Pros: - Perfect for everyone at every age. Flat terrain. 3 mile walk, 6 miles round trip. - Water pictures, trail pictures, field pictures. - Well shaded Cons: None!!! Unless your seeking a challenging long trail. - For mountain bikes only maybe hybrids Thoughts:

Great trail with greens and manageable hills. But some dangerous crossings and noise highways. Recommend ear buds. I wouldn’t take my kids for whole trail. Just south is fine. Will definitely go during foliage season.

Rode from the trail parking lot in Andover to Lafayette. IPhone said 8 miles each way. My husband rode a commuter bike which did fine on this stretch. We saw two bow hunters from the trail - we had not realized that deer season had just started - and were happy we had worn vivid colored shirts, albeit to be visible to cars. We stopped for brunch at the Millside cafe in Lafayette, which is visible from the trail. I recommend it as a tasty destination!

We rode this trail on 9/12/20, starting at the parking lot on route 63.
Overall, a nice trail, but it has a lot of plusses but also some things that could be considered “minuses” by some.
Plus:
Shaded, pretty sections high over the adjoining forest.
Some nice scenery including horse farms (and horses share the trail, we passed several), plus several ponds. Route goes through the woods the whole way…very little in the way of passes through suburbia.
Not crowded.
Not a huge number of road crossings, and typically with good sight lines.
No big hills, some gradual ups and downs.
Minuses:
Most of the train is hard packed dirt or stone dust that makes for a good surface. However, there are significant sections that are a bit rougher. Some of the road crossings involve a downhill, cross the road, and then an uphill…often with a lot of stone or sand involved. There is a section around mile 8-9(when going West) where the trail follows something like a creek bed, with large stones that make it problematic (we walked this section). There are some embedded stones along the way so you have to watch where you’re going and steer around them..or even walk briefly. Some sections do have some drainage issues, so just need to be careful there. And parts of the trail become more like singletrack. We were able to navigate the entire route with our mountain/trail bikes (30 or 32 cc tires)…I would not recommend a conventional skinny tire road bike here.
Please don’t think the minuses outnumber the plusses here. Overall I recommend this trail because it’s pretty and ridable. Maps are available at the Connecticut DEP website.
Finally I recommend starting at the Naugatuck route 63 parking area…several other posters have noted that there’s basically no parking if you start in Southbury.
Check out the Air Line trail and the Hop River trail, not too far away in central Connecticut, for other options you may want to try.

Rode this trail from Rockwell Lane to the Trestle and back Sept. 3 --- the trail was muddy with extensive puddles that were too deep and wide to ride through. As a result we had to do a lot of careful walking the bikes around the puddles in order not to fall in the mud. Riding was made even more treacherous by the heavy and numerous branches that covered the trail and frequently got caught in the spokes stopping the bike and pulling it down! This was a miserable experience. I understand that the branches were left by maintenance crews cutting brush on the sides of the trail, but one would have thought they would clear the cuttings from the trail bed for the cyclists! The part of the trail after the cement works to the trestle was much clearer and less muddy. I think its a shame that the crews did not clear trail of branches. I have never seen a rail trail in such bad condition!

Started at Rockwell lane in Kingston. It was a mud pit. Rode 2 miles and turned around too many sticks, twigs and mud on this section of trail. Doesn’t appear as it’s maintained. Next time I’ll start closer to Rosendale.

Hurleyville has done a great job with their sections. Off the paved sections, much of the cinder trail is OK for cinder, but some could be termed "Narly mountain bike course."
I've done many long rails-to-trails and have enthusiasm for the future for the O&W. If they focus on the benefits of bike tourism by better signage (away from Hurleyville), services, one continuing trail, and regular grading and surfacing (cinder, or better, crushed limestone) this will become a great asset.

First & most important: start in Naugatuck !! Zero parking in Southbury. Don’t be put off off super steep hill - it’s only about 80 yards - just wheel your bike up to the top & you’ll be on nice flat rail bed. First time ride this trail. Had a raw unfinished feel to it. Some steep up & downs at road crossings which were little off putting outbound but on return was expecting them & didn’t even have to dismount for 3 out of 4 of them. One section like riding a dry river bed - take it slow or walk - only 200 yards or so. Sone areas muddy and would be messy after rain. Despite unfinished feel was well maintained and even huge fallen trees had been cleared. Very peaceful ride. I have hybrid bike regular tyres not fat ones.

Enjoyed this ride with our 10 yr. old daughter and she was thrilled to bike on this trail.. competed the entire trail of 7.6 miles.