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The Lehigh Canal (North) segment of the D&L Trail is a short 5.6 mile stretch of Lehigh Canal towpath from downtown Jim Thorpe to Parryville. It leaves the train station over the 255 foot Mansion House Bridge, passes Lock 1, and follows the canal south under forested slopes, with the river on one side and the trout-filled canal and lock remnants on the other. Weissport, the canal's old boatyard town, sits at mile 3.7 with a trailhead in Lehigh Canal Park. The last 1.4 miles to the Parryville Spur Trailhead are natural dirt and unimproved. The D & L Trail: Lehigh Gorge segment begins at Jim Thorpe; the D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (South) segment continues from Weissport.
D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (North)
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (North) has about 116 to 159 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, running, birding, biking, and walking, with May, September, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (North)!
In half of past years, color along the D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (North) peaks October 17 to 28, typically around October 22. The trail has 52% deciduous coverage, with the majority being chestnut oak, red maple, northern red oak, and sweet birch.
Josiah White and Erskine Hazard founded the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in 1818 to move anthracite out of the hills at Mauch Chunk. Their Lehigh Canal was rebuilt for two-way traffic from 1827 to 1829, 46 miles from Mauch Chunk to Easton. Pennsylvania dug the Delaware Canal from Easton to Bristol between 1827 and 1832, and the first coal boat reached Bristol that July. Upstream, the company dug the canal on through the Lehigh Gorge to White Haven by 1843 and chartered the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad to reach Wilkes-Barre. In June 1862 a dam failure above White Haven washed the gorge canal out for good. The Lehigh and Susquehanna replaced the drowned canal and the Central Railroad of New Jersey leased it in 1871, while Asa Packer's Lehigh Valley Railroad hauled coal down the far bank. The last paying boat left the Delaware Canal in October 1931, and the company closed the Lehigh Navigation in 1932. Pennsylvania made the Delaware Canal a state park in 1940. The Central Railroad of New Jersey gave up its gorge line in 1972. Lehigh Gorge State Park took the empty rail bed in 1980, and Congress created the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor in 1988. Its namesake nonprofit has joined towpaths and rail beds into the 165 mile D&L Trail since. This segment is the head of the Lehigh Canal, from Lock 1 at Jim Thorpe over the Mansion House Bridge and down the towpath past Weissport's old boatyards to Parryville.
D & L Trail: Lehigh GorgeD & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (South)Switchback Railroad TrailLehighton Spur
