Valley Forge Ride

National Memorial Arch, Valley Forge

Headed out towards Church Road with no particular flight plan in mind.  There was a work crew doing some repairs to the grounds by the old Ardrossan gate.  I have had that gate in mind as a place for a photo but with the crew in the way and the grass being all torn up it didn't seem like a good idea at the time.

General Mad Anthony Wayne

Not having that possibility in mind I continued down Church towards Waterloo and once there followed Waterloo to Valley Forge.  Once in the park I just followed the roads and wound about the hills, this is a good ride for a helmet camera video.  Some of the side roads were closed, I assumed for repairs or debris removal, but most of the park was accessible.  Made two stops for photos, first in the parking lot behind the National Memorial Arch and then at the Mad Anthony Monument.  The bit of cobble stone in front of the Arch was no fun to negotiate, have to take it slow through there or you might jar your teeth loose.  The road that winds up to the Mad Anthony Monument winds down to 252.  Traffic on Waterloo/252 on the way up was rather heavy from the Baptist Church in the Great Valley (another target for photos) area to the Chesterbrook turn off so I decided to follow turn right on 252 under 202 rather than to take Waterloo back.
After clearing the one way bridge on 252 traffic started getting heavy there too so I took the Sugartown turn off to Church for the way home.

I would like to do the Valley Forge ride again with a helmet camera and earlier in the day when there are less tourists in the area.  The park wasn't congested but it would have been nicer with fewer cars.  Great weather, clear and nice temps with just a little wind.  The heavy forecast for yesterday's rain did not really materialize.  It stated raining around 13:00 and probably stopped a little after 16:30 and it was never heavy rain.

After the morning commute the odo was probably clocking at around 758 miles.  By the end of the Valley Forge ride it is at 786.8 miles.

Read More »

Lunchtime Ride to Bartram's Covered Bridge

Lunch today was taken over by a short ride to check on one of my old cameras.  Left work via Ithan to Conestoga.  Ithan Rd has been completely resurfaced south of 30.  This is a very good thing because the stretch in from of the Agnes Irwin School had gotten pretty bad since the winter snows.  There was some electrical line repair going on in front of the school but they had divided the remaining lane for traffic and there was no need to stop. 

From Conestoga I took Spoul out to Bryn Mawr Ave and out to the West Chester Pike heading away from Philadelphia and out towards Chester County.  Traffic on the Pike was fairly light for midday and the lights seemed to be in my favor as there was a run of several clear greens past 252.  The Pike brought me to Providence Rd where I headed north to the intersection with Goshen.  A right turn there led me back towards 252 and home for a little lunch.  

Bartram's Covered Bridge

One of the reasons for this ride was to test my old Fuji S9100 as a possible carry camera on these jaunts.  The Nikon D7000 and D80 are to big and bulky to carry comfortably on the bike and the D80 lacks live-view which would require helmet removal to take pictures.  As intended, for a while, I stopped in front of Bartram's Covered Bridge, the last covered bridge left in Delaware County, and snapped a couple of shots.  They didn't turned out half bad but I still think I would rather have a good pocket camera so as not to have to carry a bag.   

On crossing the road back to the Bullet, there was a one pointer feeding on the edge of the road just about 75 yards from the end of the bridge.  The capture is not the best as this is a crop of the resulting shot taken with the lens cranked out all the way to 300mm.  The little buck bolted away back into the woods to avoid the oncoming truck not giving much of a chance to get much more than this one shot.

One pointer feeding by the covered bridge

The way back from the covered bridge followed Goshen home, although the detour around Goshen east of 252 is still in place.  After lunch just took the regular commute route back to work and now to wait for maybe a ride this afternoon if it doesn't get much hotter.

The photos below are test shots of the S9100 taken this morning in the parking structure.  The mileage on the odo after this lunchtime jaunt may be around 700 miles if not a little over.

In the parking garage

Ten miles since yesterday morning

Read More »