alliumstozinnias

A bigger vision — a U.S.-Canada trail

Imagine the East Coast Greenway connecting to the Trans-Canada Trail, already the longest trail in the world. And there’s more.

One of the great things about these East Coast Greenway Week-a-Year tours is that you have a chance to hear what’s happening elsewhere on the 3,000-mile route and to talk with local (and sometimes state) officials.

This time, we’ve already heard about the vision to close the 110-kilometer (66-mile) gap in Canada between the East Coast Greenway and the Trans-Canada Trail, which will be completed next year to mark the Canadian sesquicentennial. That trail — a mix of road, trail and even water — stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic and will be 24,000 kilometers (nearly 15,000 miles) long — the longest trail in the world. But when it crosses the province of New Brunswick, it’s well north of St. Stephen, the town opposite Calais. So that’s got to change.

Then we heard about an even bigger vision — to link two great national parks, one in each country, with a linear park. That would be Acadia National Park in the U.S. and Fundy National Park in Canada. The big missing pieces are two bridges on the Canadian side; otherwise the back roads, keeping you away from most of the RVs, already exist. And it would double as the connection between the East Coast Greenway and the Trans-Canada Trail.

Who knows when it will be done, but we heard support from an MP, among others. And the stars seem aligned in the sense that there is a Liberal government in charge at the national level and a Liberal government in charge at the province level.

Day 1 — 49 miles from Calais to Machias

A wonderful first day of our East Coast Greenway ride in Maine.

This was a wonderful first day of our East Coast Greenway ride in Maine — comfortable temperatures (perhaps it topped 80) and low humidity (especially compared to the heat dome we left behind). The hills were generally undulating and the uphill looked worse from the top of the previous hill than they actually were. They also seemed shorter than the ones at home and only rarely did we have to work hard in our lowest gear. The “official” estimate is we climbed 1,874 feet.

We started with a gathering of local and regional U.S. and Canadian officials near the border (more on that in another post), then headed closer for our own shot of the border. I’m glad we walked over last night because there was no way we were going to convince part of the group to wait for the others to go over and back. As it was, the American border agents didn’t take too kindly to a few of us going halfway across the bridge for a photo and then walking back — and not crossing over to go through U.S. customs. Thankfully, they said that since they had seen us, it was all OK … just don’t do it again!

Apparently they don’t take it easy during the international festival the two towns have. The parade from one side to the other? Get pre-approved if you want to do the whole thing.

This is most of the group well away from the bridge crossing, with Canada across the river. Notice the day’s uniform?

We found our welcome to Maine sign a few miles later, after we’d passed the turn-off for the last of the local crossings. The waves are to the friendly motorcyclists passing by who had also spent the night at the Calais Motor Inn.

Can someone photoshop “and bikes” to the bottom of that “open for business” slogan?

Signage was generally great — both for the East Coast Greenway and Adventure Cycling’s U.S. Bike Route 1. Our cue sheets really were more of a backup than anything else. Maine DOT has done a fabulous job!

We crossed the Down East Sunrise Trail quite a few times.

But we made the right choice — the surface is great for ATVs and snowmobilers but awfully bumpy for a cyclist. One of our Mainers told us it’s also plagued with black flies — and our few encounters with them were bad enough.

This was supposed to be a 46-mile day. Where did the other 3 come from? Two are the ride to the border and back. The third is a math mistake on the cue sheets — somehow it added just 0.2 instead of 1.2 miles for one stretch of roadway. Stuff happens. And it was no big deal.

An evening stroll into Canada

Cross the border into Canada and you’re in another time zone.

We’re staying a mile away from the border. So we took an after-dinner walk through downtown Calais, through the pedestrian border checkpoint and into St. Stephen and another time zone. We stayed for just five minutes before heading back.

No passport stamp. 😦

How much lobster will I eat this week?

The lobster taste test begins.

I’ve decided that one of my focuses this week should be to seek out as much lobster as I can.

So I started in Portland with a 7-inch lobster roll for $10 at a non-descript deli:

I’m going to need to try a few more to discover what makes one truly great.

And if I can’t find lobster? The bus driver warned me it’s harder to find in northern Maine. It’s blueberry season, and those are plentiful in northern Maine.

Ready to ride!

We’ve made it to Calais. Now the biking starts.

We’ve made it to Maine — and taken the five-hour(!) ride in a school bus to Calais from Portland. I was last on a long ride in a school bus in Alaska — and before that to corn detassle as a teenager in Indiana.

But it gave us lots of time to get to know each other. One rider is from Maine (another Maine rider joined us at dinner), and another is from Florida, and the rest of us are from Pennsylvania north. There are quite a few who are on their first East Coast Greenway ride.

As we went up and down the hills on Highway 9 between Bangor and Calais, the group started wondering about Sunday’s route. We knew it would be hilly — but this hilly? Should we have come with fatter tires after all and taken the Down East Sunrise Trail, with its imperceptible 1% grade? Maybe a third of the group has planned to take the trail. One person even brought a second set of tires, so she could swap out for something more road-friendly after two days. Why didn’t we do that?

At least it’s only a 46-mile day.

The Down East Trail is the longest trail on the East Coast Greenway, at around 85 miles. The nonprofit that runs it is now finishing up an extension into Ellsworth, the gateway to Acadia National Park, and is envisioning an extension in the other direction, into the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. Pull out and sell the rails to build the trail seems to be the way it’s done.

And just how isolated is this eastern part of Maine? Our bus driver said you wouldn’t take this highway in the winter because of the snow — you’d stick to the coast. He pointed out signs with the letters TWP and a number. That’s how areas of forest and or other “town without people” get identified in rural Maine. We went through an area where there used to be a lot of logging and paper mills, but there’s much less of that here. A few homes, small — small — grocery stores (think the size of a trailer), one little elementary school and lots and lots of forest and not much else, until we finally saw a sign for a proper supermarket … 7 miles away. That would be in Calais, a town of about 3,000.

And between Calais and Machias? We’re heading out with boxed lunches because there’s nowhere to buy food.

One week to go!

Here’s our itinerary for the Maine ride along the East Coast Greenway.

Next Saturday afternoon we’ll be on a bus from Portland to Calais (pronounced cal-iss) and the start of our 337-mile ride along the East Coast Greenway. Calais seems to be not quite the most eastern point in the U.S. But it does have a border crossing — passport and Canadian dollars are packed. Dinner? Ice cream? Definitely a passport stamp!

We’ve gotten the cue sheets and here’s how it’s shaping up:

Sunday: Calais to Machias. We’re taking the road option — the Down East Trail looks rocky and we’d rather have our road bikes for the hills that come later. 46 miles.

Monday: Machias to Ellsworth. Once again, road over that rocky trail. Thankfully we have the option. This is our long day — 68 miles. I think we stopped in Ellsworth on our first trip to Maine 11 years ago (destination Acadia National Park) — there’s an L.L. Bean outlet in town. Looks like our hotel is a parking lot away.

Tuesday: Ellsworth to Bangor. This is apparently where the hills start. At least it’s just a 42-mile day.

Wednesday: Bangor to Unity. More hills? But just 38 miles. We’re spending the night in a college dorm. We did the same thing at the start of the charity ride I did for Anchor House three years ago (then it was Burlington, Vermont) — here’s the blog about that year.

Thursday: Unity to Augusta. A 43-mile day, and our hotel at the end has the word “spa” in it. Better pack a swimsuit.

Friday: Augusta to Lewiston/Auburn. The day includes an event with the Maine Department of Transportation just 2 miles from the start, at a trailhead for the Kennebec River Trail. It’s always great to meet local and state officials and help make the case for the East Coast Greenway. And to say thanks too, of course. It looks like we’ll ride most, if not all, of this 6.5-mile trail. I wonder if there are plans to extend it? We end the 44.5-mile day with a much shorter Riverside Greenway.

Saturday: Lewiston/Auburn to Portland. We’re ending the ride with another long day — 56.6 miles, with the option of another 3.5 miles for a victory lap with Maine Adaptive Sports. If people with physical disabilities are coming to ride with us, heck yes we can do another 3.5 miles!

THANK YOU once again to all who have supported the East Coast Greenway through this ride. If you’d like to donate, you can do it online here. If you prefer to support Clive, go here.

Closing some of the gaps from the 2014 ride

It’s always exciting to read about gaps in the East Coast Greenway being closed. There’s been good news in Delaware and Maryland (and of course Connecticut, which I’ve written about earlier).

Gov. Markell and the riders from NJ — Delaware Gov. Markell and the East Coast Greenway ride in 2014

Back in 2014, I took part in my first East Coast Greenway Week-A-Year ride, pedaling from Philadelphia to Fredericksburg, Va. We rode on some great trails, of course, but we also were on roads plenty of times (some good, some bad).

So I was excited to come across two items Friday that show gaps on the trail are being closed.

In Delaware, the state’s General Assembly just approved a record $20.7 million for bicycling and walking improvements, and the state has a very pro-biking, pro-East Coast Greenway governor (who took the time to meet us on the 2014 ride). As Bike Delaware reports:

One of the most ambitious projects that will now be completed with this authorized funding is the Wilmington-New Castle Greenway, a safe, direct, paved, flat and nearly uninterrupted non-motorized six-mile travel route between the Wilmington Riverfront and downtown New Castle. Another project that will gain additional momentum is the Lewes-Georgetown Trail, a 10 foot wide paved trail that will extend a total of 17 miles all the way from Lewes to Georgetown, creating the longest trail in Delaware.

The East Coast Greenway goes from Wilmington to New Castle; maybe one day there will be a direct Wilmington-Newark route. No word yet on how quickly construction can happen, but it’s still a great step.

The Lewes-Georgetown Trail isn’t part of the East Coast Greenway but it’s about getting people to and around the beaches. and of course people already are biking on vacation — here’s a recent news article about some badly needed signage down in Rehoboth. Another bonus: it connects to New Jersey and the Cape May area via the ferry at Lewes.

Some of the group before the crossing in Perryville — Some of the 2014 group advocating for a safe crossing in Perryville

The day’s other news is that the bridge over the Susquehanna River between Perryville and Havre de Grace opened for bikes on Friday. This is a great victory! Sure, there are some complaints (and yes, we have to pay the toll too), but it’s far better than being barred. When we were here in 2014, the boats that were to shuttle us over never showed (they got the wrong day), so we were bused over the bridge.

Bridges. That’s the costly and really time-consuming part. If it had taken a new bridge to close this gap, we’d be waiting a long time. It’s also the gap in the WB&A trail from Washington to Baltimore. We rode part of this trail in 2014 too. The East Coast Greenway route goes from Baltimore to D.C. via Annapolis, and the vision is have a traffic-free route there too. A 1.7-mile gap on that leg closed in May because a developer realized it made sense for his own project (no doubt with some prompting).

A bridge is also the $1 million question in closing a gap in South Portland, Maine. The Eastern Trail runs 65 miles with gaps from Portland to Kittery, the border (with a bridge) to New Hampshire. The group is fundraising right now because state funding could otherwise disappear. I did my small bit. Had I won the Mega Millions jackpot last night, I’d have done much more. (The good part is no one did, so I could try again.) I hope they’ll win some grant money from People for Bikes and Rails to Trails via the Doppelt Family Trail Development Fund.

But I always wonder what could be done to make bike bridges less expensive. Would more prefab parts help, vs. constructing on site? Do construction standards require that they be able to support something as heavy as an ambulance and that adds to the cost? Can anything be done? Or is this just the unfortunate reality?

Trail dust

On Sunday, a group of us headed north from Princeton on the D&R Canal towpath.

I haven’t ridden north on the D&R Canal towpath from Princeton in a long time. So on Sunday a group of us headed out that way.

The D&R Canal towpath is part of the East Coast Greenway, and the trail was busy — maybe busier than I’ve ever seen it. We had plenty of shade, and having the canal right there made it even more pleasant. Loved the turtles lined up on a log — the same family as some Week-A-Year riders spotted three years ago?

But unlike some of those Connecticut trails from last week, this trail isn’t paved. It’s also not quite as smooth as the Hop River Trail and Airline South, so it’s not something I would want to do on a road bike.

And the closer we got to East Millstone, the more we encountered a dusty red surface. Everything got caked. This is what my bike looked like before I washed it:

And

My panniers also were in need of a wash, and my once-white sneakers now have an orange-brown tint. Oh well.

We also rode over a bridge repaired (replanked?) by some East Coast Greenway volunteers earlier this month. Thank you, guys! Though as a friend pointed out to me, a “path closed’ sign at the point where you had a detour option would have been a nice touch.

Total miles on the trail: 30

Total miles for the day: 39

Connecticut’s trails east of Hartford

We finally got off the Farmington trails and explored the Hop River Trail and Airline Trail South.

Day 3 in Connecticut — we finally got off the Farmington trails and headed east of Hartford. There are a series of trails — the Charter Oak Greenway, the Hop River Trail, Airline Trail North and Airline Trail South. All but Airline South are part of the East Coast Greenway “spine” and together take you almost to Rhode Island. (The Airline trails get their name from an old train line that connected Boston and New York as if a line was drawn through the air.)

There’s work being done here too — we saw construction along I-384 for a trail that will connect the Charter Oak and Hop River trails (and eventually include some costly bridges). Barb, one of my ECG buddies and a trail angel, told me another project is tying the northern end of the Hop River Trail in Vernon (where it’s no longer part of the ECG) to the Charter Oak Greenway in Manchester. And it’s all because of this man, a true trails advocate and East Coast Greenway champion. Thank you, Bill O’Neill.

We rode a 39.5-mile loop of trail and road from Bolton Notch State Park to Willimantic, then to Hebron and back to the car. Unlike the Farmington trails, these trails were stone-dust trails and every once in a while a bit bumpy on our road bikes. Still — road bikes with skinny tires!

Continue reading “Connecticut’s trails east of Hartford”

Closing the trail gaps in Connecticut

A big gap on the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail will be closed by the end of the year. More is in the works.

An inspiring part of our three days in Connecticut was seeing gaps in the trails being closed. And East Coast Greenway advocates are a big reason.

We had heard that work was being done to turn the 4.7-mile section of railway line into more of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail north of where we parked on Cheshire on the second day of our Connecticut exploration. So of course we had to look.

There’s no sign of anything in the first section, between Cornwall Avenue and West Main Street; in fact, there is at least one active business. Willow Street, just around the corner, is a quiet road, so easy to ride (but no sidewalk or shoulder, so less easy to walk). And this newspaper article says the work will be done next year.

But a section beginning at West Main Street in Cheshire was just about done. The new crosswalk signals and barriers to keep motorists from getting on the trail still had to go up. A fence was up, but that wasn’t stopping locals from taking their bikes on the trail. One man told us about a new 70-car parking lot (I predict it will be busy) and solar-powered restrooms along the new section.

Further up, a section needed a second coat of asphalt.

And at the very northern end of this section, the trail was marked out but had absolutely no asphalt. But it’s all supposed to be finished this year.

Finally, the southernmost leg in New Haven is in construction too.

The bottom line: Best I can tell, come the end of the year, all but less than a mile of a 26-mile stretch of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail from New Haven (accessible by train from New York) to Southington (all part of the East Coast Greenway) will be complete.

Fantastic!

And two breweries apparently are coming to Southington — could there be any better bicyclist magnet beyond that ice cream shop at the edge of the trail?

After that, there’s still one big remaining gap to close on this trail — essentially between all this construction in Southington to where we parked on Friday. And planning has started for that. Then it will be easy to bike traffic-free from the Connecticut coastline to Massachusetts.

The bad news is it’s supposed to be five years until it’s done. Planning alone will take two.

In the meantime, it looked like you could ride on the road. You just need to feel comfortable with traffic. We just didn’t have time to try it out.

Here’s a full “state of the trails” report from the Farmington Valley Trails Council on what done and what’s not, including the Massachusetts section we barely saw.

There is an organized ride this Saturday (June 25) leaving from New Haven if you want to try out the entire 56-mile stretch. A grand opening ceremony is planned for that new piece in Cheshire.

Given what we saw, once finished, this new section should be popular with Connecticut residents. It hopefully lure in plenty of out-of-staters too, bringing in some extra tourism dollars.

We saw more trail construction east of Hartford, but that’s part of my next post.

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