Find the top rated birding trails in Bristol, whether you're looking for an easy short birding trail or a long birding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a birding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
This trail is beautiful in the fall. Well maintained and mostly paved. Its a smooth ride but gets a bit rocky crossing between bolton and vernon. Other than that this trail is amazing. Can be a bit crowded on weekends though
After heavy rain on April 16th, the trail along the Willimantic River is temporarily flooded and impassable,
The new portion heading under the Merritt Parkway entrances (via tunnels) are installed and old train bridge over Rt 15 is now open and it's complete.
It is a continuous trail from Bridgeport (Beardsley Park) to Newtown.
Great work in completing this section.
Now we need to get Newtown on board to extend it.
The previous reviewer indicated there was standing water on the trail in Andover. This is due to frost-thaw cycle that starts in November. The stone dust trails become very mucky once this starts and makes cycling a bit harder and messier. Paving would solve the problem.
This trail is great; what a gem. I can see why the locals refer to it as a favorite. The two reasons we didn't rate it a 5 is the standing water on a couple sections near Andover, CT (there's been no rain in days) and secondly, for a 3-wheeled recumbent trike -- the un-passable automobile barriers at the road crossings (had to carry our trike over the stones adjacent to the barrier). The trail has a few areas with small grades but for the most-part is really flat. The trail surface is hard packed, we saw numerous skinny wheeled street bikes experiencing no difficulties once so ever. The trail is heavily used but everyone we encountered was respectful of other users right-of-way. My wife rode the trail on a recumbent trike and I on a Mt bike.
I love it! Took some photography photos on the bridge and might have even climbed a bit
A note to everyone: The 1 mile section of the Airline Trail From Route 149 in Colchester to the Blackledge River bridge is now resurfaced. The trail is now finished from Alden's Crossing in East Hampton to South Brook Road in Hampton, where a 3.5 mile stretch of rough gravel slows you down, before the trail finishes in Promfret Station at Route 169. Get out and ride!!
My wife and I rode the trail in five segments, each approximately 20 miles each. My wife rode her 3-wheeled recumbent and I my Mt Bike. The trail is very level and has only a very few hills. Due to Autumn leaves and the wonderful foliage along the entire route, there was a considerable amount of leaves and other debris on the trail. In Cheshire and Hamden, the Parks and Recreation Dept personnel were cleaning and maintaining the trail every day we were there. The trail is well used by all, the surface is almost completely asphalt; unfortunately, rest room facilities are somewhat lacking...be sure to plan accordingly and take advantage when the occasion arises. WE LOVED THE RIDES!!
We completed the ride during 5 different segments during Autumn 2017 and each ride approx. 20 miles. Hands down the Cheshire and Hamden segments were best maintained in terms of leaves/branches/acorns/etc being cleared from trail. Each time we rode those two city segments we saw city parks and recreation employees working on the trail and/or performing nearby grounds maintenance; BIG ATTA-BOY to those 2 towns. Our last segmented ride was Simsbury to Southwick MA; the trail was covered in leaves in most areas but didn't limit our travel. Of all the miles we rode, there was only one rest room facility (Cheshire), the remainder of the ride had portalets (pretty clean). We HIGHLY recommend this trail. Southington and Plainville are very near completing their final designs to make the trail complete.
The description of the trail talks about the detour using Long Meadow Rd. and Towantic Hill Road. There were no signs on the trail itself to tell you this detour was in place, and no signs on the detour roads. I could not find re-entry off of Towantic Hill Rd. I continued on the road until Riggs St. where I rejoined the trail turning right, west, at that point.
Didn't do much of the west end west of Rt. 67, it really was quite rocky. There were a few soft spots that were a pain, but mostly it was a quiet shady ride.
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