The Red House Along The Autumn Canal ...

“The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.”

                             ~ Henry Beston

                                   ~ 1888-1968

The historic Harry Rickert House reflects in the Lehigh Canal on a beautiful autumn afternoon in early November along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail), Weissport, Pennsylvania, where the trail is positioned between the Lehigh River and Lehigh Canal.

Weissport flourished as a Lehigh Canal town until 1942. Diverse goods, coal and people moved along the waterway. Boatyards and a mercantile center in the Harry Rickert House anchored business activity here.

The house itself was built just after the canal was dug and built in 1828. Jacob K. Rickert came to Weissport in the 1850s, and through his son Hiram and grandson Harry, the Rickert’s business continued to operate until the 1950s. Today the stately building is owned by Rod and Jennifer Mann. The house is their home plus a guest house known as “The Canal Side Guest House.”

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

Easy, Breezy Butterfly ...

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”

                  ~ Confucius

                        ~ 551 BC-479 BC

A sweet white butterfly alights on a flower during a breezy, beautiful late September afternoon along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) at Lehigh Gap.

In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, the Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and the D&L Trail. 

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

Lights Across The Delaware ...

“Sometimes I do get to places just as God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.”      

           ~ Ansel Adams

                  ~ 1902-1984

As an October sundown closes a beautiful autumn day, the historic Northampton Street Bridge, commonly called the Free Bridge, lights up across the Delaware River looking toward Phillipsburg, New Jersey from Delaware Canal State Park, Easton, Pennsylvania near the Forks of the Delaware Trailhead of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail).

The Delaware River Toll Bridge can be seen behind The Free Bridge, which spans the two states, was completed in 1896 and survived massive flooding from Hurricane Diane in 1955. It underwent a thorough restoration in 1990 and is one of my very favorite places to photograph.

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.