I live near Jim Thorpe and mountain bike. Honestly you'd probably be better off in the Carbon County area by what you're describing. Relatively easy access to Philly by Turnpike from either the Mahoning Valley or 903 exit.

Little south of that is an area called phoenixville… literally along the schyukil river for kayaking/ paddle boards. Biking trails that connect north towards Lehigh valley and south towards philly

There's a huge landfill there, there was a small stone quarry next to it that I used to run

Someone said Phoenixville, good place to start, better than Morgantown. It's also very close to Valley Forge National Park which is pretty big.

Phoenixville has a great little downtown too and SEPTA is going to put in a commuter rail line in the next few years

I lived there for a couple of years (2016-2019). It’s a nice enough place but there’s really not a lot going on there. Very small town and you’ll have to go 20-30 minutes away to get anything you can’t get at the Walmart, Lowes, or gas stations in town. French Creek state park is near by and I’ve seen people biking the trails before. Warwick county park is also close and has nice trails for hiking. Overall I’d say it’s more of a farm vibe than outdoorsy vibe.

My wife and I liked it for the most part, but we moved to Pottstown a few years ago and have enjoyed being a little closer to civilization while still being reasonably close to any outdoor activities.

Not bad, you have french creek state park and marsh creek state park a short drive away. Both allow mountain bikes and non gas boats, kayaks, and paddle boarding. sailing on marsh creek too. ive explored marsh creek much more it has a lot of mountain biking trails and is great for kayaking. also look up the Lock 60 kayak loop in pheonixville, thats a cool loop that takes you down the river, walk/drag your kayak through the woods for a minute then take the lock back to the parking lot. its pretty sweet.

You would be extremely close to French Creek State Park so there's this:

https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/FindAPark/FrenchCreekStatePark/Pages/MountainBiking.aspx

But there's a bunch of other parks around to get that itch. Not so sure for kayaking, other than it's best to register it just in case.

Morgantown resident here. Morgantown is a wonderful place to live. They semi-recently put in a casino off the turnpike which some residents weren’t happy about but it doesn’t impact much of what goes on in town. Struble Lake is nearby and popular for kayakers and fishermen. There are nearby parks available. There are two gun clubs/shooting ranges nearby. Lots of roadside produce stands in summer, very little crime, very affordable properties, and close proximity to Downingtown, Lancaster, Reading, Phoenixville, Pottstown, West Chester. In truth, we don’t have a fun walkable downtown like Phoenixville with cool bars and restaurants. It’s quiet and friendly. There are lots of Amish out this way so biking on route 23 is very common. Morgantown isn’t trendy and the people here like it that way.

Resident. Listen. It's not a bad place for hiking, there's definitely lots of places you can go nearby (old 82 is my personal favorite. Its like a mini graffiti highway and its tucked away in the woods, can get busy during the summer tho). Its within 20 mins to half an hour of both wyomissing and downingtown so things to do are close. But the town itself is BEYOND boring and a very culty "small town" mindset where everyone needs to be in everyones business, especially if you have kids who go to Twin Valley. That and you have to constantly be paranoid about running over the amish on back roads. If you don't mind traveling for a little bit to do things, its not a bad place to live. Just don't really ever anticipate doing things in town, all we have is a walmart, lowes, and a bunch of fast food :(

Edit: anyone who wants to know where old 82 is, lmk. I don't think too many people outside of birdsboro and morgantown know its even there. Its so cool, its literally the original route 82 that they had to close because it collapsed due to the river. I have pictures too if anyones interested

I want to know where old 82 is! Can I DM you?

Haha, heres the google maps link. Apparently they recently added it officially onto google maps (lowkey a little bummed by that, I loved that it was kind of a hidden place that you only ever heard of via word of mouth).

Old 82 & Parking Area https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q3xFrBDgQYZos77X8

Has great access to lots of outdoorsy things.

Morgantown has one of the best Mennonite book publishers around.

I like AJ's, too.

Seems every time someone asks about some place in PA, someone has to chime in with "ya gotta go to Jim Thorpe!" No one asked about Jim Thorpe! They asked specifically about Morgantown! Makes me hate Jim Thorpe. What an overrated fn place.

Thank you!

JFC, relax dude. OP asked specifically about mountain biking and kayaking and Lehigh Gorge State Park's Lehigh River is specifically well-known for it''s whitewater rafting and kayaking in the eastern half of the state as well as a lot of trail for cycling.

It was strictly to help OP and give them an eastern PA alternatives since tell me how much scenic kayaking and mountain biking is there in Morgantown?

Otherwise, I wouldn't have generally even mentioned it since it's not exactly like we need additional tourists here.

A quarry on the Grace Mine site or on the other side of 176?

BB's!!!!!

Grace Mine site. It was General Crushed Stone, then Sheridan Corporation and finally Alan Myers. I worked for Sheridan and Myers. I guess technically it's The Borough of New Morgan. Old route 10 used to run through the middle of the property, the road leading to the quarry was actually old route 10. If you look at an aerial photo of the area its clear as day, when Bethlehem Steel bought the property the State allowed them to re-route Route 10 around the land

Could be still the same but back in the 90's I was blown away how Morgantown basically closed at 10:30pm. Worked at Morgan 3rd shift.

Boyertown area / berks county if you like fishing, hiking or biking.

Jim Thorpe, Jim Thorpe, Jim Thorpe, Jim fn Thorpe.

When will they return his body to his family?

You're preaching the choir there, dude. No argument there.

I've wanted that to happen for his tribe's sake a long time now and for the town to go back to it's original name of Mauch Chunk.

I also think the downtown is overrated, the parking's terrible, we get too many tourists, and the borough's mayor and council are kind of incompetent.

However, the surrounding region's parks are outstanding and it's a nice area to live outside of JT.

I can't think of any town a hundred plus miles from me that I'd spend time hating on though.

Berks is generally great

I was there in the 90's too.

I remember when they put the traffic light in at the intersection where the Rite Aid is. They actually asked local businesses to help pay for its installation.

Thank you everyone for the thoughtful responses!! I appreciate it!

This is really helpful! We definitely aren’t looking for Philly suburbs. A place with its own identity ya know?