I've been walking and photographing the Air Line Trail daily for over 8 years. I never tire of it and am still regularly surprised to see some new plant or animal, a new aspect of animal behavior, or a superb sunrise. The trail is restored well into Lebanon now as far as Chesbro Bridge Road with plans underway for further extensions towards Willimantic. The railroad attempted the shortest route from New Haven to Boston "as if by a line drawn through the air", thus the name which is two words, not one. The penalty for the short route was the need to traverse north-south trending hills and valleys. The result for trail users is a series of rock cuts and viaducts, bridges and marshes in addition to woodlands and nearby waterfalls (e.g. at Grayville in Hebron). My favorite portion is Raymond Brook Marsh in Hebron. Lots of migrating waterfowl and songbirds spring and fall, plus nesting birds on the marsh borders through the summer. Waterlilies and other aquatic plants as well as diverse wildflowers including at least 3 species of orchids. At my web site, you'll find over 4,000 photos of the trail, accessible through seasonal galleries. You'll also find a printable PDF version of the color trail brochure (I'm proud to say illustrated with my photos). See: http://www.performance-vision.com/airline/index.htm

"For a trail I had low expectations of, I was thrilled! After reading some of the reviews over the last few years, I expected something pretty crummy, but what a pleasant surprise! I took the trail from the parking lot in East Hampton up to about where the Towns of Lebanon, Columbia and Windham all join. I also took the Colchester Branch on the way back to get some food. Net is, it's well worth doing, very quite, filled with great views and surrounded by nature, but be prepared and don't take your road bike, (I didn't)!

The trail is stonedust where improved and soft in most places & my skinny tire road bike would have been a big mistake. The unimproved section was OK except for about a one mile section that I'll tell you how to skip. If you've got knobby's on you'll be OK for it if you like riding on old railroad ballast, (I didn't have my knobby's on my AT Bike that day). You'd probably be OK on a Cross bike with tires wider than most road bikes - may just sink in a few times.

Take plenty of water if it's a hot day. There are no services, water, portapotties, etc.

To get around the one ""bad"" part as you come from East Hampton do the following:
1. After you cross CT 207( this is almost in Lebanon), get off at the next road, Pine Street in Lebanon and go about 1/2 mile to the right and take a left on Tobacco St.
2. Follow Tobacco Street about 1 1/4 miles and turn left at the next intersection.
3. About 150 yards down the hill, you can pick up the trail again after going down a short but steep trail on the right.

It's worth it & I'm ready to try the North next.

FYI, the Colchester Spur is a ""ho-hum"", but a short shot to get some food. Good pizza place and a good bakery close to end of the trail to the right, up a short hill.

Enjoy!"

"A friend and I had a grand plan to ride from Pomfret to the SW end of the trail and then ride on to Middlebury for the night, returning the next day. Note that the section from Putnam to Pomfret is supposedly much worse than the others.

We tried this in July, 2006, with her on a hybrid having 1.5 tires and I had my mountain bike with 2"" tires. After a bit of an adventure in finding the start of the trail (there are zero signs anywhere), we started riding. After a couple of miles (or less) we were considering riding the trail to Willimantic, then taking roads to Middlebury and riding the other section of trail in the morning. The surface ranges from dirt (both packed and not), to gravel to old RR ballast, with rocks and mud thrown in. Much of the adjoining flora is very overgrown so that a lot of your time is spent avoiding being whipped by branches. After perhaps four miles (if that), we both decided that this was definitely not fun and took roads back to her car. Our speed on the trail ranged from 5-8 mph, so doing the entire 50 miles as originally planned would have meant an exceedingly long, tiring and frustrating day.

Besides the usual tunnel vision effect of rail trails that go through woods, we found that we were so busy navigating our track that we didn't have time to look at anything on the side of the trail, as unattractive as it was. I have heard that the southern section, beyond Willimantic, is more scenic and the trail is in better condition. In fact, I had heard it is very nice in the fall and part of the reason I was there was to scope it out for a possible group trip. Needless to say, I quickly abandoned the idea of bringing anyone else into this morass.

I'm somewhat amazed at the postings from people who apparently actually enjoyed riding this section, especially the fellow on the touring bike. YMMV."