Swamp Rabbit Trail
04-16-19, 04:24 PM
#1
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Swamp Rabbit Trail
My wife and I booked a room at the Hampton Inn yesterday and then rode the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The Hampton is located close to the trail entrance and right on the Reedy River. Lots of cool restaurants, micro brews, etc. I think we ended up finishing with 18 miles. The weather was beautiful and we had a good time. We decided to have dinner at Ruth Chris steakhouse...the steaks were amazing as they should be.
A few observations having never ridden this trail before. The trail we thought was surprisingly very busy for a Monday afternoon (3:15-6:30). In fact just a little too busy, lots of joggers, walkers, and cyclists. We were thinking that during the week there would be less traffic. No, not so much. For the most part cyclists demonstrated really decent trail etiquette by announcing when passing, slowing down when walkers bunched up with the exception of a few. Walkers and runners generally just kinda did there own thing, a few not paying attention to trail rules and not following posted trail rules by staying on the jogging/walking rubberized area of the trail. This was mostly on parts of the trail closer to the city. So just a heads up.
Based on our experience we would not recommend riding the trail on a holiday, Saturday or Sunday. We stopped at one of the bike shops along the trail and spoke with the owner who mentioned how over crowded the trail is getting. He even went on to say injuries are increasing on the trail due to such a high volume of use. The trail is obviously a huge draw money maker/shaker for downtown Greenville.
Was it overall a fun ride? Yes. And a fairly flat easy ride.
We will likely never attempt to ride the trail on a weekend as the level of risk/injury is too high with so much of use.
Just an FYI awareness/review.
A few observations having never ridden this trail before. The trail we thought was surprisingly very busy for a Monday afternoon (3:15-6:30). In fact just a little too busy, lots of joggers, walkers, and cyclists. We were thinking that during the week there would be less traffic. No, not so much. For the most part cyclists demonstrated really decent trail etiquette by announcing when passing, slowing down when walkers bunched up with the exception of a few. Walkers and runners generally just kinda did there own thing, a few not paying attention to trail rules and not following posted trail rules by staying on the jogging/walking rubberized area of the trail. This was mostly on parts of the trail closer to the city. So just a heads up.
Based on our experience we would not recommend riding the trail on a holiday, Saturday or Sunday. We stopped at one of the bike shops along the trail and spoke with the owner who mentioned how over crowded the trail is getting. He even went on to say injuries are increasing on the trail due to such a high volume of use. The trail is obviously a huge draw money maker/shaker for downtown Greenville.
Was it overall a fun ride? Yes. And a fairly flat easy ride.
We will likely never attempt to ride the trail on a weekend as the level of risk/injury is too high with so much of use.
Just an FYI awareness/review.
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Last edited by Patriot1; 04-17-19 at 12:28 AM.
04-17-19, 10:11 AM
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I'm on the SRT for at least part of my ride several times a week, love it! That being said, do not ride there if you want to maintain any kind of reasonable speed, as you found out, it's just too crowded (there are some areas away from downtown where you can open it up a bit safely). But if you keep that in mind, and just enjoy it, it's a nice way to get away from cars. I'll use it for recovery rides too, since it's about the only way to get a relatively flat ride in around here. lol
As a runner recently turned cyclist, I've found that many cyclists around here forget that it is the responsibility of the faster/passing party to pass safely, even if this means slowing down significantly. There are even Strava segments on the SRT, which is a little ridiculous, but that's life. It's especially annoying when the Hincapie Gran Fondo is going on and you get people running pacelines on the SRT.
If you're down this way again, there are lots of great group rides in the Greenville area, for all levels.
Oh, it's also Spring Break for this area, so that probably explains the amount of people on the trail during the day.
As a runner recently turned cyclist, I've found that many cyclists around here forget that it is the responsibility of the faster/passing party to pass safely, even if this means slowing down significantly. There are even Strava segments on the SRT, which is a little ridiculous, but that's life. It's especially annoying when the Hincapie Gran Fondo is going on and you get people running pacelines on the SRT.
If you're down this way again, there are lots of great group rides in the Greenville area, for all levels.
Oh, it's also Spring Break for this area, so that probably explains the amount of people on the trail during the day.
04-17-19, 10:57 AM
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I'm on the SRT for at least part of my ride several times a week, love it!
As a runner recently turned cyclist, I've found that many cyclists around here forget that it is the responsibility of the faster/passing party to pass safely, even if this means slowing down significantly.
As a runner recently turned cyclist, I've found that many cyclists around here forget that it is the responsibility of the faster/passing party to pass safely, even if this means slowing down significantly.
https://schuylkillrivertrail.com/
IKR. WAY to many cyclists seem hell bent on not slowing down (enough) for anyone. Long segments of our SRT can be very busy, especially on nice weekends. Too many impatient people executing close passes. I consider myself a very skilled rider who rides for fitness, transportation and travel. (Heading out on a three-day, unsupported tour on Friday.) Even I have had to leave the trail for the grass on occasion due to idiots coming my way doing dumb things.) Want to dial it up to 400W on a popular trail? Do it at 6 a.m., when there is no one/hardly anyone around.
04-17-19, 04:09 PM
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rode it last summer on August 1 (weekday) and it was raining, not too crowded at all on that day, but some people told me the weekends were hectic
good trail
good trail
04-17-19, 06:53 PM
#5
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I'm on the SRT for at least part of my ride several times a week, love it! That being said, do not ride there if you want to maintain any kind of reasonable speed, as you found out, it's just too crowded (there are some areas away from downtown where you can open it up a bit safely). But if you keep that in mind, and just enjoy it, it's a nice way to get away from cars. I'll use it for recovery rides too, since it's about the only way to get a relatively flat ride in around here. lol
As a runner recently turned cyclist, I've found that many cyclists around here forget that it is the responsibility of the faster/passing party to pass safely, even if this means slowing down significantly. There are even Strava segments on the SRT, which is a little ridiculous, but that's life. It's especially annoying when the Hincapie Gran Fondo is going on and you get people running pacelines on the SRT.
If you're down this way again, there are lots of great group rides in the Greenville area, for all levels.
Oh, it's also Spring Break for this area, so that probably explains the amount of people on the trail during the day.
As a runner recently turned cyclist, I've found that many cyclists around here forget that it is the responsibility of the faster/passing party to pass safely, even if this means slowing down significantly. There are even Strava segments on the SRT, which is a little ridiculous, but that's life. It's especially annoying when the Hincapie Gran Fondo is going on and you get people running pacelines on the SRT.
If you're down this way again, there are lots of great group rides in the Greenville area, for all levels.
Oh, it's also Spring Break for this area, so that probably explains the amount of people on the trail during the day.
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04-18-19, 08:50 AM
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First of all, no stealing our acronym. Ours was built first!
https://schuylkillrivertrail.com/
IKR. WAY to many cyclists seem hell bent on not slowing down (enough) for anyone. Long segments of our SRT can be very busy, especially on nice weekends. Too many impatient people executing close passes. I consider myself a very skilled rider who rides for fitness, transportation and travel. (Heading out on a three-day, unsupported tour on Friday.) Even I have had to leave the trail for the grass on occasion due to idiots coming my way doing dumb things.) Want to dial it up to 400W on a popular trail? Do it at 6 a.m., when there is no one/hardly anyone around.
https://schuylkillrivertrail.com/
IKR. WAY to many cyclists seem hell bent on not slowing down (enough) for anyone. Long segments of our SRT can be very busy, especially on nice weekends. Too many impatient people executing close passes. I consider myself a very skilled rider who rides for fitness, transportation and travel. (Heading out on a three-day, unsupported tour on Friday.) Even I have had to leave the trail for the grass on occasion due to idiots coming my way doing dumb things.) Want to dial it up to 400W on a popular trail? Do it at 6 a.m., when there is no one/hardly anyone around.
No worries, there's one almost every day of the week, most days there's multiple rides to choose from.
