The weekend of 7/11, I rode the D&H Rail Trail Northern Section,
mostly in Vermont, the Zim Smith Trail including the Route 9 Bypass which runs partly on the Hudson Valley trolley, the Cohoes Black Bridge Trail, the Kingston Point Rail Trail, and the final part of the Catskill Scenic Trail.
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 They are usually unnamed, unsigned, and unpublished.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 uploading them to
OpenStreetMap as I go.
The first trail ride for which I have a date is June of 2004. So this has been a ten-year project for me. Given that I'm not done yet, and they're continually making new trails, it looks like I've got another set of trails to ride.
Trails I've ridden:
- Albany County Rail Trail (Elsemere west to Slingerlands),
- Albany County Rail Trail (Elsemere east to Normanskill),
- Andes Rail Trail (footpath)
- Auburn Fleming Trail,
- Ballston Bike Trail,
- Black River Recreational Trail,
- Bog Meadow Brook,
- Canalway Trail (Rochester/Greece),
- Cycling The Canalway Trail 2012, a supported ride sponsored by Parks and Trails NY.
- Cycling The Canalway Trail 2013
- Catharine Valley Trail,
- Cato Fair Haven Trail,
(again, partially),
- Catskill Scenic Trail (west of Stamford),
- Catskill Scenic Trail (Stamford to Grand Gorge Station),
- Catskill Scenic Trail (south of Grand Gorge Station),
- Cayuga Hojack Trail,
- Charlie Major Nature Trail,
- Cheektowaga Bike Path,
- The Chautaqua Rails to Trails has a group of rail-trails all built on the same railroad.
- Clarence Akron Pathways and Clarence Newstead Trails, (earlier partial ride),
- Cohoes Black Bridge Trail,
- Corning Bike Path,
- D&H Canal Heritage Corridor North (which seems to be called the Marbletown Rail Trail now, the extended part),
- D&H Canal Heritage Corridor South, (partially)
- D&H Trail Southern Section (to the VT state line, south into VT),
- D&H Trail Northern Section, only a tiny bit of which is in NY,
- D&H railbed (not a named trail, but it's a snowmobile trail and bicyclable.)
- Dutchess Rail Trail,
- The East Ithaca Recreational Trail,
- El Camino Rail Trail,
- Erie-Attica Trail,
- Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Rail Trail,
- Genesee Valley Greenway 1 (Scottsville to Piffard and back),
- Genesee Valley Greenway 2 (Mt. Morris to Rochester),
- Genesee Valley Greenway 3 (Nunda to Cuba),
- Gorge Trail,
(again),
- Great Bend Park Trail,
- Harlem Valley Rail Trail,
- Harlem Valley Rail Trail (Hillsdale),
- Harlem Valley Rail Trail (extended north from Copake Falls),
- Heritage Park Rail Trail,
- Hilton Hojack Trail,
- Hoosic Greenway Trail,
- Hudson Valley Rail Trail,
- Jim Schug Trail,
- Jim Tedisco Fitness Trail,
- Joseph B. Clarke Railtrail,
- Kaaterskill Rail Trail,
- Kennedy Rail Trail,
- Kerhonksen Railtrail,
- Kings Park Hike and Bike Trail,
- Kingston Point Rail Trail,
- Lackawanna Trail,
- Lehigh Memory Trail (Williamsville),
- 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),
- Lehigh Valley Trail (from Mendon to Victor),
- Maple City Trail,
- Mohawk-Hudson Bike Trail (which is also the Erie Canalway Trail),
- North County Trailway,
- Northport Rail Trail,
- NYO&W Liberty Rail Trail,
- NYO&W Parksville Rail Trail,
- NYO&W Hurleyville Rail Trail,
- NYO&W Woodridge Rail Trail,
- Oneida Rail Trail,
- Ontario Pathways Rail Trail,
- Orange Heritage Trailway (the unimproved eastern end),
- Orange Heritage Trailway (the official paved section),
- Oswego Recreational Trail,
- Outlet Trail,
- Pat McGee Trail,
- Philip A. Rayhill Memorial Recreational Trail,
- Pittsford Railroad Loop Trail,
- Pittsford Rail 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 Cazenovia Rail Trail
- South County Trailway (southern portion)
- South County Trailway (northern portion)
- South Hill Recreation Way,
- Spring Run Trail,
- Stillwater Rail Trail,
- Tannersville Bike Path (Huckleberry Multi-Use Trail),
- Tarrytown Lakes extension,
- The Uncle Sam Bikeway,
- Town of Edwards Nature Trail,
- Vestal Rail Trail,
- Wallkill Valley Rail Trail,
- Wallkill Valley Rail Trail North of Rosendale,
- 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),
and again, only end-to-end this time, 40 miles in total.
- 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),
- Webster Hojack Trail Extension,
- White Plains Greenway (bicycles prohibited, so I walked this),
- Zim Smith Trail, again, and again, but this time I also rode the connected "Route 9 Bypass" trail which uses part of the Hudson Valley trolley line.
Trails I haven't (yet) ridden:
Allegheny River Valley Trail (not a proper rail-trail),
Avon's Genesee Valley Conservancy Trail,
Ithaca's Black Diamond Trail (8.4mi),
Attica's Groveland Secondary Trail (20mi),
Hojack Trail Hamlin,
Depew's Lancaster Heritage Trail (4mi),
Southampton's Long Pond Greenbelt Trail (2mi),
Parts of the Long Trail,
Ithaca's Ridgeway Trail (4.3mi),
Sodus Point to Wallington Trail (not even mowed),
Spring Valley's Monsey Recreational Trail,
The Port Jefferson-Wading River Rail-Trail (10mi),
Verona Beach State Park Rail Trail (1.5mi),
Clymer's Corry Junction Greenway Trail (5.1mi),
Wellsville's WAG Trail (9mi).
posted at: 05:54 |
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20.15 km 66096.92 feet 12.52 mi
5579.00 seconds 92.98 minutes 1.55 hours 8.08 mi/hr
Rode a portion of the Catskill Scenic Trail that I hadn't ridden earlier.
On a previous ride of the CST, I got to this section and it immediately had
ties and was wet. Since the section north of Grand Gorge Station is quite
muddy, I expected that the trail was in poor condition and not rideable.
Starting instead at Hubbell Corners, the trail is quite pleasant. Mostly
grass over cinders, there are some portions where the grass is gone, and
the cinders are exposed. This makes for easy cycling.
posted at: 05:27 |
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4.48 km 14691.34 feet 2.78 mi
2205.00 seconds 36.75 minutes 0.61 hours 4.54 mi/hr
Bicycled the Kingston Point Rail Trail, or at least the part of it which is
currently open. It is a rail-with-trail that parallels the tracks goling out
to Kingston Point. There will be more once they have finished pulling the
rails from the two horseshoe curves. I also did some noodling around in the
park, looking for some trolley tracks that I had been told are still present.
Turns out they're on the trail going out to the rail-trail from the park.
posted at: 02:51 |
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31.68 km 103932.28 feet 19.68 mi
6587.00 seconds 109.78 minutes 1.83 hours 10.76 mi/hr
Bicycled the Zim Smith trail again, but specially to ride the "Route 9
Bypass". It uses part of the Hudson Valley trolley line. It's less than a mile
and a half, but it's still worth riding.
posted at: 02:43 |
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36.48 km 119692.91 feet 22.67 mi
9297.00 seconds 154.95 minutes 2.58 hours 8.78 mi/hr
Rode the Delaware and Hudson Washington Branch, now the D&H Rail Trail,
in Vermont. There are three sections, because not all of the NY section has
been converted into a rail-trail. This one is the North section. Didn't see a
lot of railroadiana along the way. All the bridges are original, and have some
ties before and after the bridges. Saw a couple of signal boxes along the
trail. Poultney still has both its passenger and freight stations.
posted at: 05:50 |
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5.34 km 17515.34 feet 3.32 mi
1382.00 seconds 23.03 minutes 0.38 hours 8.64 mi/hr
Bicycled the Cohoes Black Bridge trail. It's a portion of the D&H line
that ran close to the Hudson. I had bicycled a portion of it earlier on the
Cycled The Erie Canal rides in 2012 and 2013. This bridge wasn't open until after that. I
saw route markers painted on the rail-trail so I'm guessing that at least last
year's ride was routed on the Black Bridge Trail.
posted at: 05:20 |
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