I headed out Saturday for Philly BFL (Home to Green Lane to Belmont and Wiss via the Perk Trail and the SRT before heading home on the GRT) once again, but this time I added a neat wrinkle: I did it as a Brewery Tour, hitting Conshohocken Brewing Company, Manayunk Brewing, Forest and Main in Ambler, Prism in North Wales and ultimately Round Guys in Lansdale. I had originally hoped to hit Appalachian Brewing Company in COllegeville too, but they changed their hours a while back and don't open until 4 pm now, which killed my timing. But five stops worked out pretty well -- in truth I probably would have been happier if I doubled back to hit Manayunk after Belmont because Manayunk and Conshohocken were only 25 minutes apart. I'd have been happier getting the second beer after finishing Belmont.
I'm going to do this ride again some time for sure. I started maybe a half hour later than I should have because I was in a bit of a time crunch by the end to avoid riding home int he dark, so next time I'll probably start around 6 am instead of 6:30.
Morning Cows
Gren Lane Red Trail
An unhappy 1Speed in Collegeville because I'm settling for a Coke instead of an Appalachian Scotch Ale
Perk Trail
Horribly flat, road-runner spinning on the SRT
Stop 1: Conshohocken Brewing Co
Stop 2: Manayunk Brewing (Notice the impressive farmer tan lines on my wrists.)
The trails in Belmont, the log-over capital of the world, are currently way overgrown. The whole time I was there, though, I could hear this really loud cacophony of sound that turned out to be a Cribbean Festival where all these bands were playing at the same time up on the Blvd. You could barely make out any specific music style - because they were all trying to out-decibel one another.
In the Spaghetti Bowl at Wiss ...
This was the last photo I got before my phone died - out on the Cresheim Loop in Wiss. My phone died just as I was starting to wonder if I'd make it hoe before dark, which sucked because I really wanted to call my wife and let her know I would make it home alive. But it worked out int eh end when the bartender at Prism let me use his phone to call her.
In the end, I hit all the stops and made it home by 8:30. Tale of the tape, 131 miles, 12 hours of ride time, 14 hours total time counting all stops for food, drink and the breweries. Pretty awesome ride! I think my favorite beer was from
Forest and Main in Ambler. They only serve in-house (no bottling) but worth a trip some time for anyone looking for good stuff near Philly!