Northeast - Bethlehem - Philadelphia PA 145 loop

Sharon and I rode from Bethlehem into Philadelphia and back last weekend, and it had lots of fun + pretty riding and sights. It's the third time we've done the whole thing, about 145 miles (with hills), plus any sightseeing variations, so for us it's also satisfying as an accomplishment.
(Some of the sections use lots of roads, so probably best done with a GPS to help navigation, and I put the route sections on Bikely.com, which can show maps or GPS or KML, or even printed cue sheets -- see below for links.)We'd be glad for some suggestions for different roads to try, or interesting places to visit along the way -- or other ideas for big loops to try riding around there.

? Philadelphia? Turns out that in addition to whatever "historic" sights you might or might not care about, it's also got some pleasant + pretty bicycling toward its North side (toward Bethlehem): the two river drives, the neighborhoods of Mt Airy and Chestnut Hill -- and then the northern suburbs in Montgomery county around Whitemarsh.

? Bethlehem? It's 50+ miles north of Philadelphia and it counts as a "significant" goal: the early historic settlements of the Moravians, the Lehigh as the first major river north of the Delaware (and Schuylkill?), Lehigh University, and (just opened) the first casino north of Philadephia. South of Bethlehem is the pleasant + pretty rural area of the Saucon valley, and nearby Allentown has the remarkably pretty Little Lehigh park leading to Emmaus (publisher Bicycling magazine), with pleasant rural riding south of that.

connecting -- Route 29 -- We find it really fun + pretty to ride it south from near Emmaus to Collegeville, early on a weekend morning -- a strong motivator for the whole ride.

resistance -- what holds us back . . . We haven't found a really good way to connect going north (simple + fun like route 29). The obvious candidate candidate was Allentown Rd, which goes a long ways from North Wales / Gwynedd / Sumneytown Pike to Coopersburg (roughly parallel to the Turnpike Northeast Extension). So we tried it, but it wasn't interesting enough for us -- just went on and on. So we substituted a more complicated route that goes thru lots of towns along the Reading railroad Quakertown line (which long ago had train service all the way to Bethlehem). We like that better -- so we've done it three times.

Route sections on bikely.com:
. . . with maps, GPS, cue sheets . . .
1) Bethlehem - Allentown - Emmaus (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Bethlehem-Philadephia-2008-sec-1)
2) Emmaus - Collegeville (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Bethlehem-Philadelphia-2008-sec-2)
3) Collegeville - northwest Philadelphia (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Bethlehem-to-Philadelphia-2009-sec-3)
4) Ridge Av - Manayunk - Philadelphia Museum of Art (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Bethlehem-to-Philadelphia-2009-sec-4)
5) Philadelphia Museum of Art - Mt Airy - Chestnut Hill (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Philadelphia-to-Bethlehem-section-1)
6) Chestnut Hill - Ambler - North Wales (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Philadelphia-to-Bethlehem-section-2)
7) North Wales - Hatfield - Sellersville - Coopersburg (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Philadelphia-to-Bethlehem-section-3)
. . . variation 7A) less-hilly more-traffic from Sellersville to Coopersburg (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Philadelphia-to-Bethlehem-2008-sec-3-variation-A)
8) Coopersburg - Saucon Valley - Bethlehem (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Philadephia-Bethlehem-2009-sec-4)

Should also be possible to find all of them by doing "Advanced Search" on bikely.com for the word "[BPhB]"
Ken

Hi Ken,

I live in Coopersburg (Lehigh U alum) and work in Valley Forge. Have you thought of trying the trail system? Once in Green Lane, you can do the Perk and Schuylkill trails allt eh way to the art museum.

I guess from reading your post it may be a little boring for you. But at least you don't have to worry about cars. I ride both trails regularly and they're really very nice.

Randy

Have you thought of trying the trail system? Once in Green Lane, you can do the Perk and Schuylkill trails allt eh way to the art museum.
. . . at least you don't have to worry about cars. I ride both trails regularly and they're really very nice.
Good to point out that there are off-road trails for part of the way.
Problem is that if we're going to make it a loop, taking a different route in each direction, the percentage of miles covered by trails could not be more than 30% -- which leaves 100 miles which must be ridden out on the roads anyway.

So you're going to have to be pretty skillful and comfortable with riding on the roads with motor vehicles if you're going to do it at all. And you're going to have to think that riding on the roads is kinda _fun_, or you wouldn't want to try riding so many miles on them. And Sharon and I do think that riding on (good) roads is fun.

For us rt 29 south-bound along the Perkiomen creek on a Sunday morning is one of the good roads in eastern PA, so we haven't looked for an alternative there. (Perhaps if we were riding in weekday traffic, we'd feel differently).
As for the Schuylkill trail around Norristown + Valley Forge, we tried it once -- Didn't have many views, and not much variation. I'm sure that the roads we use instead across southern Montgomery county are more work (hills and distance) than the Schuylkill trail -- but if we were trying to avoid work, we wouldn't do anything like this Bethlehem-Philadelphia ride at all.
Coopersburg is one place where we do avoid work. Because I believe that coming from Trumbauersville, Allentown Rd is more scenic and interesting and has less traffic -- but instead last weekend we found ourselves riding on Old Bethlehem Pike because it's less hilly. Because at that point I was going thru an hour of stomach-upset (after feeling great for most of the time before). And it worked, because then I was feeling good again when we rode thru the Saucon valley.Ken