The Trail From Hell

This is Don before we hit the heavy stuff. I bit my way through. 

Most of my bike rides are solo affairs. That's understandable, too. Would you want to be seen with a bottom-feeding blogger? There are, however, people who are willing to ride with me. My friend Anne and her husband Don are two such kind-hearted souls. This is a couple who actually spends time on the trail offering minor repairs and water to passing cyclists. They're both veteran cyclists, both on and off road. So when they ask me to join them, I agree. My hope is that some of their goodness rubs off one me. But it appears that the opposite is happening. Let me tell you the story.

As most of you know, I love the Delaware and Lehigh Trail. I plan to ride from Cementon to White Haven and back before the end of this season. Anne and Don are part of a crew that make the trip from Sand Island (in Bethlehem) to Jim Thorpe every Fall, and I've already booked that trip. But I told them I was unsure how to get from Canal Park in Allentown to hook up with the DandL in Northampton. My grandson and I rode out of Canal Park for a bit, but were on the roads and some rather steep hills. Anne and Don told me there's actually a trail. It was a little rough, they warned me, but nothing like mountain biking. Best of all, only one mile of roads and no hills. So when they offered to show me the way yesterday, I readily agreed.

They lied. There was not one, but a few miles of roads with monster hills. And the trail? It was the trail from hell.

Rocks, tree roots, stones, hills, mud and all kinds of obstacles.

"I thought you said there were no hills?"

"We lied."

I should have brought a machete.

Occasionally, I'd see a few bones here and there.

"Nothing to worry about," they said.

After struggling for a few miles, I told them I had to use the roads. If that meant some trucker was going to cream me, it would be at at least less painful than being impaled on some giant vine of poison ivy.

And we hadn't hit the rough stuff yet. So we hopped on the roads and the ride was actually enjoyable. When we made it to Northampton, we stopped at a coffee shop. We're all addicted to caffeine.

To return, we rode through Northampton, hopped on the Nor-Bath trail, and took that to Jacksonville Road. We were on Route 512, Schoenersville Road and all kinds of busy roadways. They were much better than the trail from hell.

Anne and Don safely delivered me back to Sand Island, after which they rode home. I was going to continue my ride from there to Easton, but wanted a nice, wide and well-maintained trail. So I drove to Cementon and rode up a few miles past Slatington, where the trail has been temporarily closed for power line repairs.

When I returned home from 52 miles on the bike, I looked over the agenda for tonight's meeting of Northampton County Council. Lo and behold, the County is being asked to chip in $500,000 in open space money for improvements along the DandL trail in North Catasauqua and Northampton. DCNR will kick in $650,000 and North Catty will also contribute $166,000.

This will make it possible to widen and resurface 1.56 miles of what now is the trail from hell.

The sooner, the better.