The Lehigh Valley Zoo

This Saturday, I joined Allentown From The Ground Up for a day at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. Growing up in the Lehigh Valley, I visited what was then known simply as the Game Preserve often. I hadn’t been there in a few years but the experience was still as wonderful as it was back then. This is a small zoo with some beautiful animals and an idyllic location, nestled in the hills above the city of Allentown.



The zoo is an incredible resource for the Valley. They have had well publicized money troubles the last few years and nearly had to close the place. I am very glad it is still open. I hope folks begin to realize the value and potential that little zoo has. There is also a public access to game preserve lands there with various trails and incredible opportunities to see our local forest in all its glory.



I feel as if the starring attraction of the zoo for me was less the penguins (which were awesome) and more the preserve. The drive out of the zoo is amazing and is filled with views of bison, elk, and even a long vista of surrounding lands.

There is also the matter of driving through the Jordan Creek to exit which scared me to death as a kid and I still felt a twinge of anxiety as I drove through it for the first time as a driver. Without rambling on about the value of the zoo, I offer only this advice: If you do not go and visit the zoo some time this summer or fall you may be a:


Lehigh Valley Zoo Website

Directions from 15th and Chew:

View 15th and Chew to Lehigh Valley Zoo in a larger map

Trout Creek Parkway: The Pictures that Haven't been posted

Cheers to the Trail Plan!

I had the chance to attend the public meeting on trail planning this past Wednesday at the Public library.
Many of the notable figures reshaping our city were in attendance including, Greg Weitzel our director of Parks and Recreation and Joyce Marin our Director of Community & Economic Development. The meeting focused on the current planning stage of a soon to be completed vision for a city-wide network of bicycle and walking trails that would connect the community through schools, libraries, restaurants, and of course our wonderful parks.

I try to avoid posting my own direct opinion on here as often as possible. I visit our parks and let observation serve as my purpose. I have in the past made a few minor opinionated statements regarding 19th street and music in the city so I don’t feel so bad about what I am about to do in this post.

I support this trail network plan 100%. I am over excited about it and the possibility it will bring to our city. I believe that in the shadow of the ever graying ghosts of Allentown’s old defining manufacturing and commercialism; exists a new promise of possibility. Allentown needs a makeover. This plan is that makeover.

These trails that would connect places like Jordan Meadows and Jordan Park, Trexler Park to Cedar Beach Parkway, South Mountain to Trout Creek Parkway, Canal park to Keck park and the East Side Reservoir and then connect them all with each other; would also connect our urban neighborhoods to the local established businesses, restaurants, museums and libraries. It is as if a brand new circulatory system would be installed across Allentown that will allow a new heart to pump a new blood and give rise to a new attitude.

Bicycle lanes on wide streets would be part of this trail plan and Joyce Marin has personally assured me the beginnings of that will start this summer with the installation of bike racks at various hubs across our downtown. Adding bicycle lanes would be a huge boost to greening the transportation here in the city and would allow even easier access for bikers to reach our parks from downtown.

This would change the perception of Allentown forever. We would no longer be that graying ghost down the Lehigh from Bethlehem. We would have a name again. This will also, in my opinion, spur further development and might lead to more jobs being created in an expanding city that can never have enough. As much as the work that has been done by the WPA has defined Allentown for nearly eighty years, this project will be our defining and lasting addition to the city.

These trails will also incorporate the grand WPA stairs and use the past to help forge the future. I see no better option for our community that would bring us together, make us stronger, and take Allentown boldly into a future that is guided by the past but not ruled by it.

I imagine some of the plan will be very difficult to pull off. The connection of Trexler Park to Cedar Beach Parkway being one of them; PennDot will need to assist there. I have no idea how much this is going to cost either but I hope it is affordable. This city needs a new heart. Most of its old one has been demolished or is currently deteriorating into memory. There will be further meetings as the plan continues to develop and I will be there. I hope you come too. As soon as the bike racks are put in, you’ll find pictures of them here.

Cheers to the trail plan!

Related Posts:
The above park links

The First Frost Challenge: Log One

My friends know that I profoundly dislike hot weather. I would easily be satisfied if the temperature never got above sixty degrees. That said, I usually have a countdown to the first day of autumn (87 days by the way) going as soon as the first humid soaked summer afternoon bakes itself into the soil. Our first frost usually occurs around mid October.

It is with these dates in mind that I set for myself a challenge. In order to demonstrate the functionality of our parks I pledge that I will lose thirty-five pounds by walking and using the fitness equipment in the parks by the time of our first frost.

I currently weigh 228 pounds.


At just under six feet tall I am medically considered obese. I need to lose about 40 pounds to be considered healthy. Without question, I feel out of shape. I sure look it too. I will document weekly my progress (or lack there of) here on this blog. Supplementing my exercise in the parks I am going to develop a diet of locally grown sustainable food and I will share this diet here as well.

I am looking forward to my first frost challenge. I am excited to continue to show the wonderful uses of our beautiful city parks. Here, I selfishly wish myself luck. I am going to need it.

Specific details will be provided next week as well as initial results.

Challenge on.

Cedar Creek Parkway Construction: Part One

As CBP is worked on, I will document the progress of construction. Following the unusual and epic rains of June, work has begun on the restoration of the stone walls around the emptied ponds at the Rose Gardens. The project is in full swing now. The walls will be repaired, and the work is getting done.





Later this evening I will be posting a full recap of last night's fantastic public info session on a new trails system in the city of Allentown. Sorry I have been away for a few days, I had an illness to fight.

Monday Notes and The pictures that haven't been posted: Part 2

Don’t forget that Wednesday night there is a meeting about the comprehensive trail network study at 7:30 in the Allentown Public Library meeting room. Here is a link to the flyer. Please come out and give your input. I am very excited about what this could mean for the city of Allentown. You can meet me too, however I imagine that isn’t that enticing…

I am still planning on organizing a Remember: Walk in the Park. Since initially posting I have three very positive responses. Let me know if you are interested!

This Saturday, Allentown From the Ground Up is hosting a meet-up at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. Come out and join us. We are meeting at the zoo at noon and carpools are being organized from Allentown. Leave a comment if you have any questions or are interested in attending. Allentown From The Ground Up is on facebook and has a member count of 115! Join the group if you haven’t and are a facebook user.

Lehigh Parkway:

Bridle Path:


Dame's Rocket (Invasive species):


The Little Lehigh roaring:


Rock Outcropping:



Bogart's Bridge:


The Spring House by Bogart's bridge:

The Pictures that haven't been posted- Part One

Trexler Park

When I took this pictures, Spring had just really begun to take hold:

The Spring House:



My brother and blogger Bryan viewing the General:

The spillway of the "lake":

Some views of the man-made "lake":

Evening Notes, West Park, and The Dave Matthews Band

First up is the West Park House Tour. Check out the link here for more information and while you are at it, check out the West Park Civic Association.

Second, this Saturday night come to Taylor Roasted Coffee House in Northampton. I host an open mic there bi-weekly and a good friend of mine and excellent musician will be playing this week. It is always a good time. The shop is located next to the Roxy on Main Street.

Third, (and I am amazed by this) Mcall.com is reporting that the Dave Matthews Band has been contacted and may play Coca-Cola Park next summer.(I am so glad I got tickets to that Dylan show already) I should out myself here as being a major fan boy for DMB. They are one of the most unique and talented ensembles of musicians currently playing and their new album Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King is fantastic. I hope the folks at CCP can pull this one off; it would teach Musikfest a lesson about booking bands and set a huge example about what kinds of concerts are possible in the city. If you have never listened, here are some videos to check out. (and if you already have listened or have dismissed them as frat rock, have another listen, they will surprise you)




I had to drive to Hershey in a nearly broken down car that almost died on the way home for this show but it was so worth it:

Allentown Park Log 13: Jordan Park

Jordan Park is one of the first completed WPA projects in Allentown and with the construction of Fountain Park were the beginnings of the WPA effort that has come to define our city park system. Nearly eighty years after, Jordan Park remains a frequently used park and wonderful asset to the city of Allentown.

On the morning of my visit the park was buzzing with activity. Folks were playing basketball, baseball, walking their dogs, and some were just relaxing.


Jordan Park is located directly alongside the Jordan Creek off of Sumner Avenue just along the edge of Allentown and Whitehall. It is hard to miss the park driving along Sumner with the baseball diamond clearly visible and the WPA stone walls alongside the creek easily seen in the distance.

The foot bridge had fallen to the recent rains:

The thing about Jordan Park that surprised me today was some construction efforts going on inside the park. There are bare patches near to the gravel path that look as if they are about to be replanted with trees and bushes; which are a good combination to help ease erosion:

Farther along, something very curious is going on. There are a line of Willow trees following alongside a wide patch of mud. Willow trees usually grow directly creek side and most of our parks based around creeks can attest to it.

These guys are also growing in a way that make it seem that at one time the Jordan creek was either much wider at this point or that a very marshy area existed between these trees and the creek.

This mud patch is apparently part of whatever reconstruction is going on down there. A riparian buffer looks as if it is being created directly along the edges of the creek.


Freshwater shellfish?



Driving home, I pulled a u-turn at Home Depot and discovered that the grassy area next to the Jordan over there was completely dug up and construction equipment was present. I have no idea if that was in any way related to whatever may be going on in Jordan Park but it certainly was an eyebrow raising thing to see.

Jordan Park remains a great destination for residents of the city of Allentown. If anyone knows what is going on down there, let me know. The history in our parks is inescapable. The effects of the WPA still stand today, and here in one of the parks they first created they do not go unnoticed or forgotten.