Lehigh Gorge Trail – Jim Thorpe, PA

July 24, 2020

We took a day off after finishing our New Jersey 100 to rest – a much needed rest. Fortunately we had an extra day to ride and decided to ride the Lehigh Gorge Trail. It’s a 24 mile trail from Jim Thorpe to White Haven. We had ridden this trail in the past to White Haven and back. Today we used a shuttle service to White Haven and returned to Jim Thorpe.

The Lehigh Gorge is a deep, steep, walled gorge. The trail is a gradual downhill grade on an abandoned railroad bed.

Typical of nice smooth crushed stone trail – one of nicest surfaces we’ve ridden.

The trail follows the river the entire way to Jim Thorpe. There was an area where every 1.5 miles there was a back board at the ready for water rescues. Beside the boards were steep trails to the river.

Back boards for river rescues – in this area Lehigh River is class III.

The elevation on my Polar in White Haven read 1171 and 695 in Jim Thorpe. While it was a gradual downhill grade there was no coasting, we needed to pedal the entire distance.

Buttermilk Falls, just north of Rockport.

The scenery was beautiful – the steep wall of the gorge was covered in vegetation. We could hear the rapids on the river in many areas.

Train being loaded with railroad ties along trail.
Nearing the end of the trail.
Trestle bridge just outside of Jim Thorpe.
Bridge over Lehigh River in Jim Thorpe.
Remnant of former CNJ engine terminal near Jim Thorpe.

We had completed our Pennsylvania 100 in 2012 long before we started blogging. This trail and the Pine Creek Trail (aka Grand Canyon of PA) helped to inspire us to begin our journey to ride 100 miles in all the lower 48.