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It was fine to a certain point, with no signs I sort of just rode around until I decided I would most likely get lost since I didn’t take my phone
We parked at the Forest City Trailhead and rode 10 miles to the North. There is a nice parking lot in Forest City.
The 5 miles from Forest City to Uniondale is recently maintained with fine cinders. The next 5 miles was coarser gravel, so a little more difficult, but still well maintained. The grade was pretty gradual, so even though it was uphill, it was quite do-able. On the way back, the same gradual grade meant there wasn't much coasting, but it was a little easier.
The trail crosses a few roads, but cyclist never need to ride on the road.
To discourage ATVs, there are gates periodically. Bikes can get around the gates, but ATVs can't.
I hope to explore other sections of this trail in the coming months. I will definitely come back.
This is not a trail that is friendly to cycling. It is mostly an ATV trail. However, since the southern end runs so close to the D&H trail, you might want to give this a try. I was cycling the D&H and found the places where there were crossovers between the two trails. Inspecting the O&W, I found its roadbed to be vastly inferior compared to the (apparently recently upgraded) D&H. Since the O&W always stays east of the Lackawanna River, I figured it would have a bit of a different feel to the D&H- and it does. I would recommend doing what I did- unless you really want the exercise. I covered the O&W DOWN-hill from Forest City to Uniondale and covered the D&H 3 times (once down, twice up). The O&W is pleasant going downhill, but it was clear that the slippery cinder base would be a challenge going in the other direction.
I had started looking at the comments here a couple years ago. I decided to hold off until now to make the journey and risk finding a possibly very crummy trail. Since no one has commented in a while, here is an update. The southern end of the trail is open and in good shape up until a couple miles north of Uniondale. This portion is fine stone and (other than the constant incline), should make for good cycling for everyone. Heading north, you then start to encounter larger gravel that makes for a more challenging ride. The highest point is Ararat. There is a lot of work being done north of the highway crossing there. I saw a number of pieces of heavy equipment. Continuing north (going downhill now), much of the trail is slippery cinders. I continued till just west of Thompson before turning around. While I had been looking forward to the downhill return, the roughness of the trail means you can’t coast downhill- you just keep pedaling (again, until a couple miles or so north of Union Dale). Once you get to that point, you can then coast on back to your parking area.
Note that O&W and D&H trails run so close together at the southern end, that there are occasional crossovers. When inspecting the O&W trail, I saw that it was vastly inferior in roadbed quality. However, being the explorer that I am, I decided to cover the O&W to see just how different it might be (it stays entirely on the eastern side of the river, while the D&H crosses the river in multiple locations). Knowing that the D&H was not far away, I banked on the fact that I would not be required to ride UP-hill if I didn’t want to. So, indeed, I only went DOWN-hill on the O&W, covering the D&H 3 times (down once and up twice). I did this for the distance from Forest City until Carbondale. It is clear that the farther north you get on the O&W, the more it is simply an ATV trail and not at all comfortable for cycling.
I had looked at the map and decided another day’s journey might begin at the parking area shown on the map in Thompson. At that location is an old depot converted into an ice cream shop. But in that parking lot were large mounds of material and some heavy equipment. As it is clear they are continuing (sorely needed) work on the trail, I will be waiting a year or two to pick up my journey at the northern end of this trail. It is a very scenic trail and I enjoyed myself. It is good to know that the future looks promising for comfortable riding along the Lackawanna River.
My wife and I rode the Switchback this past weekend for the first time, and it was her first time off-road on a bike. The only part she had difficulty with was the last stretch of the downhill rock garden. This was a very fun ride, and I don’t recommend riding the whole 18 miles unless you’re in a mountain bike.
Since I recently moved to within walking distance of a trailhead, I’ve been on the D&L at least twice a week. To mix it up, I have started my routes at different points. Should I ever return to marathon training, I’ll probably run a point-to-point and have a friend drive me home. I can’t wait to see the trail in fall, along with the foliage all around me. It is a well-kept PA treasure.
First, I appreciate this trail being there.
A lot of the trail is right next to route 11, so if you are looking to "get away from things" this may not do it for ya. The part by the route 239 bridge is overgrown - not maintained at all - so we had to ride on the road through a traffic light and find our way through the town to get back on the trail.
The trail was mowed and week killer of a sort was put down which made the trail at least 8 feet wide. Wide is good.
We started at Riverlands Park and went 5.5 miles before turning around. It just got a bit too bumpy for our party.
I would recommend this to those who like to ride distance, do not mind riding over some bumps, rocks, and grass, and do not mind circumnavigating some inconveniences - like riding on the highway and some land slides by Shickshinny (3 of them).
Other than that we enjoyed it.
Pedestrian bridge complete south of Jim Thorpe! Rode approx 28 miles round trip from Slatington to Jim Thorpe and back. Trail head at Slatington had bathrooms, picnic tables, and food truck. The ride was mostly on trail with small sections on roads-not much traffic at all (note we were there on an overcast Tuesday-not sure what a sunny weekend would be like). With the Pedestrian Bridge we were able to go into Jim Thorpe for lunch with no problem! Flat trip although we thought perhaps slight grade going south to north. Scenic ride with river on one side and canal on other. Worth the 2 hour drive.
Stayed at Shawnee resort with my wife and 2 kids (6 and 9). Not knowing the area we cam upon this trail at Hialeah. Started easy enough but before long the hills started. Wish there had been warnings (maybe we missed them). We are not experienced bikers so we ended up walking up all the hills with our little ones. We made it to Smithfield Beach 1.7 miles and kids didn't want to ride back. I rode back to get the car. It was a good ride but had to walk up one hill. Next day we started at Smithfield going north and got as far as Turn Farm about 2.2 miles. This stretch was pretty flat with minimal hills. A lot of green but can hardly see the river. But, good stretch to ride with kids as mostly level. Will need to visit again alone to see how far I can make it.
On 08/19/19 we rode a section of this trail running south from the airport to just past the viaduct. To begin with the trail was slightly difficult to locate and we ended up asking someone at the airport how to locate the trail. We were hoping to get in a 20 to 25 mile ride, but after passing under the viaduct the trail became increasingly tight (rubbing up against bushes) and muddy (large puddles of water) which caused us to turn around. When we arrived back at the airport we figured that heading north would be similar to our southerly experience so we ended our ride.
Our assessment of the section of the trail that we rode:
Narrow - We had to ride single file.
Muddy - It did look like it maybe rained the night before.
Rough - We usually average around 12 mph. On this trail we were at 8 mph.
Has potential, but needs a little TLC.
More suited for mountain bikes (or at least bikes with wider tires) than hybrids.
Baseline:
We are in our mid to late 50's and our home trails are the Pine Creek Trail and the Buffalo Valley Trail.
I started riding on NJ trails a few weeks ago and I had some things I liked about this trail and other things that I did not enjoy:
There's plenty of shade and it's a few degrees cooler up north than going south. There are some scenic views, for example a little water fall, body of water, areas of rock that had been blasted for the train tracks.
On the less favorable side: There are a number of times that you'll need to cross a road. Sometimes these are county roads with a lot of fast moving trucks. Be very careful! Also, there can be mud after a rain. A number of areas are very narrow and you'll encounter rocks and holes in the trail.
I did not see any animals (except for a dog).
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