There were two trips: the first one was from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg along the route of the Pennsylvania Canal; and the second one started in Philadelphia, up the Schuylkill River to Pottsville/Port Carbon, over to Pottsgrove, down the Swatara Creek through Lebanon to Harrisburg, up the Susquehanna River to Wilkes Barre, then over the hill and down the Lehigh River corridor to Easton. I needed to do some research in Philadelphia, so I took a bus from Easton to Philly. Quite sorry to miss the Delaware Canal towpath. The first trip started in Pittsburgh, up the Allegheny River to Freeport, did a loop on the Butler County Community Trail, up the Kiski-Conemaugh Rivers through Leechburg, Saltsburg, and Blairsville, then up to Indiana on the Hoodlebug Trail, the Ghost Town Trail to Ebensburg, over the top and down Blair Gap to Hollidaysburg, several days in Altoona Penn State to help put on an old time "Canal Jam" (1800's canal folk music), down the Lower Trail and Route 22 through Huntingdon and Lewistown, stayed at the Doyle Hotel in Duncannon for a few days, across the Clarks Ferry Bridge and down to Harrisburg, and then a few days around Harrisburg with research at the state archives. I spent a long day cycling down to Columbia and across the long bridge at Wrights Ferry, and came back to Harrisburg through Lancaster. For both trips I started in Reno, Nevada, and traveled to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and back by Amtrak.
In case you are wondering, I am working on a set of guidebooks and/or website for the Pennsylvania Canal system. The bicycle trips were working holidays to 'ground truth' a series of digital maps of the canal system that I drew from period survey maps.
