Crush the Commonwealth 2007

[jonassterling]

Pittsburgh to Philly
400 miles
Unsupportted

Race it or just ride it.

Start

May 18th
5:00am
PPG Place

Neutral Rollout to Mckeesport

Finish

Liberty Bell

After party-TBA



Route same as last year, only Pittsburgh To Philly:

Allegheny Passage to PA Bike Route S
Route S to Valley Forge
Schuylkill River Trail to downtown Philedelphia


Links to route maps


Info on the Pittsburgh to Route S

http://www.atatrail.org/

Penn Dot Bicycle Route S

http://www.bikepa.com/routes/

http://www.pahighways.com/other/bicyclepa.html

All maps for Route S as one big download, easiest to get all of them, then pick the ones you need.

http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/ech...BikeRouteS.pdf

Valley Forge to Philly

http://www.bicyclecoalition.org/map/map.html

My computer seemed to crap out on me, but it is damn close to exactly 400 miles, including the detour to the abandoned tunnels.

Blog

http://pittsburghpedalpushers.blogspot.com

[USAZorro]

What's the trail surface on the ATA Trail portion of the ride?

[jonassterling]

What's the trail surface on the ATA Trail portion of the ride?


The ATA trail is crushed limestone, and can vary from very dry and fast, to wet and slow. When wet it also gets into evrything, fenders are recommended in bad weather.

[Hocam]

I may have to do this.

Amtrak has trains that are 40 dollars one way, philly to pittsburg and I think its an extra 5 spot for a bike.

[USAZorro]

I may have to do this.

Amtrak has trains that are 40 dollars one way, philly to pittsburg and I think its an extra 5 spot for a bike.

Thanks for the logistics suggestion. It would seem weird to buy one ticket from Harrisburg to Pittsburg, and another from Philly to Harrisburg, but if I do this, I might just bail when I get back to Chambersburg and ride home.

Another question, where's the overlook that this ride starts at? I didn't see it on any of the maps that were linked to?

[spokenword]

Amtrak has trains that are 40 dollars one way, philly to pittsburg and I think its an extra 5 spot for a bike. You should double check that with Amtrak. When I've travelled with my bike, I've only been allowed to check it in on trains that feature checked baggage service. A quick check on Amtrak's train schedules shows that you've only got two options for PHL > PGH -- either the Pennsylvanian, which doesn't seem to have checked baggage service, or a regional to DC, then the Capitol Limited from DC to PGH. The Capitol Limited has checked bagged service, but the regional does not.

There might be a midnight regional service train that will take your bike to DC for you and Amtrak might be able to check your bike through to Pittsburgh, it'll just arrive after you. I had to do this once when travelling from Boston to New York and had to have my bike travel on the 2AM regional because the Acela doesn't offer checked baggage. I just picked up my bike from Penn Station the morning after I arrived in Manhattan.

[Hocam]

There's an Amtrak station (30th street) 2 blocks from where I work, I'll ask them what the deal is with bikes and let you guys know later in the week.

Also, are there hotels along the way or is everyone camping for this?

[jonassterling]

Lat year all the finishers on the official route camped, but hotels are not breaking the rules either.

I seem to remember that the direct Philly-PGh train would not take bikes, but I could be wrong, and things may have changed.

Thanks for the interest, I plan on updating the blog with the rules and more info tonight.

[WishYouWasMe]

This sounds like fun....but I dont think I could do this with a mountain bike and backpack.

[jonassterling]

Last year we had two finishers that did the ride with all their gear in messenger bags on SS Cross-Checks, one fixed, one freewheel. I bet you could finish with a backpack and mountain bike, or get your gear on the cheap, as last years winner did:
http://www.dirtragmag.com/print/article.php?ID=859&category=features

[jonassterling]

Tunnel ride map is up on the blog

http://pittsburghpedalpushers.blogspot.com/

[jonassterling]

There is a great three part write up on Chris' blog:


http://lockringnotincluded.blogspot.com/