I'm thinking of riding from center city to Collegeville tomorrow afternoon, and I'm not certain how to go. I'm planning on getting on the Schuylkill trail to Valley Forge (though I don't know exactly how to get onto the trail, but I think I can figure it out). Looking at this bike map, the Perkiomen trail seems to lead right to where I want to go, but I have no idea if the trail is paved or anything. Does anyone have any experience riding into this general area? Any help is definitely appreciated.

you can pick up the trail in manayunk, and ride on the towpath which is dirt, or you can loop around through manayunk to avoid the dirt trail and pick up the paved one to VF. once you're on the paved trial you can just rock that to collegeville. once you get to perkiomen thouhg it will turned to crushed gravel. its doable with 23mm tires, but kind of annoying.