Originally Posted by
indyfabz
2. Between Easton and Bethlehem there are some stretches that are like flat, single track riding in the sense that there is only a narrow portion of the trail visible. The rest is foliage. I will try to remember to post a photo.
Many thanks for the on-ground perspective! When you say folliage, do you mean grass or weeds narrowing to small worn area, or do you mean encroaching tree branches? I'm relatively okay with narrow surfaces as long as they aren't too rocky and the failure directions don't look deadly. But tree branches get to be an issue - I also sit a bit higher since my bottom bracket is 18" off the ground.
3. There is a large gap in the trail between Allentown and Northampton. You have to take roads. Some of them are quite busy. It was frustrating trying to navigate through the area.
These do have me worried and are something I'm trying to find out more about. They're also a reason I'm reshuffling the thinking to make that day shorter, though I might end doing it both ways.
At least the bridge at Jim Thorpe is open (I think), which means you no longer have to climb over the mountain starting at Bowmanstown.
I heard it opened in the fall.
4. PA 940 towards I-476 is not fun to ride on. At least some part has minimal shoulder, and traffic can be not nice. It's also got hills. The intial section out of White Haven is quite steep. (I spent a night at the campground on PA 940 just east of White Haven during a cross-PA bile tour.) Been a while since I have driven it to I-476, but IIRC, it's mostly up hill heading east. The traffic around the interchange between I-476 and I-80 can be very heavy during certain times of the year. Also, if I-80 is backed up at the interchange some traffic, including truckers, will take PA 940 to skip ahead.
Taking PA 940 east of White Haven never seemed like fun but was prompted by only seeing lodging east towards I476 and not in White Haven itself. I thought I'd checked the whole thing on streetview and found shoulders, but while that does seem to be true of the rural part east of the campground (maybe it's been improved?) right across the river from White Haven itself where there are houses there is indeed no shoulder in spots, including curvy spots. And yes, the hill, at the end of a long day... The whole reason I thought of doing that was that I found there was bus service from the McDonalds parking lot at the interchange, and then found there was lodging too. But that bus goes to Philly not NYC so was never ideal.
When I was originally thinking of this the goal was to prove I could do a series of 60+ mile days in a row, but as I think about it more, a trip like this has to be a goal itself, and I need to build in some margin for its challenges, so thinking more in terms of 50 mile days with time to enjoy things. That leads to something more like this:
1) Early train to Trenton and cross to Morrisville, or even bus to Philly and West Trenton line to Yardley to avoid it all. Shorter day that starts riding on the PA side, possibly cross to NJ at some point, cross back to PA at Frenchtown/Uhlerstown. Overnight at one of a couple of airbnb possibilities on the PA side between Kintersville and Riegelsville (no stores so have to remember to pack food), if getting there early possibly do a quick round trip up to check out the water level at the sometimes flooded spillway south of the I78 bridge.
2) Ride up to JT. If the spillway before I78 is only lightly covered, ride it, if it looks worrisome either take off shoes and wade it, or back up, cross over to Wy Hit Tuk part and take the road (possibly walking) 1.2 miles to the wastewater plant where there looks to be a narrow pedestrian bridge back to the trail (hopefully the reason it is not listed as a trailhead is that there's no parking there, it's an additional 1.2 miles to the trailhead at the forks of the Delaware). Deal with the Allentown-Northampton gaps. Also have to remember to check on some intermittently scheduled closures (for 2020 season) in a stretch somewhere vaguely opposite Palmerton where they're apparently going to be replacing some overhead power lines.
3) Round trip of the Lehigh Gorge from JT up to White Haven and back for a second night in JT, probably some time here to play tourist.
4) If the Allentown/Northampton situation didn't prove too bad, ride back through that to either Allentown or Easton, disassemble the unicycle and get a bus back to NYC. If it did prove bad, Fullington Trailways has bus service to NYC from a place 1.7 miles south of JT, but the road doesn't look great, so that's more a bailout than a plan. Since I'd be packed up small at that point a taxi/uber to there is an option, too.