I commute from Ellington to Hartford by bike 3 to 5 days a week. We like the rail trails for family recreation. A lot of work has been done in the past few years on the east coast greenway in Northeastern CT. The Vernon rail trails and the Airline trail are great. Any sort of road riding will be beautiful in NE CT, but this makes us more nervous with 5 kids along. There are also lots of trails in the Soapstone mountain area for mtb as well; of course the kids aren't old enough for this yet.