Northeast - Anyone tried the Greenway.org recommended route through CT?

You all may be very familiar with it, but recently been browsing the East Coast Greenway organization website (greenway.org).

Their site has detailed cue sheets for recommended routes through all the states. They look particularly helpful in cases where a greenway is not yet existing. And to top it all off - they have a link to google maps with the routes (awesome)!

http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&sll=41.852174,-71.633606&sspn=0.538056,0.888519&q=http://greenway.org/maps/googlemapdata/ECG-CT.kml&ie=UTF8

Has anyone tried the CT recommended route? I'd be interested in taking it up to New Haven and wondering what the consensus is on this route.

Toobiz

Although I didn't hear back from anyone, I did ride this 95 mile route last weekend and thought I'd report back...

It's really a fantastic ride :thumb: - lots of nice CT towns, low traffic, and some amazing views along the ocean - but you either have to have the patience to follow lots of cue sheets or you need a programmed GPS. I had a programmed Garmin with me - which my friend and I were really happy about because it saved a lot of time.

This was the route: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ny/new-york/643796354480

Anyhow - I recommend this to anyone who wants some variety. I plan to try the Newark to Trenton/Philly ride next - Greenway.org has a recommended ride for this as well.

Toobiz

That's odd. Did they recommend Riverside Drive over the West Side Greenway or was Riverside your choice?

You're right - the greenway.org trail is actually up the west side greenway :)

I personally prefer going up Riverside. I will update the description.

Toobiz

Too bad I didn't see this earlier. ;) I tried their route from south to north using the CT bike maps (not using their cues), and got rather lost in Greenwich. The route isn't very well signed or all that fantastic in the Southern portion, IMO. I didn't go past Darien, though.

Wow! 95 miles, that's EXCELLENT! I would love a ride like that. The most I've done is 65 miles. I'm going to keep looking though because I do better / prefer on rail trails. I haven't found a really long (45 mile) contiguous stretch anywhere yet. But then I haven't looked that hard. Maybe next spring I'll get serious again. Kudos for researching and riding! That's the way to do it.

Say, about your route, could you just have stayed on Route 1?

some amazing views along the ocean
Funny my reaction to the parts of the route that go thru coastal areas in NY + CT that I've ridden before was that it missed some of the best sea views - (despite going rather close to them).


. . . low traffic
What day of the week did you ride it?


I plan to try the Newark to Trenton/Philly ride next - Greenway.org has a recommended ride for this as well.
I'm confused, since it seems like you prefer riding on public roads (like Riverside Dr instead of the West side Greenway) -- Why would you be taking your ideas for routes from an organization whose mission is to promote riding off the public roads? Wouldn't it make more sense to get route ideas from other cyclists who love riding on the public roads?

Newark - Trenton - Philadelphia routes have been discussed several times on public forums in the last few years (and just a month ago on this forum), and there are several routes up on the web by bike clubs or enthusiastic road bicyclists.

Ken

hey thanks. Thanks for the link and the update on the ride. Very useful.

Say, about your route, could you just have stayed on Route 1?

Hey there - I could have stayed on Route 1, but it has a lot more traffic - the route I took had a lot more turns and instructions, but was a lot quieter.

Funny my reaction to the parts of the route that go thru coastal areas in NY + CT that I've ridden before was that it missed some of the best sea views - (despite going rather close to them).

Glass half full or half empty? :) I thought the views were great.



What day of the week did you ride it?

Saturday



I'm confused, since it seems like you prefer riding on public roads (like Riverside Dr instead of the West side Greenway) -- Why would you be taking your ideas for routes from an organization whose mission is to promote riding off the public roads? Wouldn't it make more sense to get route ideas from other cyclists who love riding on the public roads?

Their recommended route is tested by cyclists, and in absense of a complete greenway to New Haven, seemed like a good idea (turned out to be a good one too, thus my post). I just like to ride. As long as traffic is not crazy, and the views are nice, I'm happy pedaling along to my destination irrespective of what kind of road it is. As for Riverside, I just happen to like it.



Newark - Trenton - Philadelphia routes have been discussed several times on public forums in the last few years (and just a month ago on this forum), and there are several routes up on the web by bike clubs or enthusiastic road bicyclists.

Great - I'll check them out! Do you have a favorite you'd like to share?


Toobiz

Do you have a favorite you'd like to share?
Not really, because I'm not much interested in riding all the way from Newark to Philadelphia. I connected a bunch of roads once rolling on my inline skates, because it seemed like an interesting challenge. But now that I've already done it that way, it doesn't seem so interesting to do it on a bicycle.
Even less so because starting in Newark doesn't include riding between the Manhattan and Newark, which has more interesting riding and scenery - (I just skated it again a couple of weeks ago -- see map (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Newark-to-Ft-Lee-GWB-NYC-2008))I looked at the East Coast Greenway route on the NJ DOT website, and then I was sort of hoping you'd ignore my advice and just ride it and report back to this forum -- because it looked very different from anything I'd want to ride for that many miles - (and different from the CT route)


As long as traffic is not crazy, and the views are nice, I'm happy pedaling along to my destination irrespective of what kind of road it is.
What sort of "nice" views were you guessing you'd see between Newark and Trenton?

If I wanted nice views, I'd be riding north from NYC up the west side of the Hudson river, then cross over to the east side around Poughkeepsie or Rhinebeck.


Their recommended route is tested by cyclists
I'm not saying there's something wrong with the ECG route from NYC to New Haven. But I had been riding around part of it: New Rochelle and Larchmont, and lots of the streets around those towns didn't strike me as very bike-friendly (I was there on a business weekday, not a quieter Saturday morning) -- but it did strike me that there were some very pretty sea views.
So it was strange to me that the ECG route (unlike the NYCC routes) seemed to go out of its way to visit non-bike-friendly places (felt that way on my visit) but without visiting their pretty sea views.

Ken

Thanks OP! Looks like a nice ride. Maybe I'll put a gps on my Christmas list.

Great link, thanks.

I live right on the Savin Rock trail section in West Haven. Lovely bike friendly boardwalk with seprate bike/ped paths. My wife and I pile our two boys into the trailer and hook it on our retro Schwinn Tango and tool around tooting our horn and ringing our bell. Stowe's Seafood is along that path. Amazingly good cheap classic New England seafood shack food. Yum.

There is a good public property cut-though nature trail from West Haven to the Long Wharf area of New Haven from where one can connect to the vision trail. I could not see whether that was marked on the map or not.

Toobiz,

That sounds great, it was interesting to read your report.

A few questions: Is the route well marked? Marked at all? and is it suitable as a walking route? Both from a traffic viewpoint and safety?

One of my dreams is to walk my puppy across the state of CT,(in day sections) I have gotten almost as far as the CT River (from the east) and have a planned route to New Haven, but after that I don't know, but using the ECGA route is a possibility.

I have ridden the New Haven Century a couple of times- that goes from downtown to Milford along the water, if it is like that to NY state line, it wouldn't be a bad walk.

I have ridden the New Haven Century a couple of times- that goes from downtown to Milford along the water, if it is like that to NY state line, it wouldn't be a bad walk. This is right along where I live, in West Haven. Great ride/walk.

...

It occurs to me that there are two ways to walk/ride across the Housatonic river. One is the Route 1 drawbridge near the shore, and the other is the "new" bike/footpath on the route 15 (meritt pkwy) bridge. I've yet to take either on anything but a car, but the existence of the path on the big Meritt bridge suggests that eventually, if perspectives on cycling change enough, that bike route currently in red might one day be a reality.