"Founding to Freedom" Sunday Bike Tour Series

Sunday, May 30th - Sunday, July 4th

Meet at 11am at various starting locations

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Join DCVA board member Scott Maits & the Philadelphia Hiking Meetup group for 6 easy Sunday bike ride segments connecting South/Southwest Philadelphia to King of Prussia / Valley Forge!

All segments were planned with GROUP BIKE TRANSIT FRIENDLY starts and finishes, with the first 5 rides being ONE WAY with public transit return options and the 6th and last ride to Valley Forge Park being a loop back to the transit friendly start and auto parking points. 

 Note: All Central City SEPTA Regional Railroad and all #100 SEPTA Hi Speed Line Stations are Hi Level, easy boarding for you and your bike but may have limits on total number of bikes. Other stations may require one to negotiate steep rail car steps with your bike unless they are listed as handicap accessible with a mini-high platform that you can use per the lines SEPTA schedules.  All buses have external racks that you have to unfold and load that can ONLY carry 2 bikes at a time. Rail cars are stated to be limited to 2 bikes but if you're carrying no gear this has been pushed and trains have multiple cars. We will be advising SEPTA that groups of bikes may show up for certain trains later in the Series. I advise riders carry a big enough bungie cord or 2 to possibly secure bikes.. All rides have some en route bathroom and food options by the ends.

The overall series is showing the potential regional connections to the greater Darby/Cobbs Creek Watershed's existing Multi-Use Trail & East Coast Greenway, its soft walking path feeders and potential connection to the popular Radnor (multi-use)Trail & most logical regional connections and conclusion at King of Prussia & Valley Forge as can all be an "Off-Road, Low Grade" route that we are proposing!

Again we want to emphasize all rides are Bike/Transit friendly in the way their set up with great care to have multiple routes serving start AND end points and with transit/bike friendly returns so you can really go green - but you can also park your car if you must and return from these one way trips (all except the last which is a circle route return) by transit with your bike if you don't want to ride back. Great care will be taken and at least partial escorts or group returns to start points and key connections.

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Full Schedule:

1) CANCELLED due to weather Sunday 5/30 Memorial Day Weekend - "FDR Park S.Phila to Fort Miffin / Heinz Refuge Eastwick SW Phila" via FDR Park Drives and paths/by Outdoor 2021 Phila Flower Show Site setup, street bike lanes, sidewalks, unfinished new Penrose Ave Multi Use Path, high Platt Bridge sidewalk path over the Schuylkill River, futher sidewalks, streets, and highway shoulders, Fort Mifflin site, into the Heinz National Refuge fine gravel paths and inside its CUSANO CENTER (greenest building in Pa). Lunch options at Lindberg Blvd. Start/Meet at mass bike friendly SEPTA Broad St Subway NRG Sta. Pattison Ave/Stadiums main entrance pavilion outside it's gate in South Phila behind SW Corner of  Broad & Pattison Aves (#4,17 buses or suggested Delaware Ave, 25th St. bikeable access): leave 11:15am sharp. Lunch option @ Island Ave.

2) Sunday 6/6 - "Heinz Refuge Southwest Phila to Cobbs Creek Park 63rd & Market West Phila El" via Heinz National Wildlife Refuge Cusano Center (greenest building-Pa) Cobbs Creek Bikeway and extensive Cobbs URR activity explained. The spectacular Clearview Remediation Site mountain is viewed, future East Coast Greenway & potential Cobbs Park expansion shown, Historic Blue Bell Inn, Great Minquas native war Path trace, New Sweden Gov Printz Millseat rock-oldest European trace in Pa are all seen along with W3R Revolutionary War historic Route, as we then ride the existing portions of the ECG / Cobbs Creek Parkway Multi-use Path & its 2019 Extension. Park/Start/Meet at the Eastwick Train Station (or take the #37,68,108,115 buses or ECG): leave 11:15am sharp. Suggested donation of $10 will be accepted for the series tour guides.

3) Sunday 6/13 - "69th & Market Streets Upper Darby to Karakung" via streets, Cobbs medium gravel woods lane route proposal & it's West Indian Creek woods dirt path past mini waterfalls and its unique rock mill site with some walking with our bikes out to City Ave. We will then take suburban Haverford Road and Karakung Drive for Haverford's Historic Powder Valley sites. Start/Meet @ IN historic Red Arrow 69th St Terminal Transportation Center (of SEPTA- the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority- 22 buses + 4 rail lines or take the Cobbs Creek Parkway, to 63rd St & Market St bike lanes) to 69th St Terminal to gather with bikes inside at its historic pictures: leaving at 11:15am sharp.

4) Sunday 6/20 - Fathers Day "Karakung to Radnor" via streets, sidewalks, by Merion Golf Course and Estates, streets, Haverford College lanes, paths & grounds, it's Pinetourium, original Phila & Columbia RR RoW bridge & briefly on Meetinghouse Path for our Lincoln Highway Ice Cream Shop stop option for LH/Lancaster Turnpike history. Park/Start/Meet @Ardmore Train Sta. (#44,105 buses or Schuylkill River Trail to Manayunk Trail for old Montgomery Ave N. sidewalk multi-use route to Ardmore) leaving at 11:25am. Ardmore RR Station E. platform for then (Sun "closed") Busway to Ardmore Jct and #100 hi-speed Trolley Ardmore Jct Station: leaving 11:45am.

5) Sunday 6/27 - "Radnor To King of Prussia" via streets, popular Radnor (multi-use)Trail, sidewalk, crossing ye great Phila Wagon road following George Washington's Valley Forge aerial surveillance line to Olde Eagle School house & Revolutionary War Burial Grounds & colonial history. We then take proposed route sidewalk to a park & woods lane, then ride fast downhill on Croton Road into the Great Valley (South Mt here is 2nd greatest ped/bike barrier in region and we will show how a low grade path can be built on public land and wider MU sidewalk easements), Chester Valley (multi-use) Trail, bike lanes. Lunch option KoP Town Center Wegman's outdoor patio, streets, KoP Mall SEPTA Bus Transit Center. Park/Start/Meet at the Radnor #100 H-Speed Line Trolley Station (or Radnor Trail): leaving at 11:05am & nearby Radnor RR Train Station: leaving at 11:15am.

6) Sunday 7/4 - July4th "King of Prussia to Valley Forge National Park & Visitor Center" July 4th Celebration/Picnic via Sidewalk Schuylkill River Dekalb St Bridge Bike (MU) Path, Conshohocken Bridgeport Brewing outside riverside dining (unlimited day parking) "Norristown Dam" Fish Passage Park and Bridgeport waterfront, unfinished dirt and finished sections of the Chester Valley (multi-use)Trail, King Of Prussia Tavern, streets, Valley Forge National Park (multi-use)Trails, Visitor Center events & historian talks, soldier huts, earthen fortifications. Bring your own picnic options and there is a vendor truck at the VF National Park Visitor Center. Group return via Betzwood- Sullivan Bike Bridge, Schuylkill River (multi-use)Trail, circle tour back to Norristown Transit Center/Bridgeport-Brewing original start points, OR then optional long Phila + return via the Schuylkill Valley Trail to Central Philadelphia! Norristown Transit Center leaving at 11:00am, Conshohocken Brewing Bridgeport free parking leave at 11:15am.

DCVA events are always free, donations are appreciated but not required.

DCVA Young Naturalists: Freshwater Fish Discovery (event is full!)

Thursday, July 1st from 10am - 12 pm

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Join DCVA and Ranger Gary for an exploration of freshwater aquatic wildlife! Meet in the upper parking lot of the Ridley Creek State Park Park Office and be prepared for a short hike to a stream.

Darby Creek Valley Association Annual Canoe Race

Sunday, September 19, 2021

Ridley Marina

401 Swarthmore Ave.
Ridley Park, PA 19078 

Registration: 12 pm - 1:15 pm 
Mass start is at 1:30 pm

Please download, complete and email the registration and waiver forms to auroradcva@gmail.com, or bring on the day of the event:

2021 Darby Creek Race Registration Form

USCA Waiver

DCVA COVID Participant and Volunteer Waiver

Race Course Maps: Ridley to John Heinz

PLEASE PRE REGISTER - due to covid -19 we would prefer not to handle exchange cash. 

​$30 Pre-Registration Fee/person - register by Sept 18 midnight 
$40 Registration Fee /person - register at the event

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