samantha

Hello all,

long time reader and first time poster. I would like to eventually bike to the west coast (from Philadelphia), and would like to practice first to see how well I do on long distance bike trips.

I am planning a trip to Valley Forge and am having a hard time figuring out an appropriate place to stay the night (not on a highway, within $150/night for two people). The hostel in Evansburg doesn't have room on the night I had planned on staying, and am hoping someone here could recommend something.

The furthest I have biked is to Andorra, and it took me about half a day. I am physically in a lot better shape now than I was during my Andorra trip. The reason I mention this is because I am not sure how long it will take me to get to Valley Forge and if a round trip is actually feasible.

Thanks for your suggestions.

lrzipris

Hi, Samantha. I don't understand your circumstances. Are you referring to the Andorra section of Roxborough? Where did you start from? What kind of day rides do you usually do? Are you talking about a trip from center city Philadelphia to Valley Forge? CC to VF and back is a fairly easy trail ride for a day trip, pretty flat except through Manayunk.

For information about local hostels: https://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/statepar...n/hostels.aspx. You could also contact the American Youth Hostel Association, I think it's called (I've passed it while walking around town): 1210 Sansom St, Philadelphia, (215) 925-6004.

To see what you are capable of, you might want to do an overnight trip with one of the local bike clubs. Most of them have lists of events, fundraising rides, etc., on their web sites. For example, at ww.suburbancyclists.org, click on Non-SCU Calendar for a comprehensive list of events.

With more details and context about you are asking, I might be able to offer better advice.

samantha

Sorry about being unclear. Most of my day rides have been from center city to Manayunk/East Falls/City Line Ave. I biked to a shopping center in Andorra through forbidden drive (I think that is in Roxborough - the last few miles was up a somewhat steep hill) from West Philadelphia (near clark park).

I am thinking of doing a trip from CC (via fairmount park) to the Valley Forge Park and spending the night in a hotel/hostel/motel/B&B near by.

I was looking at the map provided by the Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia, and I can't tell what sort of roads I might have to bike on to get to a hotel in King of Prussia or Phoenixville from the VF Park. There seem to be a lot of highways around the VF Park, and I don't know if I can bike to phoenixville (for example) and avoid riding on a highway.

I am worried about doing a bike trip with a bike club because I am not sure if I will be the slow one holding everyone back, or if I will get tired and change my mind halfway through the trip. Thanks again.

lrzipris

No offense, but I don't think most tourers would consider CC-VF an overnight trip. You might work on lengthening your day rides to build up your strength, without the overnight stay.

I've done a little cycling around VF National Park, and there's a lot of traffic (in part because of the KOP shopping mall), and the roads often have little or no shoulder. Instead of the local roads around the park, you might think about taking the Schuylkill River Trail along Kelly Drive, up Manayunk's hills, back on the Trail as far as you like, then back the same way. At VF/Betzwood Park, the Schuylkill Trail (which is paved) becomes the Lower Perkiomen Trail (https://www.montcopa.org/parks/perkio.../Perkiomen.htm), which you can take all the way up to the northern end of Montgomery County, Green Lane Park. From Betzwood, the trail going north is paved for ~4 miles, then becomes crushed gravel, where a MTB or hybrid is probably best. As I recall, it's ~44 miles from CC to Green Lane Park, but you can go as far as you like.

Bike clubs offer rides at different levels, so you can start cautiously and test yourself, then move up when you're ready and confident. For example, the Bike Club of Philadelphia has rides in what it calls D and C categories: www.phillybikeclub.org/classification.html. As long as you're honest about your ability, you will find a suitable level of ride. If you look in the BCP ride calendar, it will often say something like "no one dropped," so you know you'll be ok. As you get more stronger, you might want to get some touring experience--what it feels like to do several challenging rides, day after day--on a club's overnight rides or a two-day charity ride, for example. Or try a tour with a business like Pedal PA (www.pedalpa.com), that does supported tours.

Hope this helps.

mcoine

You can bike through the vf park on rte 23 to get to phoenixville.. its just a 2 lane rd.

samantha

The links are very helpful. Thanks. I do ride in the city, so I am not too afraid of riding alongside cars, but I was a bit more apprehensive of really fast moving cars. Thanks again.

samantha

UPDATE: We stayed at the Radisson in King of Prussia. I am glad I did the trip as an overnight trip, because I ached all over (I rode over on a fixed gear and rode home on my mountain bike). The reason I mention the hotel is because the manager of the hotel allowed us to store our bicycles in our hotel room. That gesture by the manager really did make my day.

Hotel details:
1160 First Avenue, King of Prussia PA 19406, USA
Reservations: (800) 333-3333 USA
Telephone: (610) 337-2000 Fax: (610) 768-0183

lrzipris

But tell us about your ride. What routes did you follow up and back? How many miles? Through the park or on the trail or roads? How was the traffic around KOP? How was the fixie coming out of Manayunk? And what did you learn for use towards your cross-country trip?

samantha

I rode on the path below Chestnut St. bridge, Kelly, then on main street Manayunk, then on the towpath onto the River Trail all the way into VF Park (following these directions: https://www.quovadimus.net/bcp/myra/bike-path.html). We then rode on Rt 23 for a few minutes to get to the hotel before turning onto a side street. The drivers around KOP were surprisingly nice toward us unlike the drivers in center city. I noticed this even when riding back at around 9:30 AM. They gave us a lot of room when passing us for example. I didn't think there was much traffic around the park or in the KOP area I was in. In VF park, I couldn't find a bike trail so we pretty much rode on a small road. Total miles was about 64 miles. The fixed gear wasn't too bad, riding on the gravel on the Manayunk tow path wasn't particularly hard either. I did not ride on cobblestone or on a very steep detour in Norristown, and if it had a more comfy seat I may have ridden it back as well.

Main thing I learned for the cross country trip was that I ought to purchase a bike rack (which I knew before the trip as well). I had everything on my back (water mainly), and my back hurt after a while. Breakaway Bikes and the Bike store on South St didn't have a good selection (the panniers didn't look particularly strong in either store). I spent a good deal of time wondering about how often I could have bathroom breaks. I don't know if there are alot of shrubs along the Trans Am route for example.

Overall I realized that the VF trip is definetly a day trip and I plan on riding it more often and plan to hit the Perkiomen trail in a few weeks.

Thanks for asking!