Lehigh, Pennsylvania, US

3. Jim Thorpe to Bowmanstown (Section III)

Usual Difficulty	I-II (for normal flows)
Length	6.9 Miles
Avg. Gradient	12 fpm
Max Gradient	20 fpm

Gauge Information

Name	Range	Difficulty	Updated	Level
Lehigh River at Lehighton, PA
usgs-01449000	450 - 5000 cfs	I-II	00h17m	936 cfs (rc= 0.1 )

River Description

A easy family float trip at low to moderate levels (up to 2 or 3000 cfs). A good place to train beginning kayakers. Wide river with some surfing waves, eddy lines and easy drops. Can get pushy with rescue difficult at higher levels when the river overflows into the trees, and the waves at the last rapid (Carnage) can get big and irregular.

River access at Jim Thorpe (pay the fee at the township parking lot - there is a set of stairs to the river at the north end of the lot), Dunbar's Bottling in Lehighton (go past the buildings to the river - be careful of leaving your car there), Weissport (park at the tennis courts and put on under the 209 bridge), Parryville (park at the turnpike building - a difficult carry down to the river), and Bowmanstown (take-out on river right at the 895 bridge - park at the access road to the turnaround at the river). There is a new public access 3/4 mile down from the Bowmanstown bridge at Riverside Park on river right.  Off street parking for 200 cars, and a 10 mile trail down to Slatington, with the Osprey nature center half-way down the trail.

You can also put in at Glen Onoko for an additional couple of miles of easy class II (see the Rockport to Jim Thorpe reach description).

The two main rapids are at the start and end of the trip - Bear Trap in Jim Thorpe (start in the middle and run to the right, avoiding the rocks along river right at the bottom), and Carnage in Bowmanstown (start left and follow the main flow to the right avoiding the large rocks in the middle of the channel about 1/3 of the way down).

The remainder of the river is pretty much riffles with flatwater and some small wave trains. A nice surfing wave is under the left arch of the railroad bridge just above Lehighton at Dunbars. Just beyond the PA Turnpike bridge is a rather trashy surfing hole on river left, and just below that is a small regular surfing wave (the Perfect Wave) with eddys on the right and left.

The 2006 flood washed out most of the remains of an old log dam just above Carnage. It also washed a channel to the right of an island just above where the dam was. The entrance chute to the right of that island is rather forceful and pushes you against the river right bank where there are some tree root snags and strainers. This is where a rafter was pinned underwater before being rescued in 2006.

A bike path starts at Weissport's canal park and goes north to Jim Thorpe's sewage treatment plant river left of Bear Trap rapids.  And Riverside park below Bowmanstown has a large trail network.