Russ Nelson

4.05 km 13302.09 feet 2.52 mi 3539.00 seconds 58.98 minutes 0.98 hours 2.56 mi/hr

Not a bicycle ride, this time. No bicycles allowed on the White Plains Greenway, sadly. I'm putting it here to record that I walked it. Only the southern half is on the railbed. The northern half is fenced off, so the trail is routed just a bit to the west of the railbed.

4.04 km 13259.50 feet 2.51 mi 1337.00 seconds 22.28 minutes 0.37 hours 6.76 mi/hr

Only about a mile long, this trail dead-ends at the south where the abandoned railroad (which only went into Stillwater) meets the existing railroad. It's nicely paved, with new bridges constructed where the old railroad bridges were removed.

I have a goal of riding every named Rail-Trail in New York State. There are many more railbeds not used for trains anymore which are also ridable. They are usually unnamed, unsigned, and unpublished. I speculate that this is because the owner is either indifferent or away. I've ridden some of these but I'm more interested in getting the named trails ridden first. I'm maintaining the list of NY rail-trails on my Rutland Trail website.

Rode the Phillip Rayhill trail in September and the D&H Trail in October. Rode the Erie Canalway Trail end-to-end, which is all towpath west of Utica, but east of there it picks up the West Shore railroad. Also, back in October of 2011, I rode most of the "Lehigh Valley Linear Trail", although it doesn't seem to go by that name. Also, finally bicycled the Walkway Over The Hudson. I had walked it twice already, but it's more fun to bicycle.

Trails I've ridden:

• Albany County Rail Trail (Elsemere west to Slingerlands),
• Albany County Rail Trail (Elsemere east to Normanskill),
• Auburn Fleming Trail,
• Ballston Bike Trail,
• Black River Recreational Trail,
• Bog Meadow Brook,
• Canalway Trail (Rochester/Greece), Cycling The Canalway Trail, a supported ride sponsored by Parks and Trails NY.
  • Sunday, Buffalo to Medina
  • Monday, to Pittsford
  • Tuesday, to Seneca Falls
  • Wednesday, to Syracuse
  • Thursday, to Rome
  • Friday, to Canajoharie
  • Saturday, to Schenectady
  • Sunday, to Albany
• Cato Fair Haven Trail
• (again, partially)
• Catskill Scenic Trail (west of Stamford),
• Catskill Scenic Trail (east of Stamford),
• Cayuga Hojack Trail,
• Clarence Akron Pathway (SW of Clarence),
• Corning Bike Path,
• D&H Canal Heritage Corridor North,
• D&H Canal Heritage Corridor South, (partially)
• D&H Trail (to the VT state line, and south into VT),
• Dutchess Rail Trail,
• Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Rail Trail,
• Genesee Valley Greenway 1 (partial),
• Genesee Valley Greenway 2 (still partial, but more),
• Gorge Trail,
• Harlem Valley Rail Trail,
• Hoosic Greenway Trail,
• Hudson Valley Rail Trail,
• Jim Schug Trail,
• Jim Tedisco Fitness Trail,
• Joseph B. Clarke Railtrail
• Lehigh Valley Rail Trail (Naples),
• Lehigh Valley Trail North (Rush),
• Lehigh Valley Trail North (Crittenden),
• Lehigh Valley Trail (Rochester/Rush/Mendon - but not all the way into Victor),
• Maple City Trail,
• Mohawk-Hudson Bike Trail (which is also the Erie Canalway Trail),
• North County Trailway,
• NYO&W Woodridge Rail Trail
• NYO&W Hurleyville Rail Trail
• Ontario Pathways Rail Trail,
• Orange Heritage Trailway (the unimproved eastern end),
• Orange Heritage Trailway (the official paved section),
• Oswego Recreational Trail,
• Philip A. Rayhill Memorial Recreational Trail,
• Pittsford Railroad Loop Trail,
• Putnam County Trailway,
• Railroad Run,
• Rivergate Trail,
• Rochester, Syracuse & Eastern Trolley Trail,
• The Rutland Trail (many many times. Also see the Rutland Trail website),
• South County Trailway (southern portion)
• South County Trailway (northern portion)
• South Hill Recreation Way,
• Spring Run Trail,
• Tannersville Bike Path (Huckleberry Multi-Use Trail),
• The Uncle Sam Bikeway,
• Town of Edwards Nature Trail,
• Vestal Rail Trail,
• Wallkill Valley Rail Trail,
• Walkway Over The Hudson (and the new part of the Hudson Valley Trail and more parts of the Dutchess Rail Trail which I hadn't ridden earlier),
• Walden-Walkill Rail Trail (which I had called the Shawangunk Rail Trail),
• Warren County Bikeway (first rode it many years ago, before I had my GPS),
• Zim Smith Trail (and again),

Trails I haven't (yet) ridden:

Allegheny River Valley Trail, Chautauqua Alison Wells Ney, Chautauqua Brockton Area Recreational Trail, Chautauqua Brocton Area Recreational Trail, Chautauqua Laurie A. Baer Trail, Chautauqua Nadine and Paul Webb Trail, Chautauqua Nancy B. Diggs Trail, Chautauqua Ralph C. Sheldon Jr. Trail, Chautauqua Village of Mayville Trail, Cheektowaga Trail, Clarence Akron Pathway (still need to ride it north of Clarence), Genesee Valley Greenway (still need to ride it end-to-end), Lehigh Memory Trail, Newstead trail (connects to the Clarence Akron Pathway), NYO&W Liberty Rail Trail, NYO&W Parkville Rail Trail, PatMcGeeTrail, Portage Trail, Sodus Point to Wallington Trail (doesn't really exist yet), Tarrytown Lakes extension, White Plains Greenway (bicycles prohibited, so I'll be walking this),

12.45 km 40841.41 feet 7.74 mi 4499.00 seconds 74.98 minutes 1.25 hours 6.19 mi/hr

Rode on a portion of the Albany County Rail Trail. Miserable riding. Mostly still ballast. Went back to the bridge over the Normankill. It has a fence blocking it, and even if you got around the fence, there are six ties removed from both ends to keep all but the most intrepid trespassers off it. I'm not that intrepid. Also explored a couple of closed road bridges.

23.97 km 78655.55 feet 14.90 mi 7916.00 seconds 131.93 minutes 2.20 hours 6.77 mi/hr

Rode the rideable portions of the Albany County Railtrail. Only a portion of it is currently "open" (that is, signed for use, and even then not by bicycles), but the portion that's open is no more improved than the portions which aren't open. Had to quit riding once I got a bit west of Slingerlands because the ballast is too painful to ride. I think they're planning to run the trail all the way to Voorheesville. It will be a nice trail when they finish it.

44.67 km 146563.79 feet 27.76 mi 9654.00 seconds 160.90 minutes 2.68 hours 10.35 mi/hr

Was downstate working on the Hudson River. Got done about 5:30, so I talked my co-worker into driving up from Fishkill to Poughkeepsie so I could bicycle the Walkway Over The Hudson, and the Dutchess Rail Track back to Hopewell Junction, and then from there to Fishkill. Yeah, it was dark by the time I got to Hopewell Junction. Oh well.

21.85 km 71672.08 feet 13.57 mi 6497.00 seconds 108.28 minutes 1.80 hours 7.52 mi/hr

A ride from two summers ago. For some reason I never posted it. Heather and I rode our tandem from our hotel near the Thruway to Clarence, NY.

20.73 km 68010.96 feet 12.88 mi 7250.00 seconds 120.83 minutes 2.01 hours 6.40 mi/hr

Had a 21 hour layover in Heathrow, so I went into town with a friend, Andrew Richards. Had dinner and a beer, spent the night, and rented bikes in the morning. Went for a ride on the Grand Union Canal west of the city center. Oops, I mean centre. No USGS topo map tiles there, so the map is unrewarding, but you can see the shape of our path, anyway.

91.17 km 299118.30 feet 56.65 mi 23503.00 seconds 391.72 minutes 6.53 hours 8.68 mi/hr

Did this ride back in August, but I wanted to blog about it. I rode the entire length of the Rutland Trail, end to end. Skipping, of course, the couple of sections where the trail is closed because bridges are out.

24.69 km 80993.28 feet 15.34 mi 6384.00 seconds 106.40 minutes 1.77 hours 8.65 mi/hr

On Friday, I rode the D&H trail between Granville and West Pawlet, VT, in the rain. That wasn't so much fun after a while, so when I got to West Pawlet, I turned around. On Monday, for this ride, I went back and rode it from Rupert, VT, back north to West Pawlet.