Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Bridges of Buck County

Click Here for More Pictures
Anybody wanting to see a some covered bridges can take a tour through Bucks county PA which has 11 of them scattered around. As part of exploring and mapping out rides in PA I took a couple of rides this week to check out some of these bridges.

The first ride I did was to explore the area around Newtown. As part of this ride I rode through Tyler Park which contains the Schofield Covered Bridge. Unlike other cover bridges in Bucks county this one is no longer used by cars and now is only used by hiker and horses in Tyler Park

While checking out the bridge I also rode some of the 10 miles of bike paths in the park. Tyler park is pretty nice there are a lot of wooded areas and fields and some nice paths along the Neshaminy Creek. There is also a nice picnic and beach area. All the bike paths are paved so it was easy riding around.

After Tyler park I headed north along the ridge towards New Hope and did a few hills before eventually making my way to the Van Sant Bridge.





On Saturday I headed to PA again. This time I started from Bulls island and headed up to Doylestown. I had one tough climb up Wismer then cruised along the ridge. The PA side has a lot more ups and downs than the NJ side so it was slow going. On Wismer I ran into the Loux Bridge and then headed downhill to the Frankenfield Bridge.



Eventually just before I made my way back to the Delaware river I checked out the Erwinna Bridge which really is kind of ugly and beat up.

After this I crossed over to NJ and took a break in Frenchtown. I had only 27 mile in at this point so from Frenchtown I headed up the ridge and road along on 519 before making my way back to Bulls Island via Federal Twist. I did a lot of climbing in this ride so coming all the way down on Federal Twist was my reward for all the climbs. I actually hit 45 mph which felt great but dangerous.

There are still a lot of covered bridges I didn't get a chance to see so I'm sure I will visit this area again to try and see a few more.

No comments: