Delaware Canal Day Trip

“Okay, so I needed to get out and stretch the legs, and at the same time I had bought a new digital camera that needed to be tried out. So the only logical recourse was to get my butt up to the Delaware Canal and get walking.

I started out from the Virginia Forrest access area and hiked upstream.

I passed the Lumberton Quarry, Triassic sandstone that was used in construction of the Reading Terminal in Philadelphia. At the two-mile mark there is the Black Bass Hotel and Restaurant and a pedestrian suspension bridge over the River to the Jersey side at the Bulls Island recreation area.

I passed this bridge a couple dozen times and kept saying to myself that one day I would walk across. One day was Sunday, so I took the walk.

I think the bridge was built by the Roebling Co., the same company that built the Brooklyn Bridge that I have owned since buying it from a guy at a Turnpike rest stop.

On the Jersey side there is the Delaware and Raritan Canal and the old roadbed of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Bel-Del line (Belvidere and Delaware).

Concrete curbing along the rail bed indicates there was once a station here. There were nice canal info boards here as well.

I took a ton of photos. Unfortunately, in the act of trying to transfer them to the computer, all but four got wiped out. I have no idea what happened to them.

So that means I will have to go back and do it all over again.

What photos there are (all four of 'em) are located here.

The one of the quarry has some somewhat interesting geological information for those so inclined.”

“is turning into what Lizs used to be...a "non-backpacker".

Dude, you gotta get out and backpack...but I love the canal, thanks for posting the trip report and photos...old stomping grounds bring back good memories...

oh wait a second...those memories involve a former wife...
, a former life...

YOU B@ST@RD!!! stirring up those memories....I'm gonna KILL YOU!!!

j/k...LOL”

“Nice pictures (all 4, haha). Seems like a nice place for a dayhike!”

“LOL at the 4 pics. hey it's better then nothing. nice trip. did you get any snow or rain?”

“Perhaps the sensitivity setting on your computer caused the pictures to be ejected. Were they crotch pictures? LOL.

Thanks for sharing.”

“Pix from Day Trip last Sunday

I walked from near Center Bridge, Pa., up to Lumberville, across footbridge to Bulls Island, NJ, and up Delaware and Raritan Canal to its inlet above the wing dam above Lumberville.

Good day to be out and about. The footbridge is a cable suspension bridge, of which there are quite a few old ones constructed by the Roeblings crossing the Delaware (auto bridges, mostly).

The Black Bass Inn (1745) in Lumberville and the bridge provided contrasting architectural styles and techniques.

The Delaware Canal was drained for the winter through this section, so it appears mostly dry. The mallard managed to find a wet area.”

“Geobeet...FWIW...the pedestrian bridge at Bull's Island is one of only two pedestrian bridges of it's type spanning the Delaware.”

“Thanks NJ. Do you happen to know where the other one is?”

“Cool pics - the inky dinky spider looks HUGE in the pic (cool perspective).”

“Very nice pics Geo. Thanks!
There is a pedestrian bridge that spans from Columbia, NJ to Portland. Could that be the other one?”

“Looks like a walk.
There is a Roebling suspension bridge on the Upper Delaware at Lackawaxen that was used to carry canal boats across the Delaware on the D & H Canal. The bridge is still in use today as a one lane car bridge.”

“Those Roeblings left a lot of little legacies around. Some are really old and still carrying traffic. They're gems.

The folks in the Delaware Canal State Park have posted signs about circuit hikes, taking bridges across the river to the D&R Canal or the Bel Del right of way. The Bel Del was the old Pennsy line, which connected with the Lackawanna at Manunka Chunk just north of an old tunnel on the Lackawanna. I walked through that tunnel with my brother a few years back. That was an experience.”