I rode the trail today near the nuclear power plant and it was poorly maintained. The gravel was very loose, a lot of fallen tree debris and quite muddy. I traveled on the trail north about 2.5 miles and gave up. I traveled back along US11 and then rode around the trails at the river flatlands which were a bit better. I guess I am spoiled with my local trails (York Heritage and NW Lancaster Co Rail Trail)

Have always loved the IRT - it is truly one of the best trails in the Lehigh Valley. I generally use the Chestnut Street or Saylor Park trailheads so I can choose if I want to do just the loop or the loop and spur section.

I was also pleasantly surprised that the ENTIRE trail is paved now! The last section of the spur route used to be crushed stone, but is now paved. This makes for an awesome ride.

Overall, it is a fairly flat loop with a spur should you choose to do it. On the loop, there is a hill that starts at the spur entrance and goes toward the Chestnut Street trailhead, then turns downhill to Saylor Park. On the spur route, there is a slight brief uphill as soon as you turn onto it, before you go under the Route 145 bridge. The scenery changes throughout the loop from dense woods to town parks to homes and apartments. The spur route is much more countryside, with the ruins of old industry and trains along the way.

The road crossings on the loop route are very manageable and since you are in towns most of the time, traffic moves slowly and/or is very good about yielding. This is a bit of a different story on the spur route, which has some busy road crossings, namely South Church Street (second crossing after bearing off on the spur) and Mauch Chunk Road (last crossing on the spur route). Mauch Chunk is especially dangerous with cars moving at a high rate of speed - there are signs on the trail warning that it is a dangerous intersection. However, all crossings are well-signed - it just seems to me that vehicle operators on the faster country roads along the spur route generally do not yield to you.

The only other compliant is toward the end of the spur route, the trail passes directly behind a very busy gun range. Although there are cement walls and fences dividing the trail from the range (and the range is pointed away from the trail), it can still be a bit unnerving to hear rounds being fired so close to the trail.

Overall if you pick one trail in the Lehigh Valley to try out, make it this one - you won't be disappointed!

Trail is nice however it's all broken up..they need to connect all this trail together to make it a nice trail

The flow of the trail is perfect as it follows the creek.

We loved this ride. We even had an encounter with a deer. It was lovely.

Started in Carbondale on the Lackawanna Trail and continued seamlessly to the D&H. Trail was nice compacted cinders as described up to Ararat trailhead, trail was nice continuous uphill climb at about 1-2% barely noticeable. Last mile or two to Ararat increased to maybe 3% and was noticeable. The scenery along this stretch was varied and beautiful with small lakes an Stillwater Lake which is dammed.

From Ararat to Starrucca Viaduct is also as advertised, minimum is Hybrid with suspension, the one review that said he did it without suspension must have reverberated for weeks. This stretch is downhill and would be very difficult riding the other way the downhill grade helped overcome the friction of the uncompacted gravel.

The big disappointment came as we neared the Viaduct, the trail markings almost diminished and alternate paths made it confusing we ended up riding into town and onto town roads to the Viaduct. The Viaduct should be a highlight for this trail and unless you start there which is not recommended you could struggle to find it.

The section north of the viaduct to NY was almost impossible to find and poorly maintained dirt trail, NY line wasn't even marked, total waste of time.

Started at Milford Beach expecting a basically downhill ride. From Milford Beach to Dingmans Campground many stretches were unrideable and needed to walk bike up and down steps and steep slopes. The only positive in this stretch was that Raymondskill Falls was a short uphill walk from the trail and worth the view. By the time we got to Dingman Falls I did not have the energy left to afford another side excursion. Trail for flat sections was basically compacted cinders, the steep sections were dirt hiking trails. From Dingmans Campground to Hialeah the trails meanders up and down as well as sideways several steep cinder sections with one sign missing that almost caused a calamity. Steep drop with sharp right turn at bottom onto a bridge. Bridge was not visible until bottom and carrying to much speed right turn is not possible. Three choice run in stream, hit tree or exposed tree roots.

The trail is not recommended for street bikes and absolutely need MTB or Hybrid with suspension north of Dingmans Campground. From Hialeah to Dingmans required several side tours on to roadways, twice on Highway. Many flat stretches but also some pretty hefty grades in this run.

My wife and I love riding this trail in all seasons. Beautiful scenery.

Overall a good trail but there are some irritations. The missing section between Lincoln Drive in Wissahickon and Lock Street in Manayunk is very annoying. You have a choice of dealing with the usually heavy traffic on Main street, or bumps, driveways, pedestrians and dogs on the sidewalk. This makes accessing Philadelphia from the north using this trail unsuitable, (or at least very intimidating) for novice/casual riders. Immediately north of that section there is a section on planks that will rattle your teeth loose, then there is a gravel/dirt section that tends to be muddy. This renders the trail undesirable as a commuting route. North of Shawmont Ave. it's good for a long stretch out to Oaks. Parking is not reliably available at Spring Mill or Conshohocken, which also makes the trail much less useful for commuting into Philly, especially on weekdays. The trail tends to get very heavy use, (increasingly so as one approaches Philly) and a considerable fraction of riders go faster than is appropriate.