When I first discovered the section of Pennsylvania’s D&L Trail that goes south to Bristol, the route would almost dead-end at an auto-repair shop in Morrisville. You had to creep around the side, then dash across Bridge Street/Lincoln Highway and finally haul your bike down a flight of stairs to reconnect with the canal towpath.
On the way back it was even worse, because you’d have to push your bike up those stairs.
Other, more significant problem areas on the route to Bristol got fixed, and I discovered a road detour that avoided the stairs but required cutting through a hotel parking lot. Still, I kept waiting for the D&L to become a through-route from Bristol to Yardley and points further north. I just had no idea what that would look like.
Now I do: ramps on both sides up to street level plus flashing lights activated by walkers and cyclists looking to safely cross Bridge Street.
Nice!
For some reason, the stairs are now blocked off. Maybe they need repairs?
At any rate, the ramps are open. The D&L is waiting until spring for a celebration.
That auto-repair shop, by the way, is now a distillery and restaurant. And the crossing is only two blocks from a brewery that we biked to from New Jersey.
Consider the D&L Trail, which overlaps in part with the East Coast Greenway, if you’re looking to do a multi-day bike ride. It will eventually stretch 165 miles from Bristol, just north of Philadelphia, to Wilkes-Barre, but it now ends at the Black Diamond trailhead at mile marker 14o. Some sections along the Delaware Canal (also part of the Greater Philadelphia area’s Circuit Trails network) are currently closed for repairs after bad flooding two years ago. The map page on the D&L website is the best way to learn about closures.
I’ve biked much of the Delaware & Lehigh Trail. Here are some of my trip reports:
Two days north and south of Jim Thorpe
24 soft-serve flavors on a 2-day bike adventure to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and back
I think I remember going through that hotel parking lot on the first ECG NY-Phila ride.
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