Current Trail Conditions (North Section)
Though open to the public for its entire length, different segments of the trail are in different stages of development. Some sections are complete and have a finished, stone-dust surface and signage. Other sections have been cleared and had drainage work done, but still have a somewhat rough, unfinished surface that is not suitable for road bikes. Other parts are totally undeveloped and overgrown.
There are no major obstructions of the North section of the trail in the form of missing or unsafe bridges. Though some parts of the trail may be undeveloped, this area does not have the many river crossings of the southern section. The two bridge crossings there are (over Boulevard Road in Windham and across the Quinebaug River in Putnam) have all been repaired and rebuilt for trail use.
The trail continues west of Route 66 as the Veterans Greenway, a town-owned bikeway that leads to downtown Willimantic.
The following is a section by section description of the trail's current conditions, as of September 2010.
Route 66, Windham to Windham/Chaplin town line: This section has seen many upgrades in recent years. The section's first 1/4 mile was paved as part of the US 6/Route 66 interchange reconstruction project. The state and the town of Windham cleared, graded, installed signage and put down a smooth stone-dust surface on the entire section of the trail in Windham. This included the construction of a trail bridge over Boulevard Road.
Windham/Chaplin town line to Wrights Crossing Road, Pomfret: This section was cleared and graded by the National Guard in the mid-1990s. The surface was not finished and is still rough in sections and there are drainage issues in areas that sometimes flood the trail. There has not been much maintenance done on the trail in the last few years, so even the areas that were cleared have become somewhat grown in. Still, the trail is passable for hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers. The town of Chaplin has received a grant to grade, add signage and finish the surface of the trail with stone dust from the Windham town line to the Hampton town line. This work has not yet been started.
Wrights Crossing Road, Pomfret to Town Farm Road, Putnam: This section of trail is completely undeveloped. It has not been cleared and is overgrown, with a rough surface, tree falls, and several wet areas with drainage problems. It is necessary to climb embankments to cross some roads where former bridges have been filled in. It is not really passable, and must be done on foot if attempted.
North of Town Farm Road, the rail bed is privately owned, but the town of Putnam has received a grant to obtain an easement along the right of way and finish the trail from Town Farm Road to the Quinebaug River. This would extend the public trail to Kennedy Drive in Putnam, where a footbridge has already been constructed to carry the trail over the Quinebaug River and connect to Putnam's River Trail.
Read more about this topic: Air Line State Park Trail
Famous quotes containing the words current, trail and/or conditions:
“Absolutely speaking, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you is by no means a golden rule, but the best of current silver. An honest man would have but little occasion for it. It is golden not to have any rule at all in such a case.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“These, and such as these, must be our antiquities, for lack of human vestiges. The monuments of heroes and the temples of the gods which may once have stood on the banks of this river are now, at any rate, returned to dust and primitive soil. The murmur of unchronicled nations has died away along these shores, and once more Lowell and Manchester are on the trail of the Indian.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Purity is not imposed upon us as though it were a kind of punishment, it is one of those mysterious but obvious conditions of that supernatural knowledge of ourselves in the Divine, which we speak of as faith. Impurity does not destroy this knowledge, it slays our need for it.”
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)