D & L Trail
 

Hi -

I'm thinking about riding the D & L Trail in PA.

Has anyone ridden it? If so, any thoughts/advice?

Also, if anyone knows, is there a decent/safe place to leave a car in/around Bristol?

Many thanks.

How much of it? It’s a pretty long trail. I’ve ridden from White Haven to Yardley as part of tours. There is a fairly sizable gap between N. Catasaqua and the Allentown area.

Bristol isn’t the nicest place in the world.

+1 Agree that that gap is unfortunate. Pieces of the trail are being patched in but you still need to use surface streets in that gap. It gets ok north of that to Cementon. Then it gets just dreamy north of that. The D&L website has excellent info and is pretty current.

Last summer I took my dropped Trek 850 from Cementon north for 50 miles. Every sort of surface from smooth new pavement to "technical" single track (north of Whitehaven). Much of that stretch is surfaced with tailings from local coal and slate mining. Very hard and fast when it's dry. Glad to have those fatter tire's. Loved the variety though. The D&L is always a day trip for me so I've never paid attention to camping spots nor places for provisions.

BTW, at the 50.25 mile point I turned in the woods and headed back. A fine century day.

edit: I assume the stretch from Yardley to Easton is pretty nice too. I've not ridden that lately but we've had several years now without flooding on the Delaware. Flooding used to tear holes in the trail every year and make the trip difficult. We'll see what "the season" does this year.

thinking about doing the whole trail

Well...You're in luck now that the new bridge at Jim Thorpe is open. Last time I can down from the north during a tour it was not. The on-road workaround between JT and Bowmanstown was very hilly.

Camping-wise, Dogwood Haven is dated but a quiet place to camp with lots of shade. I have spent several nights there over the years. Most of the people are mature seasonal people who don't get crazy. The owner gives a cyclists discount. Last time I was there (2018) it was $10/night. Owner doesn't even make me register. I just tell him how long I will be saying and give him the money. It's right off the trail at Lodi Hill Rd. in Upper Black Eddy, PA. Milford, NJ is a short ride away (most by trail and a walk across the bridge). Sufficient market there along with some places to get prepared food. I just rode through Milford yesterday. Another option is to cross over to NJ from New Hope to Lambertville and take the D&R Feeder Canal Path up to Milford (you have to get on road for maybe 3/4 of a mile to get to Milford and then cross pack over to PA). That would take you passed Bulls island Recreation Area. Water and bathrooms there. Easy access to a pedestrian/bike bridge across the river with nice views.

I don't know of any other legal camping until way up in White Haven. The place is actually on PA 940 in East Side, about 1 mile after you cross the river at White Have. All up hill. I would call to make sure they have space during busy times, especially on the weekends. The strip mall the trail passes in White Haven has a good grocery store and a good pizza place. The portion that uses the Lehigh Gorge Trail is very nice in the fall and spring. Summer it's kind of a tunnel of trees with not good views of the river. If it has been dry, expect to get a lot of white dust on your bike heading north towards Easton. I stayed in the Day's Inn there in 2018. Bike-friendly. North of Easton to the Bethlehem area the trail is not always well marked, and in places during mid-June was like riding flat single track.

many thanks indyfabz for all of the info.

we'll see if we can pull it off. :)

Back in 2019 my wife and I did a supported trip on about 130 miles of the D&L trail from Glen Summit to Washington Crossing, and then back up the NJ side to Lumberton. I created a Cycleblaze journal with pictures you can see here. We had a blast, even though we had a few deluge days.

The bridge in Jim Thorpe being finished eliminated one gap we had, the other big gap was around Allentown - not so bad.

The route we did was definitely doable self-supported, Pocono Biking and others offer shuttle service.

I would definitely put fenders on our bikes if we did the D&L again unless it was a guaranteed long dry stretch of weather!

Definitely fenders if it may be/has been wet and you want to keep your bike clean. I did an overnight in the fall of 2019 that used the trail from Yardley to Stockton. On the second day there was a light drizzle. Only rode the portion from New Hope back to Yardley and my bike got pretty messy.

Bulls Island used to have a great campground, but years of flooding damaged tree roots, making the area unsafe, so they closed the campground. Major loss to people in the Philly area as it made a terrific destination for a long weekend trip. Just did a day ride out of there last Sunday and was lamenting the loss of camping.

You were lucky. It wasn’t open when I last came through there on a tour. The climb from JT on PA 903 sucked. It doesn’t look as bad on paper as it feels on the legs. Then you had another climb before getting back to the trail at Bomanstown.

I think the biggest problem with the trail is the relative lack of “budget” accommodations.

Trail got hammered during Ida. I just rode the section above Jim Thorpe on my way to the Adirondacks last week!! Link has numerous pictures.

Oh boy. The Lehigh empties into to Delaware at Easton. Further down river in Lambertville, on the NJ side, at least 45% of the buildings in town suffered some sort of flood damage.

Recent Visit to D&L Trail
 

I was there over Labor Day. Stayed in Jim Thorpe and went north and back to White Haven. It was doable. Up toward White Haven the trail was washed out in a couple spots, but crews were already at work on them. Saturday I went south for about 25 miles and back. About a mile out of Jim Thorpe and going for about 1.5 miles the trail was gone. VERY Large stones covered some areas, and others were just big wide holes across the entire pathway. After that smooth sailing. The rough parts I walked some. I am basically a road biker, but was on a hybrid. Afraid of flats......
Dee