1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
A few years ago, I came up with a stupid idea for a ride that would allow me to hit three of the best riding areas in my region in one day without having to spend too much time on actual roads. The idea was actually born out of documented rides out west commonly called "Big Friggin' Loops" (there is a BFL in Tahoe, Sedona, Mammoth and I think one or two other destination spots.) I arbitrarily decided that Philly needed its own BFL, and that seemed to me very possible once I discovered the Green Ribbon Trail (GRT) here, a remarkable bit of almost 100% singletrack that manages to snake through the suburban neighborhoods north of Philadelphia in one nearly-continuous line of dirt. Once I had that trail, I knew I could ride back and forth from my home to Wissahickon with minimal traffic concerns. Knowing I could also connect Philadelphia to Green Lane via the bike paths of the Schuylkill River Trail (SRT) and Perkiomen Trail, I had the makings of a BFL that would require only enough road riding to get me from my home to Green Lane, a roughly 20 mile section where the only "busy" sections of road occur within the first five or six miles. After that, I could sneak through neighborhoods to connect up to the park, including a section that goes up and over one of the iconic "KOMs" from the now defunct Univest Grand Prix pro course. The first time I did the full ride was maybe three years ago now, and the total mileage that day was just under 140. I started from home around 5:30 am (which further minimized traffic on the way to Green Lane) and along the way I hit the trail systems/connector trails of Green Lane, Perkiomen Trail, SRT, Belmont, Wissahickon and finally the GRT. But in the years since, the size of the potential ride has grown as more mileage has been added to Wiss and Belmont. I figure that the ride alone at this point is probably pushing on 150 if all available trail is ridden. And so the Philly Area BFL was born. Although, I'm fine with that being unofficial because I think to date, I'm the only person who's actually ridden it.
The first year I did it, I mapped it out in August and rode it right away. I had a great time because, well, I enjoy riding. Along the way, though, yet another really stupid idea crept into my head as I was riding along ... I noticed that (at most) within a mile of the route itself sit at least six breweries. I enjoy breweries. Some mental mathematics therefore suggested I'd increase the overall enjoyment by adding stops at each of six breweries along the way. And so I did. I did have to add a bit of logistics, though: for one, I moved the ride to a more appropriate date on the calendar - specifically, the closest Saturday to the Summer Solstice. This was to maximize my daylight hours, since this is a 13+ hour day start-to-finish largely on trails, having lots of those hours be daylight is a good thing. I also had to figure out another timing component: starting at 5:30 or anytime before 6:30, I was (barring disaster) going to be reaching the Collegeville area on the Perk Trail sometime well before noon. That was a problem if I wanted to include the first brewery I would pass (Appalachian Brewing Company) because they don't open until noon. After significant mental anguish, I had to admit that one wasn't an option. That meant I wouldn't hit my first beer stop until about 70 miles into the day (Conshohocken.) At first I thought that would be too long because I'd be cramming all six stops into the back half of the ride, and that could potentially go ... poorly ... But I was nothing if not intrepid, so I gave it a go. And you know what? It actually worked out pretty well. My only gripe, which I easily corrected the next year, was that I hit Conshy and Manayunk about 20 minutes apart. Last year, to fix this, I initially passed by Manayunk and rode on to ride all of Belmont before doubling back to Manayunk between riding Belmont and Wiss.
It all worked out great. And I was starting to feel like I had this thing dialed. My order of ride was:
Home to Green Lane (road)
Green Lane Trails
Perkiomen Trail
SRT to Conshohocken
Conshohocken Brewing Company (directly off the SRT)
SRT to Philadelphia
Belmont Trails
SRT back to Manayunk
Manayunk Brewing (directly off the SRT)
Wissahickon Trails
Wissahickon Brewing (directly behind the Spaghetti Bowl section of Wiss)
Forbidden Drive
GRT to Ambler
Forrest & Main Brewing (about a mile off the trail in Ambler)
GRT to its end in Upper Gwynned
Road to Lansdale
Round Guys Brewing
Road through Lansdale
Prism Brewing
Road to Home
But then, of course, a wrench was thrown into the machinery of my happiness ... Prism closed its doors for good this past fall. Ugh ... I've spent more mental energy on this problem than I 'd like to admit (hey, it's winter and they cancelled TSE on me ... what else do I have to think about?) And I think I've come up with a solution, although it will add a few more miles to an already super long day. This year, I plan to start and finish down at Iron Hill in North Wales. That will add a few miles of the beginning and end of the ride, unfortunately all of them on the road. What can I do? The proprietors of Iron Hill are probably not willing to set up a temporary location on the GRT any time soon.
So ... why do I bring all of this up? Well, for one, it's Monday and I have nothing else to do over lunch today. But also ... also ... I've mentioned this ride to a few folks on this board and locally over the years as its evolved and almost every time I do there is some glimmer of interest on their part. So I figured I'd throw this out here now in case anyone wants to consider spending an entire Saturday doing something that is brutally hard but includes alcohol - kind of a way to simultaneously check off multiple things that your doctor would probably advise you never to do on their own, much less together.
This year's ride is going to be June 16. I know that's not technically the closest weekend to the solstice, but that would be June 23, which is my anniversary. And since I wish to avoid a head injury, I'm not planning to ride and drink all day on my anniversary. If there is any interest, I can break down the full logistics and plan everything out over the next couple of months.
Disclaimers:
(1) This is not an official ride in any way. I started doing this specifically to avoid doing official anything. About the only "official" element is the route itself, which I think I've got dialed in nicely. If you want to join me, that's great, but there is no sign-up sheet or anything like that. We're just a bunch of people getting together to ride bikes and make bad decisions.
(2) This a hard day - the beer stops are a nice respite, but they're not that long: the way I've done it is one-and-done and on the road again within 15 or 20 minutes tops. There is some leeway there - it has to stay fun! - but it's a legit 150 mile day now, so there is a slight sense of urgency to keep it moving. Perhaps the hardest part of the day is that you don't hit Wiss and its 3000 or so feet of climbing until you're over a hundred miles into the day. That makes Wiss a bit harder to ride than it normally is , and it's not the easiest trail system around as it is.
(3) I'm open to folks joining me for only some sections of the ride if that's what they'd like to do - like if you just wanted to meet at Wiss and ride there before sampling the fine offerings at Wissahickon Brewing after we're done - but you're on your own then in terms of getting yourself back to wherever you started from if it's off-route. Obviously, the one caveat there is that the timing of a meet-up gets tricky: I can't say for sure when exactly I'll be getting to any one spot.
(4) If you do want to come, don't forget you need to bring money - the fine folks who run these establishments are very nice, but not so nice as to give their beers away.
(5) For that matter, you need to be as fully self-sufficient as possible. With this many miles, the possibility of a mechanical gets pretty high. There are shops along the route, but they're pretty spread out. It's best to have your own stuff with you.
(6) Finally (and this probably shouldn't really need to be said) this is absolutely not a ride for beginners. If you haven't done some long, hard rides in the past, this ain't the one to start with. All three trail systems are challenging - Green Lane, Belmont and Wiss - and the pace, for timing reasons, will be "spirited". I'm not talking race pace, but the overall average will be around 11 or 12 mph (aided in large part by Perk and SRT, where 14-15 mph is completely manageable even by short, pale, rapidly aging singelspeeders.)
So with that, if you're interested, you can let me know here. Like I said, this is a hard day, but it's also really fun. And last year, because I got caught in several downpours over the course of the ride and looked like a muddy drowned rat when I walked into the last few breweries, I got a lot of attention. People wanted to know what I was doing, and when I told them, I was offered free rounds because they thought it was "insane, but cool." It seems to me that people really just enjoyed being a small part of my stupidity. So ... yay, stupidity!
I think that's about it. I'll check in on this thread over the next few months to see if there is any interest here. And if anyone has any questions about it, feel free to post them up, too.
The first year I did it, I mapped it out in August and rode it right away. I had a great time because, well, I enjoy riding. Along the way, though, yet another really stupid idea crept into my head as I was riding along ... I noticed that (at most) within a mile of the route itself sit at least six breweries. I enjoy breweries. Some mental mathematics therefore suggested I'd increase the overall enjoyment by adding stops at each of six breweries along the way. And so I did. I did have to add a bit of logistics, though: for one, I moved the ride to a more appropriate date on the calendar - specifically, the closest Saturday to the Summer Solstice. This was to maximize my daylight hours, since this is a 13+ hour day start-to-finish largely on trails, having lots of those hours be daylight is a good thing. I also had to figure out another timing component: starting at 5:30 or anytime before 6:30, I was (barring disaster) going to be reaching the Collegeville area on the Perk Trail sometime well before noon. That was a problem if I wanted to include the first brewery I would pass (Appalachian Brewing Company) because they don't open until noon. After significant mental anguish, I had to admit that one wasn't an option. That meant I wouldn't hit my first beer stop until about 70 miles into the day (Conshohocken.) At first I thought that would be too long because I'd be cramming all six stops into the back half of the ride, and that could potentially go ... poorly ... But I was nothing if not intrepid, so I gave it a go. And you know what? It actually worked out pretty well. My only gripe, which I easily corrected the next year, was that I hit Conshy and Manayunk about 20 minutes apart. Last year, to fix this, I initially passed by Manayunk and rode on to ride all of Belmont before doubling back to Manayunk between riding Belmont and Wiss.
It all worked out great. And I was starting to feel like I had this thing dialed. My order of ride was:
Home to Green Lane (road)
Green Lane Trails
Perkiomen Trail
SRT to Conshohocken
Conshohocken Brewing Company (directly off the SRT)
SRT to Philadelphia
Belmont Trails
SRT back to Manayunk
Manayunk Brewing (directly off the SRT)
Wissahickon Trails
Wissahickon Brewing (directly behind the Spaghetti Bowl section of Wiss)
Forbidden Drive
GRT to Ambler
Forrest & Main Brewing (about a mile off the trail in Ambler)
GRT to its end in Upper Gwynned
Road to Lansdale
Round Guys Brewing
Road through Lansdale
Prism Brewing
Road to Home
But then, of course, a wrench was thrown into the machinery of my happiness ... Prism closed its doors for good this past fall. Ugh ... I've spent more mental energy on this problem than I 'd like to admit (hey, it's winter and they cancelled TSE on me ... what else do I have to think about?) And I think I've come up with a solution, although it will add a few more miles to an already super long day. This year, I plan to start and finish down at Iron Hill in North Wales. That will add a few miles of the beginning and end of the ride, unfortunately all of them on the road. What can I do? The proprietors of Iron Hill are probably not willing to set up a temporary location on the GRT any time soon.
So ... why do I bring all of this up? Well, for one, it's Monday and I have nothing else to do over lunch today. But also ... also ... I've mentioned this ride to a few folks on this board and locally over the years as its evolved and almost every time I do there is some glimmer of interest on their part. So I figured I'd throw this out here now in case anyone wants to consider spending an entire Saturday doing something that is brutally hard but includes alcohol - kind of a way to simultaneously check off multiple things that your doctor would probably advise you never to do on their own, much less together.
This year's ride is going to be June 16. I know that's not technically the closest weekend to the solstice, but that would be June 23, which is my anniversary. And since I wish to avoid a head injury, I'm not planning to ride and drink all day on my anniversary. If there is any interest, I can break down the full logistics and plan everything out over the next couple of months.
Disclaimers:
(1) This is not an official ride in any way. I started doing this specifically to avoid doing official anything. About the only "official" element is the route itself, which I think I've got dialed in nicely. If you want to join me, that's great, but there is no sign-up sheet or anything like that. We're just a bunch of people getting together to ride bikes and make bad decisions.
(2) This a hard day - the beer stops are a nice respite, but they're not that long: the way I've done it is one-and-done and on the road again within 15 or 20 minutes tops. There is some leeway there - it has to stay fun! - but it's a legit 150 mile day now, so there is a slight sense of urgency to keep it moving. Perhaps the hardest part of the day is that you don't hit Wiss and its 3000 or so feet of climbing until you're over a hundred miles into the day. That makes Wiss a bit harder to ride than it normally is , and it's not the easiest trail system around as it is.
(3) I'm open to folks joining me for only some sections of the ride if that's what they'd like to do - like if you just wanted to meet at Wiss and ride there before sampling the fine offerings at Wissahickon Brewing after we're done - but you're on your own then in terms of getting yourself back to wherever you started from if it's off-route. Obviously, the one caveat there is that the timing of a meet-up gets tricky: I can't say for sure when exactly I'll be getting to any one spot.
(4) If you do want to come, don't forget you need to bring money - the fine folks who run these establishments are very nice, but not so nice as to give their beers away.
(5) For that matter, you need to be as fully self-sufficient as possible. With this many miles, the possibility of a mechanical gets pretty high. There are shops along the route, but they're pretty spread out. It's best to have your own stuff with you.
(6) Finally (and this probably shouldn't really need to be said) this is absolutely not a ride for beginners. If you haven't done some long, hard rides in the past, this ain't the one to start with. All three trail systems are challenging - Green Lane, Belmont and Wiss - and the pace, for timing reasons, will be "spirited". I'm not talking race pace, but the overall average will be around 11 or 12 mph (aided in large part by Perk and SRT, where 14-15 mph is completely manageable even by short, pale, rapidly aging singelspeeders.)
So with that, if you're interested, you can let me know here. Like I said, this is a hard day, but it's also really fun. And last year, because I got caught in several downpours over the course of the ride and looked like a muddy drowned rat when I walked into the last few breweries, I got a lot of attention. People wanted to know what I was doing, and when I told them, I was offered free rounds because they thought it was "insane, but cool." It seems to me that people really just enjoyed being a small part of my stupidity. So ... yay, stupidity!
I think that's about it. I'll check in on this thread over the next few months to see if there is any interest here. And if anyone has any questions about it, feel free to post them up, too.
All those missed opportunities 
