Russ Nelson's blog

[ Home | RSS 2.0 | ATOM 1.0 ]

Sun, 16 Oct 2016

Ride starting Sat Jul 23 07:04:26 2016

16.10 km 52829.47 feet 10.01 mi 3231.00 seconds 53.85 minutes 0.90 hours 11.15 mi/hr

The Cauyga-Seneca Canalway Trail is the Lehigh Valley's former Seneca Falls Branch. It mostly runs alongside the Cayuga-Seneca Canal. It's a nice stone dust trail. Not highly used by my estimation. The southern end dead-ends on the busy SH-96A.

posted at: 03:57 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sat Apr 16 15:10:37 2016

2.96 km 9725.74 feet 1.84 mi 1586.00 seconds 26.43 minutes 0.44 hours 4.18 mi/hr

Not an official rail trail, I just wanted to get up on the railbed to explore the bridges over Austin Road. There were probably two dozen tracks there.

posted at: 03:42 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sat Apr 16 07:31:29 2016

10.85 km 35592.32 feet 6.74 mi 3743.00 seconds 62.38 minutes 1.04 hours 6.48 mi/hr

Pat Warner Trail. I rode it further north and south than the trail actually extends. Their plan is to run it all the way up to Buffalo. To the south it runs too close to a nuclear processing plant, so it will have to stop before it gets there.

posted at: 03:42 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Thu Apr 14 18:44:50 2016

5.91 km 19378.60 feet 3.67 mi 1884.00 seconds 31.40 minutes 0.52 hours 7.01 mi/hr

A nice little set of trails, some on the trolley railbed, and some not. The trolley railbed is buried underneath I-690, so the trail goes from the park on the north side by ducking under the same bridge as the Onondaga Lake Outlet.

posted at: 03:42 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sat Apr 16 15:57:42 2016

16.29 km 53428.71 feet 10.12 mi 3906.00 seconds 65.10 minutes 1.08 hours 9.33 mi/hr

Tonawanda Rails to Trails. I rode part of it in 2013, before the developed any of it. It's a very nice trail which, although not officially opened, already had many people using it.

posted at: 03:42 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Fri Jul 22 18:25:05 2016

11.52 km 37800.50 feet 7.16 mi 3540.00 seconds 59.00 minutes 0.98 hours 7.28 mi/hr

Rode the Black River Trail end to end. Stayed on the official trail this time. It skirts a farmer's field. The railbed is much more grown-over there than the last time I rode it. They've paved the whole trail now. It's a very nice ride. There are other railbeds in the Watertown area that they should be looking at to turn into rail-trails.

posted at: 03:14 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sat Jul 23 08:49:12 2016

1.71 km 5602.84 feet 1.06 mi 1034.00 seconds 17.23 minutes 0.29 hours 3.69 mi/hr

Rode a tiny portion of the Ontario Pathways Trail, mostly to take pictures of a few railroad bridges.

posted at: 03:14 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sun Sep 25 17:43:24 2016

4.48 km 14684.27 feet 2.78 mi 1911.00 seconds 31.85 minutes 0.53 hours 5.24 mi/hr

I had already ridden part of the Hoosick Falls Greenway, but didn't know about this section of it. It is undeveloped to the south of my starting point, but somebody is trying to cut the brush back, so I think it's more a question of not having the sources to keep it clear of brush. I don't know how much farther south it extends, but it was too brushy for me to ride.

posted at: 02:58 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Archives

15.60 km 51178.43 feet 9.69 mi 4157.00 seconds 69.28 minutes 1.15 hours 8.39 mi/hr

Re-rode the Philip Rayhill Memorial Trail, since they extended it. They didn't extend it very far on the railbed, unfortunately. It doubles-back on itself using a service road. But at least the bridge is built on the abutments of the railroad bridge.

Kitty-corner from the northwestern end of the trail is an American Legion post. Stored on their property is the New York Merci Train. Part of a 49-car train full of thanks-goods from France, given in return by hundreds of rail cars full of goods donated privately by the American people to the people of Europe.

posted at: 02:58 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sun Sep 25 08:12:04 2016

5.34 km 17509.05 feet 3.32 mi 2060.00 seconds 34.33 minutes 0.57 hours 5.80 mi/hr

Tarrytown Lakes Extension used to be the routing of the Putnam Branch a century ago. It ran through Rockefeller's estate, and after he got tired of having trains running through his property, he paid the railroad to relocate eastward. Now, people bicycle through it. Well, part of it. Not, I think, the part which is Rockefeller's estate. I had ridden this earlier, but they extended it so you can now ride it as a loop around the lakes, rather than an out-and-back.

posted at: 02:58 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sun Sep 25 16:16:52 2016

6.80 km 22299.48 feet 4.22 mi 2648.00 seconds 44.13 minutes 0.74 hours 5.74 mi/hr

Part of the Rutland's Corkscrew Branch (so-called because of its twists and turns), this trail is called the Corkscrew Trail. It crosses one road, but is otherwise an out-and-back because of uncooperative property owners.

posted at: 02:58 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sun Sep 25 10:31:18 2016

3.62 km 11876.14 feet 2.25 mi 1020.00 seconds 17.00 minutes 0.28 hours 7.94 mi/hr

The Samuel L. Fisher Environmental Trail is a section of the Erie Railroad that goes through the park of the same name. Since they already had a nice railbed, why not turn it into a trail? And so they did. Nice feature: there's a mile marker along the trail.

posted at: 02:58 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sun Sep 25 09:16:39 2016

3.31 km 10844.43 feet 2.05 mi 1070.00 seconds 17.83 minutes 0.30 hours 6.91 mi/hr

They extended the Joseph B. Clarke Rail Trail north to Blauvelt. I rode it south nearly to the point where it used to stop. There's a very short new piece, but it was closed off by bridge construction. No pesky cyclists going through the construction zone!

posted at: 02:58 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sat Sep 24 12:08:23 2016

5.52 km 18108.54 feet 3.43 mi 1694.00 seconds 28.23 minutes 0.47 hours 7.29 mi/hr

The Dolgeville-Salisbury Greenway Trail is a nice trail. It's a bit short, but it's a good amenity for the people in the town. They ought to extend it further south, but I think part of it is used as a private driveway. Sigh.

posted at: 02:58 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Ride starting Sat Sep 24 11:04:06 2016

7.12 km 23364.92 feet 4.43 mi 2245.00 seconds 37.42 minutes 0.62 hours 7.10 mi/hr

Rode a bit of the Erie Canalway Trail on the West Shore Railroad's bed. The asphalt is not in great shape. I suspect that is why the organizers of the Cycle The Erie Canal tour didn't route us on it. Plus, there was a rest stop in Little Falls, so that may have had something to do with it.

posted at: 02:58 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Sat, 15 Oct 2016

Rode every named rail-trail in NY for 2016!

Last year, I claimed that I had ridden all of the named rail-trails in New York State. Close, but no cigar. In the past year, they finished a few new trails, and I discovered some lengthened trails. But there were also trails that I had simply overlooked, because they weren't listed by the Rails-to-Trails conservancy.

New trails completed in 2016: Pat Warner Springville, and the Tonawanda Rails-to-Trails.

Unknown to me: Syracuse Lakeside Bville, Cayuga Seneca Canalway Trail, Erie Canalway Trail Little Falls, Dolgeville Salisbury Greenway Trail, Samuel L. Fisher Environmental Trail, and the Corkscrew Rail Trail.

Previously ridden, extended or improved: Black River Trail, Ontario Pathways Phelps, RSnE trolley trail, Philip Rayhill Memorial Trail, Tarrytown Lakes Extension, Joseph B. Clarke Rail Trail, and the Hoosick Falls Greenway.

As of riding these trails, I have now accomplished my goal of riding over 100 named rail-trails in New York State. Been working on it since June of 2004. In that time, I've ridden trails 144 times, for a total of 3247 miles over 470 hours (that's two months of daily rides). That double-counts some trails because I rode them twice. It also counts every day of both Erie Canalway Trail rides, not all of which are on trail-trails.

There are many more railbeds not used for trains anymore which are also ridable. They are usually unnamed, unsigned, and unpublished. 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:

  1. Albany County Rail Trail
  2. Andes Rail Trail (footpath)
  3. Auburn Fleming Trail,
  4. Auburn Trail,
  5. Ballston Bike Trail,
  6. Bashakill Railroad Trail (NYO&W;),
  7. Big Flats Rail Trail,
  8. Black Diamond Trail,
  9. Black River Recreational Trail, the unofficial eastern end between Felts Mills and Carthage, and the official trail, now entirely paved,
  10. Bog Meadow Brook,
  11. Canalway Trail (Rochester/Greece),
  12. Canalway Trail (Little Falls),
  13. Cayuga Seneca Canalway Trail
  14. Corkscrew Rail Trail
  15. Cycling The Canalway Trail 2012, a supported ride sponsored by Parks and Trails NY.
  16. Cycling The Canalway Trail 2013
  17. Catharine Valley Trail,
  18. Cato Fair Haven Trail, (again, partially),
  19. Catskill Scenic Trail
  20. Charlie Major Nature Trail,
  21. Cheektowaga Bike Path,
  22. The Chautaqua Rails to Trails has a group of rail-trails all built on the same railroad.
  23. Clarence Akron Pathways and Clarence Newstead Trails, (earlier partial ride),
  24. Cohoes Black Bridge Trail,
  25. Corning Bike Path,
  26. Corry Junction Greenway Trail,
  27. D&H Canal Heritage Corridor North (which seems to be called the Marbletown Rail Trail now, the extended part),
  28. D&H Heritage Trail,
  29. D&H Canal Heritage Corridor South, (partially)
  30. D&H Trail Southern Section (to the VT state line, south into VT),
  31. D&H Trail Northern Section, only a tiny bit of which is in NY,
  32. D&H railbed (not a named trail, but it's a snowmobile trail and bicyclable.)
  33. Dolgeville Salisbury Greenway Trail
  34. Dutchess Rail Trail,
  35. The East Ithaca Recreational Trail,
  36. El Camino Rail Trail,
  37. Erie-Attica Trail,
  38. Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Rail Trail,
  39. Genesee Valley Conservancy Trail,
  40. Genesee Valley Greenway
  41. Gorge Trail, (again),
  42. Groveland Secondary Trail (not very bicyclable),
  43. Great Bend Park Trail,
  44. Harlem Valley Rail Trail
  45. Heritage Park Rail Trail,
  46. Hojack Trails
    1. Cayuga Hojack Trail,
    2. Hilton Hojack Trail,
    3. Webster Hojack Trail Extension,
  47. Hoosic Greenway Trail and the southern portion,
  48. Hudson Valley Rail Trail,
  49. Jim Schug Trail,
  50. Jim Tedisco Fitness Trail,
  51. Joseph B. Clarke Railtrail and extended,
  52. Kaaterskill Rail Trail,
  53. Kennedy Rail Trail,
  54. Kerhonksen Railtrail,
  55. Kings Park Hike and Bike Trail,
  56. Kingston Point Rail Trail,
  57. Lackawanna Trail and earlier while still under development,
  58. Lancaster Heritage Trail,
  59. Lehigh Memory Trail (Williamsville),
  60. Lehigh Valley Rail Trail (Naples),
  61. Lehigh Valley Trail North (Rush),
  62. Lehigh Valley Trail North (Crittenden),
  63. Lehigh Valley Trail (Rochester/Rush/Mendon) and from Mendon to Victor,
  64. Maple City Trail,
  65. Mohawk-Hudson Bike Trail (which is also the Erie Canalway Trail),
  66. Moody Rail Trail,
  67. North County Trailway, again, partially),
  68. Northport Rail Trail,
  69. New York, Ontario & Western trails
    1. NYO&W Liberty Rail Trail,
    2. NYO&W Parksville Rail Trail,
    3. NYO&W Hurleyville Rail Trail,
    4. NYO&W Woodridge Rail Trail,
    5. Verona Beach State Park Rail Trail,
  70. Oneida Rail Trail,
  71. Ontario Pathways Rail Trail,
  72. Orange Heritage Trailway
  73. Oswego Recreational Trail,
  74. Outlet Trail,
  75. Pat McGee Trail,
  76. Pat Warner Springville,
  77. Philip A. Rayhill Memorial Recreational Trail and extended,
  78. Pittsford Railroad Loop Trail,
  79. The Portage Trail / Trolley Trail (separate railroad from but associated with Chautaqua),
  80. Pittsford Rail Trail,
  81. Putnam County Trailway and its extension,
  82. Railroad Run,
  83. Ridgeway Trail,
  84. Rivergate Trail,
  85. Rochester, Syracuse & Eastern Trolley Trail and the bridge over the Erie Canal,
  86. The Rutland Trail (many many times. Also see the Rutland Trail website),
  87. Samuel L. Fisher Environmental Trail
  88. Saranac Lake Recreational Path,
  89. Shawangunk Ridge Trail (Erie),
  90. South Cazenovia Rail Trail
  91. South County Trailway southern portion and northern portion,
  92. South Hill Recreation Way,
  93. Spring Run Trail,
  94. Stillwater Rail Trail,
  95. Sylvan Beach Rail Trail,
  96. Syracuse Lakeside Bville
  97. Tannersville Bike Path (Huckleberry Multi-Use Trail),
  98. Tarrytown Lakes extension and extended,
  99. Terry Gordon Recreation Path,
  100. The Uncle Sam Bikeway,
  101. Tonawanda Rails-to-Trails
  102. Town of Edwards Nature Trail,
  103. Trolley Trail (RS&E in Victor),
  104. Vestal Rail Trail,
  105. Wallkill Valley Rail Trail and North of Rosendale,
  106. 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, and again, just the walkway,
  107. Walden-Wallkill Rail Trail,
  108. Warren County Bikeway,
  109. Wellsville, Addison, and Galeton (WAG) Trail,
  110. White Plains Greenway,
  111. 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 ridden:

Trails I have no plans to ride:

posted at: 05:33 | path: /bicycling | permanent link to this entry

Made with Pyblosxom