The good news (as reported by Wally Hertler)…

The Ewing Road bridge has reopened.  A very nice job.

As of last Sunday (08/05..Ed) the Schuylkill River Trail from Oaks north to the end near Phoenixville had been flooded by the adjacent river and was almost entirely covered in mud and water.  Nearly unrideable.  I don’t know how or when they will be able to clean it up.  The SRT south of Oaks is probably high enough to have escaped flooding.  South of Norristown/Plymouth Twp. the SRT has been widened, and by now probably resurfaced as well.

Now the Bad News (as report by a friend of and confirmed with police by Randy Keim)

Earlier this week (the week of August 10th..Ed) a man who lives off the Washington Street Ext. between Shipley and Marsh, was riding his bike on the trail that leads from Bellevue Park to Rockwood.  He was on the section along Shipley Road.  A boy flagged him down and when he stopped, two other boys jumped out and assaulted him, one hitting him on the head with a brick.  The bike was very expensive, several thousand dollars.  There was nothing in the paper or on the radio about it.  He was hospitalized and is now home recovering.  Was there anything said about it among the biker community that you ride with?  Because, the news should get out if that stretch of trail is now going to be dangerous.

Be careful out there.  It is unfortunate but incidents like this make people wary about stopping to render aid.  It is also unfortunate that there are people around that prey on someone that is willing to stop to help another in need.  Not that I would wish harm on another, but it would be ironic if one of these boys were in need of help and someone that was available to do so was not comfortable doing so because of fear for their safety.  I hope that these boys, for their own good learn that this behavior is unacceptable.  Ed