Schuylkill River Trail info

Triathlon Forum
1

I will be going to Philly later today and was hoping to get a run on the Schuylkill River Trail. I will be staying in University City and was wondering where the best place to enter the trail is. Also, I would like to run ~6-8 miles and would like to know if anyone has any ideas on which direction is best to run.

Thanks

2

You’ll want the river drive loop – probably best to start at the Art museum and head either way – East side (Kelly Drive) or West side (MLK Drive). OR do the whole loop crossing the river at Falls Bridge which is a little over 8 miles.

3

I will be going to Philly later today and was hoping to get a run on the Schuylkill River Trail. I will be staying in University City and was wondering where the best place to enter the trail is. Also, I would like to run ~6-8 miles and would like to know if anyone has any ideas on which direction is best to run.

Thanks

You can get onto the Schuylkill Banks Trail at the South Street Bridge from that area. From there head north towards the Art Museum (there is nothing to the South). You can then run along Kelly Drive from there for about 5 miles before getting into Manayunk.

The Schuylkill River Trail itself starts on the other side on Manayunk rather far from University City, but if you start at the Shawmont Ave trailhead you have 17 miles of generally unbroken trail (only a few road crossings) all the way out to Phoenixville.

4

Yeah, if you jump on the trail at the South Street Bridge, you could follow that all the way up Kelly to East Falls Bridge, cross and come back down West River.

That would give you a good 10 miles round trip.

5

If you’re heading out from UC and want 6-8 miles, you don’t want to do the Kelly-MLK loop.

Just head to the river trail (South, Walnut, Chestnut, Market – each has a ramp or stairs down from bridge). Run toward the art museum on the trail (upstream) – trail will take you behind the museum (skirts the parking lot in back) and onto Kelly Drive at Boathouse row. You can head out as far as you want and then turn around and follow path back. FYI, from the Drexel campus, heading out to the grandstand area and back is ~7 miles.