Riding Lehigh County Covered Bridges on the way to Jim Thorpe

This ride had been on my list for a while. I wanted to get out and hit some Lehigh County covered bridges on the way up to Jim Thorpe, and I wanted to do it before the season got away from me. I had been to Roadies up in Jim Thorpe once before in the winter, but the outdoor patio was closed. The place sits right there with a view of Penn’s Peak and it looked like it would be worth a return trip in better weather.

I reached out to Trekkie from TrekiMoto, one of my favorite local motovloggers, and we put a plan together. Three covered bridges, lunch at Roadies, and a ride home. About two hours each way depending on the roads. Not a bad way to spend a day.

I was on the 2023 Kawasaki Ninja 400 for this one. The Yamaha MT-09 SP would have been my first choice for a ride that long, but it was still sitting at Martin Moto getting repaired after I got rear-ended. No timeline in sight on that, which is its own story.

The Route and the Plan

We met up at a local Wawa and headed out from there. The goal was backcountry roads, not highway miles, and for the most part that worked out. Google had some opinions about what counted as a highway that I did not agree with, but the route was scenic enough that it was hard to complain too much.

Jim Thorpe sits about two hours from where I am in southeast Pennsylvania, and routing through Lehigh County to pick up the bridges added some nice mileage without adding a lot of time. The roads up that way have some good sweepers and the scenery gets better the further north you go.

Three Lehigh County Covered Bridges

Schlicher’s Covered Bridge

First stop was Schlicher’s Covered Bridge, just outside the Trexler Game Preserve area. It is a wider bridge than I expected, and there are some decent overlooks down to the creek. Walking trails run through the area, and it had that quiet preserved feel that makes these stops worthwhile. We parked up on the hill and walked down to it. There was a fair amount of loose gravel coming off the road which is worth knowing if you are on sport tires.

Rex Covered Bridge

Stop two was Rex Covered Bridge, also in Lehigh County. This one has seen better days. It is dark inside, and there is some mold or decay going on in there that I could not fully identify. Not the most photogenic of the three, but it is a covered bridge and I am into this kind of stuff so I walked through it anyway. It carries bridge number 1858 on a nameplate at the entrance and appears to be part of a county covered bridge tour that I did not know existed until I was standing in front of the sign.

Geiger Covered Bridge

The third stop was Geiger Covered Bridge, number 1860, and this was the best of the three. Painted white, clean entrances mostly clear of gravel, and a really nice view of the creek from inside. There is a trail that runs across it connecting into the Trexler Nature Preserve trail network. The bridge sits in a well-maintained little area with actual parking, including a couple of handicap-reserved spots which I found unexpectedly amusing. There were also a lot of bees. I mean a lot of bees. Fair warning on that.

All three bridges appear to be part of an official Lehigh County covered bridge tour. I am going to look more into that because it sounds like the kind of thing worth doing properly with a mapped route and more stops.

Lunch at Roadies in Jim Thorpe

From the third bridge we made our way into Jim Thorpe and got to Roadies right around opening time. Lots of bikes already there when we arrived, which is usually a good sign. The place draws a crowd on a good riding day and the view from the patio does not disappoint. Lunch was good, the company was good, and it was exactly the kind of stop a ride like this calls for.

If you have never been to Jim Thorpe, it is worth the trip on its own. Add covered bridges along the way and you have a solid full-day ride out of just about anywhere in southeast Pennsylvania.

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Ride With Me

If you want to see the full route, the bridges, and lunch at Roadies, the video is up on the WaltInPA YouTube channel. Subscribe so you do not miss the next one.

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