guybierhaus

I put enough miles on the local Schuylkill River Trail, I made a bike for it, the "SRT". Basically a Nashbar cyclocross frame, 8 sp cassette and 38t front crank only. Then I decided to send some money to the Rails to Trails people, hoping they would get to working on the Pottstown to Phoenixville connection. And of course allowed me to get a new vanity plate.

bobthib

Nothing that I know of in the So. Fla. area, but there are some nice ones in the greater metro Orlando Area that I have ridden. I find them great for solo rides, esp in the summer since they often seem to be cut though some scenic and wooded areas.

Here is a collection on the site of a local bike shop.
https://orangecycleorlando.com/page.cfm?pageID=30

This list is put out by the city of orlando.
https://www.cityoforlando.net/transpo...s/edu/maps.htm


There are a lot of little choppy segments in the NYS Capitol District, called the Hudson-Mohawk Bike Hike Trail.

Did this trail in July with my sister. Most of it was beautiful pavement with little "traffic." Did have a few areas around parks that got a little congested.
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/1088

Here is another segment. Didn't get to ride it, but it looks interesting.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/3254

will dehne

You missed one of the nicest ones unless you call it a different name?
Withlacootchee trail in Central Florida

waldowales

The only one close enough for me to have tried is the one from Park City to Wanship. It could be nice, but it is so overgrown with goat heads, (puncture vines) that we spent a lot more time fixing flats than we did riding.

Ken Brown

All three of my European cycling trips were in late September and the first half of October. I have cycled the most popular sections of trails along the Rhine, Danube, Mosel and Salzach rivers and crowding was never a problem. It is nice to avoid peak season.

Going to Amsterdam this October and, while it is not a cycling vacation, I do hope to rent a bike and do a couple of day trips. I suspect paths in Holland will be busy in October, but I won't be going very fast anyway.

will dehne

I am glad that you enjoyed those trips. I still have a warm spot for my place of birth and education.
You have been lucky that the weather cooperated. German weather can be temperamental late in season. Count your selves lucky.

pinerider

I recently rode a portion of the Trans Canada Trail between Perth and Sharbot Lake in Eastern Ontario, found it to be a disappointment. It is an unpaved trail on an old railbed through swamps and woods and quite scenic in spots. It runs parallel with Highway 7. It is maintained by the ATV and snowmobile trail people, so any washout or low area is filled with 1.5" clear stone, difficult to ride on mountain bike tires, impossible to ride on anything skinnier. There were long sections of clear stone, plus some flooded sections due to beaver dams, so it wasn't an easy ride.
I'll be trying the K & P trail north of Highway 7, hopefully it isn't more of the same.....

gear

I often wonder why the US highway system doesn't have bike trails off to the side of the highway. I know riding alongside the highway would not always be a pleasure trip (depending on the highway). But for transportation purposes it would be great. Usually there is a strip of land beyond the breakdown lane and beyond the highway barrier but before the woods that is graded, all it would need would be tarring. The states own this land already so it would be a minimal cost to make this into bike trails and it would make getting from one place to another safer than always being on the roads with cars. You would have to go down each exit ramp and back up the next ramp as crossing an exit ramp would be unsafe, but I think its do-able. I recall a couple of bike trails like this in the Toronto area that ran for short spurts.

Next time your on a highway, check out the land along the side.

DnvrFox

A great suggestion.

In the Denver area, we have the C470 trail, which starts about 1/2 mile from my home, and follows our E470 and C-470 to I-70. About 38 miles. Lower left hand corner of this map.

The plan is to extend it east and north - "as soon as they have enough money."

Ken Brown

The weather didn't always cooperate. This photo is the bike path along the Danube on a day I got soaked.

donheff

Wow Dnvr, that is a heck of a collection of trails. Do they interconnect as well as they appear to?

DnvrFox

Yes.

There are more trails then are shown here - these are the major "interstates."

kjc9640

Hi Will,
Actually I didn't miss it I just didn't catch my mistake. I meant to type Withlacoochee instead I typed Withal (second from bottom). You are correct it is without question the best in FL. Thanks for pointing out my error.

Tom Bombadil

We have a lot of roads with bike lanes. Almost every new road project includes them. I support this and see how they are great for road riders and commuters. But for me, that riding experience is about 1/10th as pleasurable as a nice rail trail. Long stretches out in the sun, cars buzzing past constantly, noisy, few flowers and wild life.

I guess I've been spoiled by the tranquility of riding rural rail trails. And not being into the performance aspect of cycling, their being a bit slower and less challenging are positives for me.

For me it is more akin to hiking. I don't enjoy hiking along a road and I don't enjoy biking there either.

SabreMan

I don't know about the flowers, but you can find plenty of "wild" life if you ride on Friday & Saturday nights.

But I agree with you 100%. Give me a rail-trail any day.

Glenn in Omaha

downtube42

I've done parts of the Greater Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Towpath trails the last two years with a Scout group, and found them fantastic. Between the two they make a continuous trail between Pittsburgh, PA and Washington, DC. The GAP is mostly crushed stone, and the C&O is dirt (mud after rain). Tunnels, aqueducts, bridges, woods, meadows, and scenic views abound.

Dan Burkhart 

My wife and I spent our honeymoon riding along the Danube trail in May of 2003. We had better luck with the weather.
BTW Ken, I just want to tell you how much I have appreciated your web site over the years. I even linked to it from my web site when I owned a bike shop. Thanks for this great service.
Dan

layedback1

In west Iowa, Council Bluffs (Omaha) there is a beautiful trail from Council Bluffs to Shenandoah. It is heavily used.

In Nebr, there is a trail that goes east form Lincoln about 30 miles, also has heavy usage. And there is the Cowboy trail in northern Nebr. It is not finished but must have at least 100 miles done.

Cfd

Although there should be more, we have two really good ones in this area. The GVG which runs south for some 52 miles out of Rochester is a great scenic experience. The somewhat bumpy terrain did prompt me to add 42mm tires to my bike.

A significant plus to this trail is that almost no one uses it; I can ride all day long and meet only 4-5 people along the way.

will dehne

A picture speaks a thousand words.
No bikers, it rains, beautiful, relatively narrow path.
Lots of bikers talk about that trail.
How is hotels availability? Cost? Cost of food?
You went from where to where?
And what is your Webb site someone above mentioned?

BengeBoy 

+1

As a horse owner, let me add this: horses are crazy (most of them), and potentially dangerous (to themselves, their rider, and you).

The horses in parades are often not the same horses that are out on trails. Sometimes owners take their horses out on trails because the horses are too whacked out to ride other places. Or, the horses may be perfectly cool most of the time, but they see a small, fast-moving creature coming toward them and they think you're a predator out to eat them. So, they flee (other than pooping 14 times a day, and looking incredibly pretty, running is what they do best).

I frequently ride my bike to the stables where our horse lives and I have been trained (after repeated beatings from Horse People) to not even ride up to the barn from a direction where said beasties can see me approaching. I either ride up so they they can't see me, or, if I see a horse outside being ridden, I get off my bike and walk through the parking lot.

By the way, don't make fun of Horse People. Believe me, owning a horse is punishment in itself.

Dan Burkhart 

Ken's web site is
https://webhome.idirect.com/~brown/
Here is a link to one of many tour organizers you can book this trip through,showing the price in Canadian $.
https://www.activejourneys.com/tours.cfm?did=3&tid=10
The tours include hotels and breakfast, and they look after your luggage transfers from inn to inn.
Lunch and dinner is where you find it, and that is always a production, and always excellent.
Everyone told us meals would be really expensive, but we found prices to be comparable to what we would expect at home. It depends a lot on the exchange rate of the day.
If there weren't so many other trips to do, I'd love to do this one again.

CHAS

What about the Katy trail?

How is it?

Torgrot

Two of my favorite trips in the spring are to the Tamany Trace in Slidell Louisiana and Long Leaf Trace in Hattiesburg Mississippi. Both are just a beautiful way to knock the rust off in late March or early April. Both are beautiful and well maintained, with warm welcoming people.

08 Dr. Dew
torgrot

Allegheny Jet

I rode an "out and back" on the first 41 miles of the Katy Trail last spring when my wife and I took a mini vacation to Nashville. The trail in the North is an engineered roadway with wide berms with sweeping turns, graded hills, strategic landscaping, gorgeous stone work and limited access for cars. It was lightly traveled since the local traffic could ride faster using other roads. There were nice views and many informational placards describing local history along with the trail's tales.