Delaware Double Cross

We were suppose to be away on a trip this weekend. It was first going to be to Gettysburg then we decided we might go to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. However because of the forecast for Sunday's weather we decided to bail on the trip. Saturday's weather still looked great so I proposed a day trip to the C&D canal. This was part of a Delaware trip that I had planned a couple of years ago that we never did.

Unlike Delaware and Raritan canal, which is no longer used commercially, the C&D canal has been continually widen, expanded and improved and carries a significant amount of traffic, including 40% of all the ships out of Baltimore. The canal also has a newly completed paved bike path along its 14 mile length. I thought it would make for an interesting ride. Even though my Best Bike Rides Philadelphia book had a ride in this area that ride was done by my co-author so I had never been down here.

The ride I put together was a combination of the old Delaware Double Cross ride along with the ride from the book and then adding in the bike path along the canal at the end. I had 3 different routes planned. We ended up doing this route which was the longest one. I got Jack, Chris, Jim and Laura to join me for the ride. We met in Bordentown at 8am and made the quick hour and a half drive to the starting point in Delaware City.

Delaware City is on the Delaware Bay and is where the canal starts. Its directly across from Fort Mott in NJ. In the summer you can actually take a ferry across the river.

The ride started going south on Rt 9 and although I promised a very flat ride we had to get over the canal and so with in a mile of leaving the starting point we had a mile climb at around 4% over a semi scary looking bridge. The bridge had no shoulder and was really high but there wasn't much traffic so it really wasn't too bad. After we got down on the other side and off the main road I took a quick picture to show how high it was.

From there we rode through mostly quiet roads along marshlands and farm lands. We made a brief stop at a Wawa in Middletown which had some traffic but after that we headed back out in to what looked like horse farm country. We had to change the route when we got to Milton Rd because it said there was no outlet. I kind of expected this since the satellite view hinted that the roads went from black to brown and were dirt. We when down Milton Rd anyway to see if there was really a way through but there were several signs telling us to stay off the private property so we decided to not push our luck and turned around.

The next stop was see the upper, upper, part of the Chesapeake bay. Which at this point is called the Elk River.

This was by a marina and gave us a good view of the water. It was a very peaceful place and It would have been a good place to hang out and watch the sunset if we had the time.

The next stop was the western end of the canal in Chesapeake City. It is a small little town on the water that looks historic. It has a lot of restaurants and bars on the water but the cafe and bakery that I was expecting to find was closed. We found a little ice cream place that also had muffins by the water and hung out there for a while.

I took a picture of the bridge going over the canal to reproduce the shot that is in the book.

The plan was to ride over that bridge to get to the canal path that was on the other side. The bridge however had no shoulder, was steep and had a lot of traffic. We could have done it if we had to but it didn't look safe so we decided to head along the south side of the canal until we found a better bridge.

Jack was told by some one in town that there was a way to get to the canal path on this side of the river so we tried to head down a road to find it but when we found the path on the south side it was dirt and gravel. It was semi hard packed but it won't have been fun riding on it.

We continued east a couple more miles until we hit Rt 301 which had a bridge over the canal that had a shoulder. There was a lot of traffic but with the shoulder it wasn't too bad. At this point we were off any route I had so I did a little seat of the path navigation and just kept heading toward the canal where we eventually found the trail.

Once on the trail it was a straight ride east to the starting point in Delaware city. The wind which had been strong and annoying most of the day was still in our face. It must have changed directions because I thought we might have a little bit of a tail wind at this point.

The ride along the canal gave us a good view of it and how big it is. We saw a large barge being pulled by a tug along with a lot of pleasure boats going along. the canal. There were several interesting bridges along the way and stopped for this picture of new one in front of the old style.

By the time we got back we had 63 miles. It was a fun adventure and a good way to spend a warm Saturday. There are a couple other places down this way I want to explore so I may try to get back here some time next year.