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The Nor-Bath Trail is a six mile rail trail across the cement country of Northampton County, Pennsylvania. It runs from Canal Street Park in Northampton, where it meets the D&L Trail, east through East Allen Township to the edge of Bath. The grade is the old Northampton and Bath Railroad, so the path is nearly level, with a gentle rise of about 100 feet toward Bath. Asphalt carries the western end near town, and crushed stone takes over beyond. The route leaves a residential neighborhood, crosses open farmland and short wooded stretches, and links three parks: Wayne A. Grube Memorial Park, Bicentennial Park, and Jacksonville Park.
Nor-Bath Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Nor-Bath Trail has about 116 to 164 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, birding, e-biking, running, biking, and walking, with April, May, 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 Nor-Bath Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Nor-Bath Trail peaks October 21 to November 10, typically around October 31. The trail has 18% deciduous coverage, with the majority being white ash, red maple, northern red oak, white oak, chestnut oak, and black cherry.
The Northampton and Bath Railroad was chartered on July 7, 1902, to carry Portland cement out of the Bath quarries. The Brodhead Contracting Company graded and laid the line between August 1902 and January 1904. It was a single track, standard gauge steam road just over six miles long, running from Northampton Junction to Bath. Its purpose was narrow: connect the Atlas Portland Cement Company and the other Bath area cement plants to the big carriers at Northampton, where the line leased Atlas trackage to reach the Central Railroad of New Jersey. In the 1930s the little road made national news by becoming the first railroad in the United States to run entirely on diesel locomotives. Cement kept the trains moving for 77 years. Trucks took the traffic as the local cement industry declined, and the railroad fell into disuse in 1979. Northampton County bought the corridor in 1980 and set it aside for recreation. The Nor-Bath Trail opened in 1996 as the county's own trail, linking the parks and schools of Northampton, East Allen Township, and Bath. In 2017 a one mile asphalt extension carried the western end into Canal Street Park to meet the D&L Trail. In 2020 the county matched a state Community Conservation Partnerships Program grant with 300,000 dollars to resurface and fence the two and a half miles between Weaversville and Jacksonville Roads.
D & L Trail: Lehigh Canal (North)Hokendauqua Creek Greenway
