Welcome To My Video
This video is most appropriate for anyone riding the Farmington River Canal Trail that runs north / south through the heart of Connecticut… from New Haven to the northern border in or near East Granby. As this trail is a part of the East Coast Greenway, any cyclist going up or down the east coast will experience this trail.
Not everyone, however, is aware that this trail has a festering gap in the towns of Southington and Plainville, Connecticut. There is an approved East Coast Greenway loop around this gap but, as I drove it in my car, it seemed a bit convoluted with parts of it being very busy traffic-wise.
My concern is for the local New England cyclist who decides to ride the entire trail north or south without giving much thought to the route and then just happens upon the trail’s “Trail Ends Ahead” sign. Where do they go at this point?
The trail’s web site provides maps for northern and southern trail details but nowhere is the unfinished portion of the trail highlighted. A gap in an established trail is not a huge issue if that gap is communicated and circumnavigation is clearly marked. In this case cyclists need a detailed map for circumnavigating the gap. The cyclist who comes upon an unanticipated stopping point might then pull out a mobile phone, bring up Google Maps, and wing it trying to get back to the point of resumption on this break in the trail. And winging it might put them out in Route 10… bad!
For this ride I knowingly took the worst possible route… Route 10. This is the most direct route and this will likely be ridden by cyclists. The message? Anyone interested in doing the whole trail from northern border to the shoreline of Long Island Sound clearly needs to understand that the trail is incomplete with a six mile gap. Do not follow my lead in bridging that gap. Believe me, it is dangerous.
So, do your homework and lay in a course for the East Coast Greenway loop that links those two dangling ends of the trail together with a loop out to the east of the trail. I will ride and video that loop likely in the spring. I am also going to document a route that loops out to the west on some of the more quiet roads in the area as well.
Bottom line… if you watch this video as well as my previous video (the southern trail leg) and conclude that the Farmington River Canal Trail is well laid out and beautiful then I have succeeded. And if you are now aware that there is a gap that must be bridged and learn that the shortest and most direct way up Route 10 must be avoided then I have completely accomplished my goal. Telling someone about a hazard is fine but letting them experience it in 4K video speaks volumes.
Here is the latest data on trail completion as of 2019. Note how (as of 2019) Plainville seems to really be lagging but there are likely lots of factors in their lack of momentum.
fchtrail.org/w...
2 окт 2024