N. Front Street, Harrisburg, PA

Front Street and River Road in Harrisburg, PA stretches for more than 11.5 miles along the Susquehanna River from Highspire to Dauphin. The path is mainly city park walkway above the flood stage elevation with a few access connectors to a path that follows along the river bank.

To make the entire trek, one must use the city streets and a few sections where dense packed gravel serves as the trail surface. Mostly, though, the path is asphalt that is in good condition. The traveling speed is necessarily slow due to the numbers of people ambling along the path and not looking out for cyclists or in-line skaters. There is an overabundance of small children who, unlike their parents, can be expected to run out in front of a cyclist or skater. Cyclists who frequent the bike trails can be expected to honor the "rules of the road" and approach on the right and pass from behind on the left. Not so with many of the local citizens who have not learned such etiquette. All in all, it is a pleasent ride through the urban streetscape.

Harrisburg has a persisent display of very colorful cows dotting the streetscape. Each cow depicts a different theme. One such cow, colored dark green with pingpong ball sized bumps sports the label: "Cowshur Dill." And you never know who will be sitting and reading a newspaper.


This denizen of the city is a perennial fixture of the park and is a bit stiff from sitting so long.		You can take the cow out of the country, but it is difficult to get the country out of the cow.

If you can think of a bizarre color scheme with which to decorate a cow, then you're too late. They already have enough painted cows.		"I never saw a purple cow. I hope to never see one..."come to think of it, I have seen a purple cow. And a blue one. And a yellow one...

Victorian and Georgian style houses line N. Front St. up by Division Street. Further South, the buildings are typically zero-lot line commercial buildings and a few row residentials		There is one good thing I have to say about Lawyers... Yeah, one. They have Egos to match their wallets when it comes to choosing just where to locate their offices. These former dwellings have been converted into professional offices without losing the appeal of their former incarnation as homes.

Some of the houses are still dwellings and have not yet seen the Big Bucks that will restore them to their 19th Century splender. But where their is a Will there is an attorney, and money to be made.		Seven Generations. Each one reaching further into the past that is Harrisburg.

Whether it is reaching into the past or into the distance, the Susquehanna River carries with it a long history. When one stands at the river's edge and looks upstream, he/she sees the future rushing into the present, soon to be past as it continues on downstream.

I first set eyes on the path that follows the river through and past Harrisburg some 35 years ago when I first began to drive and the open road called me to explore Pennsylvania. Since the days of my youth in Pittsburgh, I have looked out at various vistas, continued past hundreds if not thousads of roads-not-taken with the self promise that someday I would pass that way again and take that road. Front St. was one of those places that kept calling as I cruised by hurrying on to somewhere else. But on this day in May 2004, I finally stopped. Equipped with my handcycle, the circuit lasted 3 hours as I stopped to photograph the street and river scapes, bridges and cows, people and houses.

A sunny and mild Saturday. A great afternoon. Plenty of activity. I give it four tires.