Getting in/out of vans; driving about 75 miles, approximately 1.5 hours total. Bicycling 3 miles for warm-up/practice ride; mixed surface paved/gravel/dirt. Bicycling 15 miles on towpath; flat, packed, smooth trails; climbing 224 feet, descending 483 feet.
In the Inn's River Room Restaurant, choose from hot and cold breakfast selections such as an omelette station, make your own waffles, breakfast meats, pancakes or French toast, homemade granola, fruit, and homemade pastries plus coffee, tea, water. In good weather, you are welcome to dine on the veranda. After breakfast we will pack lunches to take with us on the ride. Offerings include deli meats, cheeses, breads, condiments, crudité platter, trail mix, fresh fruit, homemade cookies, juices. We will carry a supply of water to refill your own reusable water bottles; bottled water will be available. The Group Leader/support van can carry lunches on the ride if you choose.
At the Inn's recreation base, where we store our bikes, the Group Leader will conduct a short briefing on the ABCs of checking our bikes before we ride, focusing on troubleshooting and avoiding mechanical problems. We’ll then take a warm-up ride around the campus of the Shawnee Inn, Shawnee Village, and along River Road. We’ll have a short amount of time to pack our own lunches and visit our rooms if needed before we reconvene for an energizing stretch. We will then board vans and drive to historic Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, founded by Moravians in 1741. We’ll have a view from the trail of the Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces and Lehigh University. Our route will take us along the 1831 built Delaware & Lehigh Canal towpath for 15 miles. Keep eyes open for turtles and birds. The D&L is a historic travel and trade corridor paralleling the Lehigh River.
We’ll stop at a scenic spot in Hugh Moore Park and have the lunches we prepared this morning.
Back on our bikes, we’ll ride five more miles and finish at the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers in downtown Easton, Pennsylvania. We’ll hop in vans and return to the Inn via the Delaware River Scenic Drive, Route 611.
Italian themed Inn buffet.
We will gather with a local expert for a presentation on local history featuring fascinating stories and hundreds of historical photographs slides and learn about the fascinating people and experiences of life in Shawnee on Delaware.