This past Tuesday I was in the mood to bike. I felt stressed about my
ongoing job search and it was a perfect, partly-sunny 70-degree day. So instead
of think of a good route and taking my camera with me I decided to grab my iPod
and Loretta and bike up the Schuylkill River Trail. I put on Lady Gaga’s new album Born this Way and before I knew it I was
in Norristown!
|
Miles
|
Minutes
|
Speed
|
Calories Burned
|
|
37.6
|
157
|
14.4
|
1,890
|
Because I didn’t take any pictures I have no real memory of what was
happening on my ride – I also wasn’t paying much attention to my surroundings. However there are some big landmarks that a
cyclist (or anyone I suppose) passes along the way and I’d be remised not to
describe some of them. At some point in
the future I will take a camera and photo-document the ride.
As all can suspect the ride begins in Fairmount Park and goes along the
Ridge Avenue detour to Main Street Manayunk, no need to describe or discuss
that. Through the next part one can
choose either the Manayunk Canal Towpath or Main Street to Umbria Street. I
took both (the streets on the way to Norristown the towpath on the way back to
Philly) – the former is all on streets but there are some pretty ridiculous
hills and the latter is all made up of boardwalk and gravel, which Loretta doesn’t
appreciate. Both places lead you to Nixon
Street, way up in Roxborough, and the beginning of the Schuylkill Trail that
leads to Collegeville/Phoenixville and beyond.
The path runs mostly along an old rail line. Sometimes it’s very
evident, like right at the beginning near Nixon Street, there are over head
wires and the path is enclosed by gigantic trees or rock formations on either
side. On the way to Conshohocken, the
only notable thing that I can remember is the area around the Minquon regional
rail stop. You cannot see it from the path but there is some nondescript
building off the path. There are always people
smoking outside of the stairway too – it makes no sense. Once in Conshohocken the path then crosses
several streets, and crosses old railroad tracks that are gone but apparently
it was too difficult to remove them from the path. Or someone thought that was
a great design choice; Loretta’s tires would beg to differ. On the other side
of Conshohocken is a GIANT steel mill and unlike the other steel mills in the
rust belt it’s actually in operation. I find that fact kinda amazing. After the
mill there are a few industrial sights peeking out, the PA turnpike and a road
to a sewage treatment plant that smells horrendous. Also near the treatment plant is an odd curly-cue
ramp that takes cyclist over top of the rail lines that are in use. It was here
where I have never seen some many groundhogs. There was a groundhog that ran
along with me for a bit and there were two groundhogs that were about the f…ight. It was definitely fight, but I wasn’t sure
for a bit. Bold move either way. From
the curly-cue and fighting ground hogs Norristown is just about a mile away, up
a gradual hill that overlooks the city. I
stopped at the Norristown Transportation Center which is the hub for many
suburban bus lines, the Norristown Line formerly the R6, and the Norristown
High Speed Line. The center itself looks
like a half-assed, 1980s version of a Mies van der Rohe house, but it does have
cold water and that I was thankful for. Again I’ll photo document this ride and
research it at some other point, I was just happy to go on such a long ride, it’s
the longest I’ve done this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment