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.
The trail sounds neat, as does the ride description, but what I am most taken by is your instantaneous ability to do gear-inch calculations, and the analog result that ensued.
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