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Lehigh Gorge Trail ReDux - Summer 2006
We made another trip to the Lehigh Gorge in 2006, this time
on a beautiful summer day. Even in summer the trail is cool from the tree
canopy that shades the path; on more than one occasion we were bathed with
refreshing waves of cool air that would linger around the many waterfalls and
rock faces as we passed.
This trip we discovered lock 24, somehow on our first trip
we managed to pedal past this site. The lock is worth the effort to dismount
and explore closer in, a word of caution however, particularly with children,
the lock is deep, and a fall into it would surely cause serious injury, if not
death. There are no fences or walkways, and the footing is marginal, I'd
definitely keep the single digit age kids away, and apply strong parental
control on the older ones. Further south on the trail at Mud Run there is
another lock that isn't so deep with a safer trail that leads down into the old
canal bed. Here is a GPS route with many
waypoints of interest along the way; I found this a handy way to find the many
interesting sights along the ride.
This trip we used Blue
Mountain sports to shuttle us to the Whitehaven trailhead, it's difficult
to compare Blue Mountain with Pocono Whitewater, the
other trail shuttle service, because they are so different. Blue Mountain is
small and leaves right from Jim Thorpe, while Pocono is a huge organization
and operates from a base quite a distance out of town (maybe 20 mins?). When
using Blue mountain you can bike from the end of the gorge trail, across the
bridge, and back into town (and your car), albeit on a narrow shoulder road, with
two killer hills at the end, this gives you a full 25 mile ride, whereas Pocono
Whitewater picks you up at trail's end (about 22 miles), and buses you all the
way back to their base. Note that the Blue Mountain guy said they would pick
you up at the trails end as well if you give them a call, something to consider
with kids.
During our stay (this was a no kids trip) we rode a portion of the switchback railroad trail that
also ends in Jim Thorpe (for a shuttle to the top I would definitely use Blue
Mountain for this trail, as the lower trail head is about a block or two from
the store).
Since we were only interested in sampling the trail we
parked at Manch Chunk lake park (just outside of town) where the trail makes
one of two road crossing, from here we pedaled up the trail to the Summit
Mountain trailhead (about 3.5 miles), then let gravity take us back down to the
lake (boat rental, bait, swimming also available at lake). While the ride up
was bumpy, it was also slow (~5-6 MPH); however the ride back down was
bone-jarring at 10-13 MPH).
The switchback is technically a rail-trail with a fairly
constant grade, but the surface is ROUGH, defiantly mountain bike turf (I rode
a shock less hybrid!), 1" gravel rocks, random 2" to 4"
mini-boulders and even chunks of coal spilled a hundred years ago from train
cars makes this a bumpy experience. The very top portion at the Summit trailhead is actually a paved road (we never saw a car), providing a brief respite
from the bumps. I pity the family who attempts the trail with trailer bikes, or
kid trailers (yes we encountered some of these hapless folks). Good bike
control is important since you must dodge rocks, etc, and the consequence of an
uncontrolled off-trail excursion in some sections isn't a pleasant thought.
Given the opportunity again I think would rent a shock
equipped bike and make it a one-way trip from top to bottom.
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