MethuenRailTrail

Here are Kyle and the Boys doing their thing in Bradford.
Once the Ties are removed they are bundled and shipped to Pittsburg to be used for fuel. Then the surface is cleaned and graded and a new surface is laid in. Bradford has chosen a recycled asphalt surface which should set up nicely.

Methuen Oakland Ave Bridge

Newburyport overpass with Stairs.

RT 213 Underpass in Methuen

Underpass along Bruce Freeman Rail Trail

I took a turn on the Bruce Freeman trail the other day and came back with some images.

My images at Flickr

Bruce Freeman Rail Trail website

Phase 1 (6.8 miles in Lowell, Chelmsford, and Westford) is now open.

On the other hand someone scrawled traditional graffiti on the wooden trestle. This is a much bigger crime against nature. Hopefully much of the paint will not survive the winter, making removal easier in the spring. Small amounts of graffiti can be ignored for the time being but this will appear in every picture shot at this location.

Tags: cleanup, graffiti

Apparently someone at the Village Mall decided it was easier to toss their bags of leaves over the hill onto the trail. These are from the last 2 months or so; they were not there before that. Tim Vermette has been getting out there quite regularly to clean and this kind of thing is disheartening.

Tags: illegal dumping, methuen Rail Trail, village mall

Tags: blog, Clean-up days, images

Googlemaps: Southern N.H. Rail Trails
A compilation of all rail trails in southern New Hampshire.


View Southern N.H. Rail Trails in a larger map

Tags: Derry Rail Trail, maps, Southern N.H. Rail Trails, Windham Rail Trail

Another late post, my apologies. Last Sunday had incredible weather…the kind that you read about in old books about New England. On the spur of the moment, we got a few folks together for a quick trip on the Windham Rail Trail…we were NOT alone.

Odd some days I get out there and it seems that everyone called ahead and arranged the day. From my experience it seems Monday holiday mornings are FAMILY days, and it seems Sunday mornings are DOG day, or rather BIG DOG day. It seems a new trick is for walkers to bag their Dogs leavings and then leave the bag on the side of the trail for the return trip…as practical as this is. I and the other trails users found this habit slovenly and rude. If you are reading this…knock it off.

If you want to ride for long stretches pretending you are alone on the trail, weekday mornings are ideal. Basically all day week days until about dinner time you can be alone for most of your ride, but the more I ride the busy times, the more i LIKE the happy communal atmosphere that a busy trail gives off. Everyone is smiling, everyone nods as you go past. Dog people talk to dog people, children people try to rein in their kids as they go tearing up ahead unmonitored, it has a very town and country feel to it.

We are hoping that if we keep doing group rides at the drop of a hat, we will eventually build up a base of interested riders to have ‘Official’ group rides.

Tags: event, Windham Rail Trail