13.96 km 45791.08 feet 8.67 mi 7119.00 seconds 118.65 minutes 1.98 hours 4.39 mi/hr
As of today, riding the Terry Gordon Recreation Path, I've ridden every named rail-trail in New York State. It's a nice trail. A bit short, only 1.6 miles, but paved the whole way, with no road crossings. I rode it twice, the first time using the Mapillary application to take pictures the length of the path. Rode it a second time to examine everything along the way, including two mini-parks on Lake Champlain. Tried to stop by the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum, but it's only open afternoons Tue to Sat. Rode on side streets on the way back, just to be different.
posted at: 03:05 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
Bicycled 68.5 miles of rail-trail this weekend, nine rail-trails in all. In time order: Saranac Lake Recreational Path, DnH North Corridor, NYO&W; Bashakill Railroad Trail, Erie Shawangunk Ridge Trail, Orange Heritage Trail Extension, Putnam Trail Extension, North County Trail, Walkway Over the Hudson, and finally the Albany County Trail Extension.
Only one rail-trail to go (in Plattsburgh) and I will have ridden every rail-trail in New York State.
I have a goal of riding every named Rail-Trail in New York State. Been working on it since June of 2004. 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 They are usually unnamed, unsigned, and unpublished.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 uploading them to OpenStreetMap as I go.
Trails I've ridden:
Trails I haven't (yet) ridden:
Trails I have no plans to ride:
posted at: 00:34 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
17.49 km 57375.76 feet 10.87 mi 4964.00 seconds 82.73 minutes 1.38 hours 7.88 mi/hr
Rode the Erie Main Line. This is the old line that went over the hill at Otisville where the new ("Graham") line goes through a tunnel at a lower grade. The entire railbed on the west side of the Shawangunks is a rail-trail now. It's pretty in places, but also quite ballasty in places making for a mostly rough ride. I chose to climb the hill on the road, which was quite a slog.
posted at: 00:23 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
6.71 km 22000.73 feet 4.17 mi 3532.00 seconds 58.87 minutes 0.98 hours 4.25 mi/hr
I had ridden part of the D&H trail going north out of Warwarsing, but got distracted by the railbed going up to Highview Tunnel. I rode the rest of it on Saturday, including (as I did before) gettting distracted by the railbed, getting lost in a sand quarry and having to make my way back to the towpath trail.
The trail is mostly a grass towpath trail, but a tiny portion of it uses the NYO&W railbed where the towpath has been lost (because the railroad was built over it!) So it counts as a rail-trail.
posted at: 00:23 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
1.77 km 5792.88 feet 1.10 mi 534.00 seconds 8.90 minutes 0.15 hours 7.40 mi/hr
The Putnam County Trail is the former Putnam Branch. It used to run all the way into a wye in Brewster. The path stops short of that because the track is still in use. They're making a rail-with-trail that will jump over the yard on a bridge to join up with the Maybrook Line that used to cross the Hudson at Pok. Only a small portion is built, and even that is still under construction.
posted at: 00:23 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
50.36 km 165216.61 feet 31.29 mi 14561.00 seconds 242.68 minutes 4.04 hours 7.74 mi/hr
Sunday was a "free" day with no new rail-trails scheduled, so I rode quite a bit of the North County Trail again.
posted at: 00:23 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
6.16 km 20215.95 feet 3.83 mi 1706.00 seconds 28.43 minutes 0.47 hours 8.08 mi/hr
Albany County has decked over two bridges and is paving at least part of their rail-trail. I rode the part of it that I had never ridden before because there was no way to get to is because of blocked-off bridges. They're still constructing it, so "TRAIL CLOSED" signs, but nobody was working on it at 7:30M on a Sunday night.
posted at: 00:23 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
2.59 km 8509.81 feet 1.61 mi 919.00 seconds 15.32 minutes 0.26 hours 6.31 mi/hr
A bit more of the Erie Main Line going through Harriman to Middletown has been turned into a trail and paved. I already rode this once before when it was undeveloped, but it's much nicer as an official trail.
posted at: 00:23 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
7.86 km 25771.98 feet 4.88 mi 5371.00 seconds 89.52 minutes 1.49 hours 3.27 mi/hr
I've ridden the Walkway Over The Hudson several times before, and walked it a few times, but I was nearby, and the day was beautiful, so I thought I'd ride it again.
posted at: 00:23 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
21.42 km 70277.95 feet 13.31 mi 7138.00 seconds 118.97 minutes 1.98 hours 6.71 mi/hr
Rode the Bashakill Railroad Trail. There's a separate D&H towpath trail that I didn't ride. The first part is tolerable, then passage is impeded by roots and ties. Then it becomes nice again for a ways, then turns back to brush, finally turning me back just a bit south of Warwarsing by the use of pricker bushes.
posted at: 00:23 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
1.98 km 6491.31 feet 1.23 mi 883.00 seconds 14.72 minutes 0.25 hours 5.01 mi/hr
The Saranac Lake Recreational Path is a rail-with-trail. It runs alongside the Adironadack Scenic Railroad on its way to Lake Placid. It only goes past one road crossing, but it was still a fun if short ride.
posted at: 00:23 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
I went on a grand tour of Central and Western NY to ride all the remaining trails there: the Verona Beach Rail Trail, the Sylvan Beach Rail Trail, the Black Diamond Trail, the Ridgeway Trail, the Wellsville, Addison, and Galeton (WAG) Trail, the Hinsdale section of the Genesee Valley Greenway, the Corry Junction Rail Trail, The Lancaster Heritage Trail, the Groveland Secondary Trail, and the Genesee River Conservancy Trail.
I have a goal of riding every named Rail-Trail in New York State. Been working on it since June of 2004. 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 uploading them to OpenStreetMap as I go.
Trails I've ridden:
Trails I haven't (yet) ridden:
Trails I have no plans to ride:
posted at: 13:17 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
2.37 km 7768.75 feet 1.47 mi 722.00 seconds 12.03 minutes 0.20 hours 7.34 mi/hr
There's a little section of the Genesee Valley Greenway open in Hinsdale. It starts at the end of Old Route 16 in Hinsdale, and dead-ends at I-86 at the eastern end. A bit weedy, but the surface with fine for bicycling.
posted at: 06:00 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
8.74 km 28672.38 feet 5.43 mi 3073.00 seconds 51.22 minutes 0.85 hours 6.36 mi/hr
The Genesee Valley Conservancy owns a trail south of Avon. They advertise it as an equestrian, hiking, and skiing trail. They don't prohibit bicycling, but neither do they encourage it. This trail sees a lot more horse activity than I've seen anywhere else. Mostly any bit of soil that used to be wet and is now dry has horse hoofprints in it. Almost, but not quite worse than bicycling a rail-trail that still has ties.
I don't encourage you to try to bicycle this trail. Between the horse prints and the thistles, it's not a great bicycling trail.
I wasn't able to ride the entire trail because of a washout close to the south end. It looks like a culvert fell in on itself, and the entire trail got washed away by the water. The more of the railbed that fell in, the more got washed away. You can see the pile of rocks that used to be a culvert. I saw three large plastic drain pipes and construction equipment. Probably going to throw them into the gap and reconstruct the railbed.
posted at: 05:42 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
45.93 km 150685.70 feet 28.54 mi 13947.00 seconds 232.45 minutes 3.87 hours 7.37 mi/hr
Bicycled the Groveland Secondary Snowmobile Trail. It's publicly owned, by NYS-DEC, but it seems not to be maintained by them at all. The only reason it's not completely grown over is that the ATVers ride it against signed instructions, and that keeps the grass down.
The grass isn't the worst part, though. The problem is that the railbed didn't have all the ballast removed when the rails were ripped up. The entire way (mostly) you're riding on one piece of ballast or two or sometimes a short stretch of ballast. There's not a single section which is free of that kind of nasty riding. Consequently, I only rode it for 13.6 miles from Alexander to South Street Road. That's more than half, so I'm going to count this trail as being ridden to the extent anybody could.
posted at: 05:33 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
33.27 km 109151.67 feet 20.67 mi 10747.00 seconds 179.12 minutes 2.99 hours 6.92 mi/hr
The NYS-DEC owns the Wellsville, Addison and Galeton Rail Trail (WAG Trail), and has been maintaining separate sections to the north and south because too many bridges were out. Well, finally they were given the money to deck all the bridges. They have finished all but the bridge over the Genesee near Shongo. I was able to cross it on the ties safely enough.
The trail surface is cinders in places and grass in other places. There were only a few soft spots that I wouldn't even call "muddy".
posted at: 05:20 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
13.23 km 43407.98 feet 8.22 mi 3658.00 seconds 60.97 minutes 1.02 hours 8.09 mi/hr
Rode the Lancaster Heritage Trail. It's not very long, but it is very nicely provisioned, with gates that announce the road name, full asphalt pavement, provision for seating, mile markers, parking at most intersections, the whole works. A very busy trail. Walkers, bicyclists, roller-bladers, kids learning to bicycle.
posted at: 05:17 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
9.46 km 31044.62 feet 5.88 mi 3367.00 seconds 56.12 minutes 0.94 hours 6.29 mi/hr
The Ridgeway Trail goes from Ridgeway Road south to a point halfway between White Church Road and Depot Road in Willseyville. The railbed immediately becomes more brushed-over and the trail proceeds into the wetland. Might be fine for snowmobilers or ATVs but not good for bicyclists.
I initially tried to find a trailhead in Willseyville near Depot Road. You'd think that with a name like that the railbed would still be there, but no. Completely overgrown and/or people's driveways.
posted at: 03:43 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
29.22 km 95859.43 feet 18.16 mi 8518.00 seconds 141.97 minutes 2.37 hours 7.67 mi/hr
Ithaca's Black Diamond Trail is not completed yet. The most important work, putting the two missing bridges back, has been completed. However, the trail surface is wanting improvement in some places, as the signs make explicit: "Not suitable for a trail or any other purpose." However, if you're persistent, you can make it all the way up the hill from Ithaca to Tunkhannock Falls State Park.
The trail seems to be routed down to the parking lot for the falls, but if you continue on the railbed, it will take you across two bridges. The first one gives you an awesome view of the upper (smaller) falls and associated gorge. The second one is a small bridge over an even smaller former highway. The trail ends at this point. North of Trumansburg the railbed has been plowed away.
Because the trail isn't really finished, I chose to ride back on the highway. I think that may be the most enjoyable route even though there are some hills. The shoulders are good until you get within the Ithaca city limits, at which point you'll want to take the lane because there is no shoulder at all, and you can easily coast at 30MPH, and damn the cars behind you that want to break the speed limit.
posted at: 03:31 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
1.86 km 6112.29 feet 1.16 mi 827.00 seconds 13.78 minutes 0.23 hours 5.04 mi/hr
Found an unnamed, unsigned, but obviously maintained rail-trail in Sylvan Beach. Has a nice stone-dust surface, the sole crossing has crossing lines painted on the highway, and the ends of the trail are marked with stone book-ends. Starts at the back of a town park and ends at McClanathan Avenue.
posted at: 03:16 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
8.48 km 27828.12 feet 5.27 mi 2228.00 seconds 37.13 minutes 0.62 hours 8.52 mi/hr
Rode the Verona Beach Rail Trail. Unfortunately, this rail-trail dead-ends towards the north edge of Verona Beach State Park. It would be nice if it could go all the way through to the next road, but I suspect that ownership problems prevent that for now. All things in time.
The surface of the trail is fine. It's mowed and brush is removed. It's signed where there are intersecting trails, and has a kiosk at the southern end.
posted at: 03:10 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry
7.62 km 24992.68 feet 4.73 mi 3222.00 seconds 53.70 minutes 0.90 hours 5.29 mi/hr
Rode a portion of the Corry Junction Rail Trail, just the part in NY. It looks like a nice trail, with stone dust the whole way. I started to ride it into Pennsylvania, but then found a section of the trail where there had been water movement which piled up the stone dust that made it difficult to ride though. I decided to bag it and keep going on my trip.
posted at: 05:13 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry