Had a nice ride this week from the start of the trail in Farmington all the way to Simsbury. The Burlington section is now open, as is the Canton to Simsbury link - all in beautiful condition. Take advantage of the early Spring weather!

I have been wanting to take a ride on the newly completed Canton section for a while, but have waited to do the New Burlington section at the same time. The 10.9 mileage is about right one way although the end at Canton does not have mileage markers yet. The new Canton section is well done and makes for a great ride. I parked with permission from the Ski shop at the end on Rt.44 and started a gentle down hill to Collinsville and the ride along the Farmington river headed south. There is however Parking at a park and across the street from the Canton fire station one block west from the start and on week ends should be used to keep the ski lot for customers. At MM 5 a newly completed section was a welcome relief from the 2 miles of root heaves from Black Locust trees left too close to the trail. With no mile markers between #5 and #3.5 I am not sure how much is left to do, but a construction worker says it should be finished in about a month and is packed gravel for about 3/4 of a mile to the underpass at Rt.4. I think the previous report confused the Farmington Canal Trail with The Farmington river trail.

In late September I rode from the Avon trail head north to a point about 4 miles into Massachusetts - 37 miles round trip. Contrary to the info above, the trail now passes through and well past Simsbury and continues seamlessly into MA, although the name changes at the border. Most of the trail runs on the old railroad right-of-way, but there are significant departures. In the Simsbury area the trail runs along side Rt 202 for over a mile, but not on it. Except for well-marked crossings, you are never ON a street.

It's asphalt 100% - not a speck of gravel except for some run-off from the recent rains. Yeah, there are root breaks, but show me a 20 mile paved trail without any. All told, it's an excellent riding surface, and the signage is plentiful and unambiguous. The various off-rail sections are not flat, but the ups and downs are short and manageable. All told, my aged legs were able to maintain a 12.5 mph clip over the entire route.

The scenery is varied and attractive - you won't be bored. There are long heavily wooded stretches above and below the CT-MA border, as well as some marshy areas. Lots of small rodents running back and forth. In the populated areas I didn't see anything that I would call ugly - no run-down or deserted factories or the like - but that's a subjective opinion. In fact, the towns are attractive, and you get to see a lot of back yards.

It's a trail i would definitely do again, on another trip to New England someday.

While reaching the end of the trail today in Collinsville and planning to turn around at the Nursery, I noticed a painted crosswalk and a continuation of the trail across the road. I followed newly constructed and paved trail ahead! I rode onward for about 2 miles on this new section and ended up at Best Cleaners on Rt 44. Looking like it ended there I turned around and headed back to Simsbury. Kudo's to Collinsville and Canton for extending the Trail!

This trail is in the process of being extended along the river. New paving has been done reently and sections of wooden fence is in place. The new section is not curently open "officially" yet.
This means you will no longer need to ride uphill on Rt 177 to the next parking lot.

If you are taking I-84 North it's exit 39 not 38.

It's a great destination rail-trail. My husband & I love this trail. We have biked it 3 times this past year. Upgrades are being done so check out the trail. The village of Collinville is so charming and historic. The village is a nice rest stop before heading back to Farmington.

My wife and i had a very enjoyable ride down off the Farmington Valley Rail trail form the 1.8 mile parking lot. Our intent was to joing up with the Farmington river trail where the two join.
When you get to the end Mile 0 of the Rail trail there are no clear concise signs at how to get to Mile 0 of the River Trail, You end up traversing a very narrow side walk ( to the right of the end of the rail trail) to you fid the parking lotto the River Trail.
At this point the river Trails is a very enjoyable ride untill you reach the Crossing at Plainville Rd. (Rte 177).
I don't know how to say this but this is a VERY DANGERIOUS CROSSING, There is no painted crossing area, the road is very heavely traveled with cars and trucks, there is no warnings signs as farther up the trail to warn Drivers of bikes crossing. The trail continues following the river untill is cross's route 4 ( well controlled crossing)(signs and painted lines) it follows route 4 then crosses under it to a parking area. at this point the trail ends it paved service
All in all a very enjoyable days ride for two old folks.

After a nice ride on the North Hampton we drove down Rt 10 and over to collinsville to check out the Farmington River Trail. There were a lot of bikers there at the market near the Center parking area. Not
that many on the trail. I did notice a lot of mountain bikes and after riding about a mile I soon learned why.
This is no trail for road or hybrid bikes of any kind. The root bumps are so bad I wonder how people can even walk this trail. And there are so many batches of people walking this trail its hard to bike because they seem to ignore that your on a bike and rarely give you the courtesy of moving aside for you, making you slow to a stop if there's oncoming traffic. I won't be back anytime soon unless something changes there.

Forgot to mention this in my last post. It is about 1000 yards up from the end of the trail.

Took a ride over from Avon today to do a loop off the Canal Trail and the section south of Collinsville is getting a lot of root heaving. I did not see many bikes although it was a nice cool ride. I was wondering if when being built more cut back of trees would help keep this from ruining a trail as fast. It seems that Locust trees close to the trail are the worst. I am still exploring to find a good way to climb over the ridge back to Avon from Collinsville with out the trafic of Rt. 44

As said on the page for the Farmington Valley Green way It is possible to bike south from almost the Mass. Line to the Plainville line and then turn north again on the Farmington river trail for a loop ride of over 30 miles. ( the 30 miles is from Simsbury and back not up to the Mass. Line) When you get to the end of the FVGW take a right and about 50 ft. you will cross a street to start.
The first 3.3 miles if asphalt and with the new underpass for Rt.4 very nice riding. You then will find about 2 miles of trap rock and dirt riding up to the section going to Collinsville. I think this is the town of Burlington and hopefully they will finish sometime. This is a very nice river ride along the Farmington river with a spectacular trestle at the edge of town. After the end you can wind through local back roads to pick up two pieces of an old RR (I think) that went over the ridge to Simsbury. I had scouted the easterly section last year and still have not found the section near Collinsville so we just road up and over Rt.44 to some more back roads and back down a 3 mile stone chip section of the old RR to join with Rt.167.