A Ride into Autumn
designer cycling routes for fall at a do-it-yourself pace and price.

Cycle Through Time, New Hope PA

Hub: Wedgwood Inn.  From $95, includes breakfast.  For more information, call (215) 862-2570.

The Delaware River cuts a scenic slash between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Gen. George Washington and his troops encamped near here, and the cycling trail takes you past blazing color and a Colonial-day America that seems frozen in time. Quaint tollgates and pedestrian bridges arch the river for easy hopscotching between the states and sites.

In New Hope, your storybook town hub, tiny canals tinkle under kissing bridges, and everything from the historic inns to the antique shops twinkle at night with fairy lights. With Halloween coming up, you might consider the guided, lantern-lighted ghost town tour through New Hope, "the spookiest town in America," where guests have reputedly spied Aaron Burr haunting a local hotel. (Not yours, of course.)

Spoke 1: Historic Delaware Canal Tow Path to Lumberville loop, 20 miles. Flat.

From the inn, take the Lambertville Free Bridge across to Lambertville N.J. (Check under the: eaves to see if the: Lambertville swallows have left town for the winter.) Follow the canal path north. The gravel path (touring bikes do fine for short hops like this one) tunnels through flaming foliage past Colonial Stockton and a crumbling gristmill to the Lumberville foot bridge to Bull Island's State Park. Walk your bike across to Lumberville, where a historic riverfront inn and general store constitute the "downtown." Have a picnic by the river and pedal back.

Spoke 2: Path of history loop, 12 miles. Flat to rolling.

From New Hope: Route 32 winds south along the river to Washington Crossing State Park, a mound of color housing 13 historic structures from the: days of the general's encampment. Drop by the old ferry inn, where Washington wined and dined before the Battle of Trenton, or look for faint threads of trail used by Washington and his troops along the riverfront. Follow Route 32 north back to New Hope. About a mile away, brake for Bowman's Tower. The 100foot observation deck marks the spot where sentries watched for enemy movement along the river.

Continue north on Route 32 to Aquetong Road about a half-mile. Turn left on Covered Bridge Road and go one mile to Van Sant Covered Bridge. The historic span was built in 1875 and is as bumpy a ride as ever. Retrace your tracks back to Route 32 and New Hope.

Spoke 3: Covered bridge loop, 34 miles. Flat to mildly rolling.

From New Hope, cross the Lambertville Free Bridge to New Jersey and head north on Route 29. You'll pass fields dotted with stone farmhouses, red barns, orchards drooping with fruit and tiny villages. Have lunch in Frenchtown; the Colonial town's cobblestone streets are lined with cafes.

Then cross the Frenchtown-Uhlerstown Bridge to Pennsylvania. Head south (left) on Route 32 to the Uhlerstown Covered Bridge; the peek-a-boo windows offer views of the canal it crosses. Continue south to the Isaac Stover House, owned by Sally Jessy Raphael. About a, mile farther, turn right on Geigel Hill Road and follow it about a half-mile to the Erwinna Covered Bridge, which was built in 1871 and crosses a tiny creek swarming with tadpoles.

We have several books in the Inns with information about local bike trails and events throughout the New Hope,  Bucks County area.

–C.J.
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