Last year, 5 PAX participated in a Triathlon sprint in New Jersey. This got Picasso and Kettle Corn thinking that The Grill AO has some great terrain to host our own Triathlon. They worked out the logistics and pulled it off beautifully. Even the weather cooperated with blue skies following a rain storm the day prior. The river was flowing strong.
We met up at the park to unload the kayaks at the put in on the river at the end of Park Road. We staged the bikes at the Bartram Trailhead off of Industrial Drive and drove Pocahontas’s truck and trailer as well as the church van to the take out location near Shoey.
The Triathlon was done a la carte and was not timed for racing. The following PAX participated in the initial 5K run from the park and ended at the Bartram Trailhead: Beaker, ChooChoo, Ditto, Myra, Picasso, Pocahontas, Pork Chop, Potsie, Sheldon, SOX (Pocahontas’s 2.0), and Woz.
After the last of the PAX arrived at the bike staging area, Myra and ChooChoo had to leave but we were joined by Kettle Corn for the bike portion of the event. We biked out to the 3-mile marker on the Bartram Trail and back and then along the river trail back to the park for a total of 7 miles.
We had to wait at the kayaks until Beaker’s brother joined us. Ditto said adieu which left us with 9 PAX plus Beaker’s brother (honorary PAX for the day) in case you are keeping count of the changing numbers.
We then embarked on a very enjoyable kayak float trip down the river to the 5 Locks take out near Shoemakersville. It took us ~ 1.5 hours. We encountered some mild rapids but no capsizing, although Potsie came very close while attempting to go down some rapids sideways.
It was a great time as we had opportunity to run, bike, and kayak together and enjoy the camaraderie.
We’ll be doing this again for sure!