bikers. They also served a buffet dinner there on Friday. Before dinner I got a text from Ed that said he wasn't going to make it out for the weekend.  Its too bad he did make it out but it did mean I had a room to myself

After dinner I poured over the cue sheets that were handed out and looked at the future weather. The forecast wasn't great 60% chance from 9am onward but I was encouraged by the future radar as it showed there might be a window in the morning to get a least a few miles in. I had 5 different routes planned out from 22 to 47 miles.

When I woke up in the morning it was cloudy but bright and not raining. The radar showed it would be clear until at least 10:30am. Jack and Jim were both at breakfast a 7am and so we talked and decided to leave at 8 am to get as much riding in before the rain. I decided to do a covered bridge ride which I had combine with another ride to make it a little longer and avoid some of the busier roads. At 41 miles it would mean taking a chance getting caught in the rain but wanted to get as many miles in as possible.

The first part of the ride was mostly down hill as we made our way towards the Susquehanna river and the town of Blomsburg. A biker started following us from the parking lot of the hotel. I initial thought he was doing his own thing until he made the first turn with us. It turned out he was looking for group to ride with and thought we looked like a group he could hang with. He's name was Jack so we now had a backup Jack in case we lost one along the way.  He was a good rider and fit right in.

 We when through our first covered bridge before we crossed the river into Catawissa. Then it was a constant 8% climb to get into a valley with a couple more covered bridges. This was beautiful country. It was mostly overcast but with did have a few moments of sun and blue sky and stopped a few times for pictures

The terrain was mostly rolling farmlands and rivers with a few campgrounds thrown in but almost no traffic at all. We eventually climbed out of the valley back to the Susquehanna as we road back towards the hotel. It was around 11 am and we ran into some moderate rain. It only lasted 5 mins. New Jack then had a flat but we stayed with him anyway to help him change it.

A couple miles later we were at the famous ice cream shop where Jim treated us (because it was his 62 birthday? (I thought he was suppose to get stuff on this day)). In any case the ice cream was good and we got friended by a talkative local.

We crossed back over the river through Danville where a street fair was going on.

We had to ride the sidewalks for a while to get around the crowd. Jim had a flat half way through town which he changed quickly before we made it back up the hill top the hotel. By the time we got back it was just noon and were on borrowed time. I thought it would be raining by now but it held off for another 15 mins before it actually started so we got lucky getting 41 miles and 2500 ft of climbing in.

On Saturday night we all got in a bus and went to Sunbury to the Edison hotel for dinner. The food was good and we meet a few other bikers who had done the covered bridge ride (but went out later and got wet). We also got a chance to sing happy birthday to Jim when he got a surprise chocolate cake.

We got back late. I check the weather before bed and it wasn't looking good for Sunday. When I woke up it was already raining and from the radar it didn't look like it would let up before noon. Jack and I meet at breakfast and decided just to head home but I suggested a quick side trip.

One of the women at dinner was a covered bridge aficionado who said that the only twin covered bridge in the US was only a few miles away so I found where it was and decided to see what the hell a twin covered bridge is. As the picture at the top and bottom of the blog show it is just two covered bridges that connect to each other. This is no longer a functional bridge but a picnic area. Interesting but after we few pictures we headed home in the rain.

Even though we didn't get a ride in on Sunday it was a good trip. We got two good rides in, have some new stories to tell and hung out with some other bikers for the weekend. The hotel was only about 70% full so I know lot of people didn't show up for the trip which is their lost. As experience has told us weather forecasts are somewhere between 0% -100% accurate (closer to 0% most of the time) so you can't trust the forecast. If you have a tripped plan you shouldn't cancel because of a bad forecast you should go and see what happens. Sometimes you will get wet somethings you will be lucky but no matter what you will always have fun.