Bike Trip!
So I've been really obsessed with the idea of long distance bike touring these last couple of weeks. Unfortunately my bike's a single speed, which is awesome for riding around Philadelphia, but isn't great for going anywhere I might encounter hills. I want to buy a good touring bike eventually and start riding around the country, but I'm starting small.
The first long distance bike ride I took was to valley forge on monday. It's supposedly 16 miles out and 16 back, but according to my bike computer the trip ended up taking us 55 miles total! More on that inconsistency later... I know 55 miles isn't really that much in the touring community but i am fucking proud of myself! Here's the story of my first long bike ride:
So Jasmine and I wake up and eat egg sandwiches and lots of iced coffee for breakfast. We put on sunscreen, pack Ramona in my basket, and head out to Acme where I liberated some yummy $10 cheese, crusty bread, some apples, and goldfish crackers! Of course, we both had to make pee stops on the way to the start of the trail because of all the coffee we drank, so we didn't actually get on the skuylkill trail until about 12:30pm.
We start out pretty strong, going between 13-15 mph. The path isn't very crowded cause it's early yet, and we move along pretty nicely. Neither of us had done this trip before, but multiple people had assured me that it was a super easy route, and we wouldn't get lost. Ha! We biked up to Ridge ave, where we stopped for a second, not sure if we should cross the street and continue the trail or do something else. We decided to continue on the trail, and I'm glad we did cause it was really pretty up there! However... the trail eventually ended and shot us out on a steep fucking hill that I couldn't even make it up (single speed+ramona in a basket+starting from a complete stop=me walking my bike up the hill). We had no idea where we were going, but we kinda just went for a while until we saw a woman who told us we were in Germantown, and told us how to get back to Manayunk. Jasmine was annoyed. I was having fun... I had never been to Germantown before! So we rode around on Schoolhouse lane or something like that, near Philadelphia University, and it was nice. We got to go down a crazy hill, and Ramona decided halfway down that she wasn't into this hill business, and started trying to climb out of her basket onto my back (keep in mind that my back was almost horizontal due to the hill). The hill was so steep and I was already going so fast that my brakes were pretty useless, and I had to try my best to keep Ramona from leaping out to sudden death while keeping myself upright... it was kinda scary. We finally make it back to Ridge Ave (yeah, where this whole thing started, fuck!) and took the right way this time onto Main St. Manayunk. We stopped at the bike shop to make sure we were going the right away, and this time we were.
At this point we joined another path called the Manayunk Tow Path. It was right next to the canal, and unfortunately was gravel for about 2 miles... that sucked. Both Jasmine and I had sore wrists from the constant jolting and we had to ride really slow to avoid kicking up rocks or getting flat tires. Next time I ride to Valley Forge I will find a street route to bypass that stupid gravel shit. After the gravel the path was nicely paved, and it was a straight shot from there. We found a really neat old factory building with crazy graffiti all over the inside. There weren't very many people on the path, so I let Ramona run alongside us for a while... she keeps up!
Finally we made it to Valley Forge! At this point we had ridden about 30 miles. We were both pretty tired and hungry, so we didn't do much there other than eat and take a few pictures of the river. The best part was kissing Jasmine next to the river, then looking up and seeing that someone in a kayak had stealthily pulled up right below us. Um, embarrassing.
I thought the way back would be way harder, but after that little rest I felt fine. Jasmine was mad at me for going too fast (it's not my fault, my gear ratio is just bigger than hers!) so we kept a pretty consistent 10-12 mph on the way back. We saw the city skyline coming up right as the sun was setting, and it was a pretty amazing feeling! We hit the 50 mile mark on the Kelly Drive trail and we got really excited. Well, I did anyway.
We made it home around 7pm. I don't really understand why it took us so long... But it was super fun!
Who wants to come next time? Other ideas for short trips I can do on a single speed in the Philly area?
The first long distance bike ride I took was to valley forge on monday. It's supposedly 16 miles out and 16 back, but according to my bike computer the trip ended up taking us 55 miles total! More on that inconsistency later... I know 55 miles isn't really that much in the touring community but i am fucking proud of myself! Here's the story of my first long bike ride:
So Jasmine and I wake up and eat egg sandwiches and lots of iced coffee for breakfast. We put on sunscreen, pack Ramona in my basket, and head out to Acme where I liberated some yummy $10 cheese, crusty bread, some apples, and goldfish crackers! Of course, we both had to make pee stops on the way to the start of the trail because of all the coffee we drank, so we didn't actually get on the skuylkill trail until about 12:30pm.
We start out pretty strong, going between 13-15 mph. The path isn't very crowded cause it's early yet, and we move along pretty nicely. Neither of us had done this trip before, but multiple people had assured me that it was a super easy route, and we wouldn't get lost. Ha! We biked up to Ridge ave, where we stopped for a second, not sure if we should cross the street and continue the trail or do something else. We decided to continue on the trail, and I'm glad we did cause it was really pretty up there! However... the trail eventually ended and shot us out on a steep fucking hill that I couldn't even make it up (single speed+ramona in a basket+starting from a complete stop=me walking my bike up the hill). We had no idea where we were going, but we kinda just went for a while until we saw a woman who told us we were in Germantown, and told us how to get back to Manayunk. Jasmine was annoyed. I was having fun... I had never been to Germantown before! So we rode around on Schoolhouse lane or something like that, near Philadelphia University, and it was nice. We got to go down a crazy hill, and Ramona decided halfway down that she wasn't into this hill business, and started trying to climb out of her basket onto my back (keep in mind that my back was almost horizontal due to the hill). The hill was so steep and I was already going so fast that my brakes were pretty useless, and I had to try my best to keep Ramona from leaping out to sudden death while keeping myself upright... it was kinda scary. We finally make it back to Ridge Ave (yeah, where this whole thing started, fuck!) and took the right way this time onto Main St. Manayunk. We stopped at the bike shop to make sure we were going the right away, and this time we were.
At this point we joined another path called the Manayunk Tow Path. It was right next to the canal, and unfortunately was gravel for about 2 miles... that sucked. Both Jasmine and I had sore wrists from the constant jolting and we had to ride really slow to avoid kicking up rocks or getting flat tires. Next time I ride to Valley Forge I will find a street route to bypass that stupid gravel shit. After the gravel the path was nicely paved, and it was a straight shot from there. We found a really neat old factory building with crazy graffiti all over the inside. There weren't very many people on the path, so I let Ramona run alongside us for a while... she keeps up!
Finally we made it to Valley Forge! At this point we had ridden about 30 miles. We were both pretty tired and hungry, so we didn't do much there other than eat and take a few pictures of the river. The best part was kissing Jasmine next to the river, then looking up and seeing that someone in a kayak had stealthily pulled up right below us. Um, embarrassing.
I thought the way back would be way harder, but after that little rest I felt fine. Jasmine was mad at me for going too fast (it's not my fault, my gear ratio is just bigger than hers!) so we kept a pretty consistent 10-12 mph on the way back. We saw the city skyline coming up right as the sun was setting, and it was a pretty amazing feeling! We hit the 50 mile mark on the Kelly Drive trail and we got really excited. Well, I did anyway.
We made it home around 7pm. I don't really understand why it took us so long... But it was super fun!
Who wants to come next time? Other ideas for short trips I can do on a single speed in the Philly area?