Quakertown to Allentown and beyond plus a dinosaur footprint, 4 rail trails and a bike

How did this bike ride end up being 49 miles?

I guess that’s what happens when you string one trail onto another, sometimes with a bit of a rough patch or some road and you just keep exploring…

And it easily could have been closer to 55 — crazy.

The idea has been brewing even since the Upper Bucks Trail, about as far north as you can get on Greater Philadelphia’s Circuit Trails network, opened in late 2020. It’s short — about 3 miles of a crushed-stone surface from Veterans Park in Quakertown/Richland Township, Pennsylvania, until it runs seamlessly into the Saucon Trail, once part of the railroad line between Bethlehem and Philadelphia.

That’s another 7.5 or so miles, also crushed stone, ending in a Hellertown park next to Lehigh University. The trail dead-ends but there’s an obvious opening to town. Then we weaved through residential streets and under I-78, onto Fire Lane and a few more residential streets until the South Bethlehem Greenway (has a few rough spots, some soft sand and then asphalt) and past the casino and a shuttered steel mill into downtown Bethlehem.

Keep going. Cross the Lehigh River. The Garmin took me on West Lehigh, then on Main Street to cross the railroad tracks back toward the river and to the Delaware & Lehigh Trail. This is the trail that runs 140 or so miles from Bristol, just north of Philadelphia, to the Black Diamond Trailhead with only 1 real gap (which we hit) and some sections temporarily closed for repairs. When finished, the trail could be 165 miles.

And then it was on to Allentown, or actually East Allentown, on a crushed stone surface. Where the river curves north is the point where the big remaining gap in the D&L exists. Back to the road. It’s OK. A little hilly. 4 miles.

Here’s my route, til I decided to keep going north.

We got to a block or so south of the Race Street Bridge, now a construction site, and turned back right by the house of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, George Taylor. That’s a name I didn’t know. My bad for not realizing that the trail picked up on the other side of the bridge and I only had 2 1/2 miles to pedal until I reached the turnaround point on last year’s D&L ride. OK, 5 miles round trip and I could say I’ve biked every damn inch of the D&L. Oh well, close enough.

But it was time for lunch. After heading a few miles south, we crossed the Lehigh River into Allentown at the Tilghman Street Bridge. A sandwich from a Middle Eastern restaurant, a bit of Allentown sightseeing and then back over the Harrison Street Bridge to the trail. Note: sidewalk is on the north side. Take it rather than the road. Really. Or backtrack to the Tilghman bridge.

Thanks to the trail, it was an easy ride back to Bethlehem. Another mistake: not following the Garmin’s instructions when it said it was time to cross the river. Instead we kept going, following the trail until we ran into a man who had just carried his bike down the stairs from the bridge.

Yup, we now needed to carry our bikes up 5 sets of stairs. Ugh.

The bridge dumped us out by the casino, and we retraced our route. Through the rough stuff, a little bit of a climb, and then wishing for just a bit of signage to make the way through the Upper Saucon Township Community Park just a little easier. Thumbs up to Hellertown for pointing to businesses on Main Street a few blocks away; should we have stopped at one for a mid-afternoon snack? Too early, though for any “weird beer” places (craft brewers) to be open on a weekday.

Be warned: Between Hellertown and Veterans Park, the closest you’ll come to services in water fountains and public restrooms in that community park and the public library on the other side of the underpass.

Somewhere in between the Upper Saucon park and Veterans Park, I stopped for a sign that suggests there could be a dinosaur footprint (!) in the rock formation in front of me. But I can’t see it. Guess I’ll have to do a better job searching another time.

Now read about another ride on the D&L: 24 soft-serve flavors on a 2-day bicycle adventure to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and back