A day in Philadelphia: a 30-mile bike ride and a trip to the Eastern State Penitentiary.
A month after the ribbon cutting, I finally was able to check out the latest extension to the Schuylkill River Trail — the gleaming white Christian to Crescent section that juts above the water.
Continue reading “I paired pedaling the newest part of the Schuylkill River Trail with an off-bike adventure”Loved biking on the Schuylkill River and Chester Valley trails. The hills that followed? They never seemed to end.
How in the world did we (Komoot? Ride with GPS?) pick this metric century route to Gap, Pa., a small town in Lancaster County?
Continue reading “Day 1 of biking from Philadelphia to DC: trails (yay) and hills (too many)”Still plenty of urban grit, but this section heading south from Center City Philadelphia is getting better for biking — and more is coming.
Nine years ago, I biked from suburban Conshohocken through Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware along the East Coast Greenway route.
It was time to see how part of the East Coast Greenway route had changed since then.
Continue reading “The East Coast Greenway from Philadelphia to John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge”The Schuylkill River Trail has had lots of upgrades since I biked from Conshohocken to Reading seven years ago. This time I started in Philadelphia. Here’s what I found.
Actually, make that two solid metric centuries — 62-plus miles each time — since we — my sister and I — biked back the next day.
Continue reading “Schuylkill River Trail: A metric century from Philadelphia to Reading”These bike overnights are all trail or mostly trails. Trips range from one night to closer to a week.
I started this list with 5 favorite DIY bike overnights using trails or mostly trails and (important for me) easily reached from New Jersey. Now it’s 2025, and my list has grown to 7.
More trails are coming, so biking within a day’s drive of New Jersey will only get better.
Continue reading “An updated list of 7 great bike-trail overnights within easy reach of New Jersey”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.
Continue reading “A bike overnight on Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill River Trail”Today’s 50-mile route was bookended by two fabulous trails: The Schuylkill River Trail and the Northern Delaware Greenway trail.
Today’s 50-mile route was bookended by two fabulous trails: The Schuylkill River Trail that runs from Conshohocken (actually 27 miles from Valley Forge, or even beyond, with some road bits) to Philadelphia, and the Northern Delaware Greenway trail, which runs for at least nine miles, sometimes in sight of I-95(!), and connects several parks before it essentially dumped us out in downtown Wilmington.
In between was plenty of urban grit and some surprises, such as the view of the Philadelphia skyline from Bartram’s Garden. And then the birds enjoying the wetlands of the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge within sight of the airport.
Of course we also stumbled across odd stuff too, like the groups of guys who drove their cars onto the piers under the Commodore Barry Bridge in Chester. Not that there looked like there was much to do in town.
Exploring by bicycle 