The Schuylkill River Trail could be eastern Pennsylvania’s version of the Great Allegheny Passage.
Pennsylvania is one lucky state.
It already has the amazing Great Allegheny Passage, that 150-mile rail-trail from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md., where it links up to the C&O Canal for those wanting to bike to Washington D.C.
After two days on the Schuylkill River Trail, I think this could be eastern Pennsylvania’s response. Admittedly, the trail isn’t completed and some completed sections are on quiet roads, rather than on paths. Nor will it be as long as the GAP. But even on the stretch we did — just over 50 miles from Conshohocken northwest to Reading, and then back — we had urban and rural, one-time industrial towns, some doing better than others, wide open and tree-covered paths, paved and crushed-stone surfaces, glimpses of river and a detour to history at Valley Forge. We even saw a row of four smokestacks, all that remains from an old factory. It could have been on the GAP.
Come Saturday, Oct. 3, I’ll be heading down to Fredericksburg, Va. and the start of the East Coast Greenway’s 2015 Week-a-Year ride.
Come Saturday, Oct. 3, I’ll be heading down to Fredericksburg, Va. and the start of the East Coast Greenway’s 2015 Week-a-Year ride. It’s all part of an effort to ride one week of this 2,900-mile route each year and make it to Key West in 2019. (I missed this first three years — from the Canadian border in Calais, Maine, to Philadelphia, so I have a lot of catching up if I’m going to claim I’ve ridden down the east coast.)
We got more information about the week on Friday, and I am excited that our final group dinner, on the next-to-last day, features Carolina barbecue. We will be eating at The Pit in Durham. This is “eastern Carolina” style barbecue — roasting the whole hog and using a vinegar-based, not tomato-based, sauce — and I suspect I will be getting a barbecue education on this trip. Anything I should know before I start eating?
We’ll be staying in downtown Richmond, in Petersburg, South Hill and Clarksville, if anyone has recommendations for those places.
There’s already a bit of advocacy on the calendar — we’ll be having lunch on the Thursday with the mayor of Oxford, North Carolina, a town of about 8,500.
And on the final day, our ride will join with a one-day ride from Durham to Raleigh. I’m excited that a friend who has moved back to Raleigh will be riding, and I’m looking forward to catching up over the 50 miles.
I’ve said it before and I know I’ll say it again, but thank you everyone who has supported the East Coast Greenway through my ride. Creating an off-road trail down the coast and through major cities is an amazing vision that I want to see turned into reality
My month of trails: the Hudson River Greenway, the 606/Bloomingdale Trail and the Chicago Lakefront, plus the Lawrence Hopewell Trail by moonlight.
For me, August turned out to be a month of riding on trails.
First up: the Hudson River Greenway in Manhattan, as part of the bucket-list Manhattan Loop Ride with the East Coast Greenway. About 40 of us rode to almost the northern tip of Manhattan (and getting a look from below at the newly reopened High Bridge), then down along the Hudson, around Battery Park and up the East River Greenway until it peters out just south of the United Nations.
While there is a stretch along the river north of the U.N., it dies again at one point, and you need to know your way through Harlem to get to another piece of greenway — and then not miss the hidden sharp left halfway down the ramp to the Harlem River Drive. Close the gap and add some signs!
Then off to Chicago, where I took a Divvy Bike (Chicago’s bikeshare program) to check out the Bloomingdale Trail and the 606 (trail + parks). Just wonderful!
On the Bloomingdale Trail
It is twice the length of New York City’s High Line, plus wider and open for bikes. Sweeping on-off ramps make it so accessible. The plantings are still going in so it’s not as lush (and won’t be as precious — but you can see the work of the High Line’s designer in the Lurie Gardens in Chicago’s Millennium Park).
And I finally got to bike along Lake Michigan too. I admit it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with Chicago all over again.
My East Coast Greenway training rides generally haven’t been that arduous this month — blame a lack of time. But I did bike down to the Shore again and again hit the few miles of trail that make up the stalled Capital to Coast Trail.
The month ended with a six-mile moonlight bike ride on part of the almost-finished Lawrence Hopewell Trail, which connects to the East Coast Greenway. Despite the full moon, there wasn’t enough light to cycle without a light (though some people certainly tried). I didn’t see any crashes, thankfully. The organizers smartly sent people headed off in waves, although there were still plenty of people to watch out for. You wondered when some were last on a bike! But at least they were on one!
Loved being able to glance at the moonlit lake, even if I waited until the end to actually stop. The crunch of tires on gravel drowned out most of the sounds of bugs and other bits of nature. Next time I’d either start late or make sure I have enough power in my lights to do a second loop.
And one day I’ll make it to that moonlight ride around Manhattan.
I’ll claim credit for getting a neighbor riding — and now she calls herself a bike evangelist. She’s gotten her daughter riding, then her husband — and now some relatives, after taking them on a trail in Connecticut that is part of the East Coast Greenway.
I have colleagues who think it’s insane to bike in New York City because it just doesn’t feel safe. I say try the Hudson River Greenway, look at the bike maps for bike lanes and start with that.
But this is why I love the East Coast Greenway project. It’s about linking trails and linking cities, and it helps inspire cities to do more (because the East Coast Greenway, as awesome as it is, isn’t enough). Too many bike lanes and trails just … end. And that is frustrating for anyone seeking a safe way to get to where they’re going without a car.
Today I led the neighborhood kids around the block in a bike parade, led by some of the soon-to-kindergartners. And then I helped a 3-year-old start to get the hang of pedaling on her bike with training wheels. She has no tricycle experience, so she’s still learning the concept of pedaling. But hearing her joyous laugh as I helped move her legs and she saw she was moving on a bike, just like the big kids … priceless.
Soon she’ll be pedaling on her own and be one of the 300 million reasons we need trails and other safe places to bike.
This is a bucket-list ride: A 32-mile Manhattan Loop ride, and part of it is on the East Coast Greenway.
The group gets ready for the Four-Island Bike Ride earlier this year
This is a bucket-list ride: A 32-mile ride that goes around Manhattan, using part of the East Coast Greenway.
We’ll start along the East River and go north and counter-clockwise, through Harlem and along the Harlem River Park Greenway, eventually west to the amazing Hudson River Greenway all the way to Battery Park and then north along the East River … until the gap south of the United Nations, where the ride ends.
There are some streets and traffic to negotiate, especially on the east side, but mostly on-street bike lanes. There are some hills on northern sections.
The ride is Aug. 2 (rain date Aug. 9) and will go at an easy-going 10-13 mph, with stops. Yes, we will be riding as a group.
Stopped for a berry break on my ride today. Great mix of sweet and tang.
Stopped for a berry break on my ride today. Great mix of sweet and tang.
33 miles, and then a second, six-miler to pick up a few items from a store. Tough spin class on Saturday. The start of getting serious about my training?
I’ve got something to offer all my East Coast Greenway supporters in the Philadelphia area.
Who wants?
Thank you, everyone who has supported the East Coast Greenway through my ride this year and last year. You’ve all been so generous. Beyond the regular updates on training and the ride, I’ve got something (small) to offer all of you in the Philadelphia area (or with friends in the Philly area) in return.
Wawa fans, who wants any of my four my coupons for $1 off a shorti hoagie? (Expire Sept. 30.) And I’ve got four promotional cards from Chick-fil-A for a free chicken sandwich or chicken nuggets from Philly-area restaurants that expire at the end of the year. These were handed out a recent Trenton Thunder game and I’m happy to pass them on.
Someone must be a Wawa or Chick-fil-A fan, or know someone who is!
I’ll work on a proper East Coast Greenway giveaway next.
Thanks for following this blog and for your encouragement. And anyone who wants to go for a ride, just let me know.
One part of this East Coast Greenway ride involves fundraising. Here’s the plea. Thank you for your support.
One part of this East Coast Greenway ride involves fundraising. Here’s the plea. Thanks to all who have already responded so generously. For everyone else, please consider supporting me and the East Coast Greenway.
Friends,
Once again I’m doing a week-long bike ride for charity and like last year, it is for the East Coast Greenway, an amazing project to string together 2,900 miles of (generally paved) trails through major cities from the Canadian border in Maine down to Key West. Already 30% of the route is away from traffic (such as the D&R Canal towpath and Manhattan’s Hudson River Greenway), and another big chunk is on quieter roads.
Working with governments at all levels to close the gaps is a Herculean effort, but the benefits are enormous — for people young, old and in between, and for those who bike, walk, run .. even cross-country ski.
I’ll be riding 325 miles over six days with about 40 other people, getting a first-hand look at the route from Fredericksburg, Virginia (where last year’s ride ended), to Raleigh, North Carolina. We’ll be paying our own way, so your tax-deductible donation goes straight to the East Coast Greenway Alliance. Everyone who donates at least $25 gets a one-year membership in the ECGA. All those in the New York area, that means there are some ECGA-organized bike rides in NYC that you can do without paying the usual free. I can tell you all about them.
I’ll once again be blogging the ride (and my training), and I hope you’ll follow along.
Here’s what I saw at Ciclovia and what I discovered in Johnson Park across the river.
Today was a chance to explore a bit of New Brunswick and Johnson Park in Piscataway, as New Brunswick shut down a few miles of street to traffic and turned it over to the people in one of the year’s three Ciclovias. We — a group of five — arrived just as it began, and by the time we left after ice cream, er lunch, kids had taken over with their bikes and trikes, found the bouncy castle and were cooling off with a temporary fountain:
I got a smattering of that spray and oh did that feel good in the day’s heat!
A colleague took us beyond Ciclovia and guess what I found:
On Sunday I’ll be riding with some friends (and the Brit!) to New Brunswick for the summer Ciclovia — one of three times in the year when some city streets are closed to traffic and opened to the people for biking, walking, playing.
Though New Brunswick is on the East Coast Greenway, we’re passing up the trail (ie towpath) and opting for a shorter 20 miles of mostly quiet roads instead. And there’s always the train for those who don’t want to ride another 20 miles home. Our experience at last summer’s Ciclovia was that the streets aren’t anywhere as packed as when New York City shuts down Park Avenue for Summer Saturdays in August — but then New Brunswick is never as packed as New York!
A bonus: One of the people in the group has only recently become comfortable riding with traffic — but he’s now so comfortable that he’s ridden out to the Shore!
Exploring by bicycle 