Northeast - Good places to ride in/around Philly

So I just moved back to Philly for the first time since I've started seriously biking. In a couple weekends me and a friend are planning to ride to NYC on a Saturday so I'm getting physically prepared for that. For that purpose, and just for the fun of riding around, I've been looking for places to bike in and around the city. Preferably places where I don't have to deal with traffic, which are few and far between. The only spot I've really found is behind the Art Museum - the Kelly Drive/East/West River drive loop. It's awesome because no traffic, I only have to slow down/stop pedaling for deaf and oblivious walkers and runners. However, doing upwards of 50 miles there seems like it would get old (it would entail going around the same loop 4 or 5 times) so I'm looking for other places I can branch out to. Anybody know some?

First thing you need to do is get ahold of the Greater Philadelphia bike map. It's truly an impressive map.

You've got Pennypack Park, awesomely hilly and twisty (paved), and also the Schuylkill Trail (gravel or crushed limestone, I think).

You can extend the Kelly drive ride by going through Manayunk to pick up the bike path to Valley Forge. Look at http://www.schuylkillriver.org/Biking.aspx. This is a nice option since you can take the R6 (can't remember which stop, but looking at a Septa map alongside the trail map should make this clear, plus you ride right by it) home, or alternately, take it outbound and then bike in Valley Forge. (There have been reports of cyclists getting assaulted on the path to Valley Forge--I think the Bicycle Coalition of Delaware Valley has details on their website.) However, the whole Kelly Drive/Valley Forge ride gets boring if done more than a couple times, IMO. Check out Bicycle Club of Philadelphia's library of group rides to interesting places, http://phillybikeclub.org/newbcp/.

this looks like a source, too.
http://www.bicyclecoalition.org/

just did a bit of the river trail. pretty nice and tame.

if you don't want to ride on the roads (me either) then you'll definitely want to ride on the Schuylkill River trail (SRT)...

You can ride out to Valley Forge and turn around, or cross in the Valley Forge park for some additional miles, or continue on to Mont Clare...all are paved surfaces.

If you don't mind riding on packed gravel, you can ride connect from the SRT to the Perkiomen trail and ride an additional 20 miles (one way) to Green Lane. Personally I don't ride my road bike on gravel so I drive out to the Perkiomen section and ride my hybrid bike there instead.

Another gravel path that you can get to from the river drive is Forbidden drive.

Another vote for the Schuylkill River Trail...

I moved to Philly over the winter and have been having fun exploring the many bike routes. The missing link between Kelly Drive and the SRT in Manayunk is annoying, but there are so many bikes in Manayunk (esp on the weekends) it feels like we outnumber the cars.

you might look at the cues on the ocsj.org site for good rides in rural near in south jersey; the rides from lenape high school are nice