Exploring by bicycle

It took a crazy baseball game under black lights to get me back to Allentown, but I finally biked the final miles (for me) of the Delaware & Lehigh Trail.

This is going to be eastern Pennsylvania’s match for the Great Allegheny Passage once it’s finally finished — 165 miles through the remains of the region’s once industrial might.

It just needs few gaps closed through and north of Allentown plus of course the long stretch north of Mountain Top to Wilkes-Barre at the northern end. But it’s in the works.

This time we parked at Hanover Canal Park, next to the Lehigh River, and headed north on the road. After less than a mile, we were at Race Street. The last time I was biking north, I’d stopped a block or so short.

Where do we go now? Left looked like we’d go over the river. So we headed right, then left along Front Street … until that ended after just over a mile.

Spotted along the way:

Hmm.. left once again would take us over the Lehigh River. So right it was, and left as soon as we could. The first goal was Canal Park in Northampton — gap closed! Four of us had turned around here when we’d based ourselves just south of Jim Thorpe and spent a couple of days on the trail in 2023. But why stop? Heading north from Cementon (across the river from Northampton), the trail is stone dust. Our goal became Slatington, where we’d turned around the first time we biked along the D&L, back in 2015, when there were many more gaps.

Lunch stop there! You choices include the food truck parked at the trail head (homemade pierogis for me!) or pizza across the street.

BTW, this is a trail head with real bathrooms and a shelter.

On the way back, we discovered that you can keep going south well beyond Canal Park in Northampton … but be prepared for lots of fat tree roots and big stones. Not the best thing for 28mm tires! It’s a tight space, and it’s unclear whether that section will get better.

All told, a 28-mile ride.

What did we see?

Love the masses of Dame’s Rocket! Even if it’s considered invasive in some places.

Part of the appeal of the D&L is spotting the remains of railroads and other infrastructure that brought anthracite coal from the mines to the cities. This concrete phone booth was an early home to a phone that connected those on the trains (mostly freight) with the rail yards and ticket offices.

A quirky library:

And this:

Unfortunately there’s also the reality that the opioid crisis is here. This is at the Slatington trail head.