A Springlike Ride in Winter: Philly to Port Jervis

"For many cyclists in the Northeast, there was no off season this year. With the mildest winter in over a decade, we simply had no reason to stop riding. These unusual climatic conditions coincided with the final spring break of my college years, leading me to escape the urban confines of Philadelphia and seek tranquility (maybe even some guidance), cycling along the Delaware River. My friend Arthur joined me for the roughly 150-mile journey north."

So writes Jerome Lissman, in this week's Bike Overnight, Passing High Point: A Three-Day Ride from Philadelphia to Port Jervis. He continues:

"We left my red row home on a windy morning in early March. As we pedaled into Manyunk, a quaint neighborhood in the northeast corner of the city, we were passed by dozens of cyclists out for their Sunday morning joyrides. After stopping for a bagel and coffee we got on the Schuylkill River Trail. In Manyunk, the trail is a towpath that runs along one of the country?s oldest canals. But it soon becomes a paved surface, which led us for 15 miles to Valley Forge National Historical Park. There we said farewell to the Schuylkill River and continued on the Perkiomen Trail along the muddy waters of Perkiomen Creek."

The days were relatively toasty, but Jerome had a bit of trouble staying warm at night, with temperatures dropping into the low thirties. After two nights of it, he and Arthur hit the trail for their third and final day:

"Leaving town, we could tell it would be the most scenic day of riding we?d have on the trip. For miles, our ribbon of road gracefully climbed and descended modest hills. To our left was a cliff maybe 250 feet high; to our right, the Delaware River with the Garden State beyond. The sunshine was delicious.Through the bare trees we could see a trail that paralleled the road. We decided to take it and began riding a bit slower on its cobbly surface. At some points tree branches arched over the trail to form a sort of canopy, making it feel like we were pedaling through a tunnel. At other times, clearings provided awesome views of the water."

Read the rest of Jerome's tale, filled with rivers and great riding, at BikeOvernights.org.

Our current Photo of the Week comes from last week's post, San Francisco to Point Reyes National Seashore, by Jeff Pieper. It's such a lovely, dream-inducing seascape that we wanted another week's worth of looking at it.

BikeOvernights.org Photo of the Week, 07.20.12.

Top 3 photos by Jerome Lissman

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BIKE OVERNIGHTS is posted every Monday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling?s media specialist, and highlights content from BikeOvernights.org. Previously, from March 2009 through January 2012, Mac posted weekly at Biking Without Borders. He also compiles the organization's twice-monthly e-newsletter Bike Bits, which goes free-of-charge to 45,000 readers worldwide.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/07/a-springlike-ride-in-winter-philly-to.html

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