Ridley Creek State Park

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This weeks effort to learn more about the roads in and around Philly led me to Ridley Creek State park. This 2600 acre park is about 16 miles south of the city and looked like a cool place to check out. The Philly bike club had a ride from center city to the park and back so I took the opportunity to tag along and learn some new roads.

I ended up doing a 45 mile ride and found some good roads. The nice thing about Philly is that it doesn't take too long to get out of the main city and on to quieter roads. The ride to the park was nice and a little hillier than I thought it would be but there was nothing real steep or long just a lot of ups and downs.

The park itself is nice and has a 5 mile paved trail with a pretty good hill at the start, a 200 foot climb in 3/4 of a mile. The park is mostly heavily forested land with a few open areas. The park also contains an old stone mansion, an arboretum and of course Ridley Creek. The pave trail is one big loop so the group I was riding with sort of split up and road at different paces until we all met up back again at the beginning of the trail.

The ride back to Philly a little more direct. A few people in the group were getting tired so we had to wait at the top of some of the climbs. Eventually as we go closer to the city a few people decided to go ahead on their own to get back a little quicker. Since I was in a little hurry myself to get home I decided to head back with them.

I am enjoying my exploration of Philly and learning new roads. Today's route was one of the better rides I did and one I would probably do again.