MonopolyBag
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OK, so I am not a huge, biker, but I do bike more than most. Primarily casually on trails and paths and stuff. Not really into biking along roads but I want to get a bike for that. I decided to make a post on here as my want to talk about biking doesn't really fit elsewhere yet.
Anyways a friend and I decided to bike the Windham Rail Trail from Salem, which we have done before, but we decided to try to make it to Manchester.
We started out in Salem, which lags behind in paving their portions. We parked our car at Cycles Etc. Salem is going to pave down to Old Rockingham Rd. Which is good, but I wish it was further, much further. It could easily be paved down to the Methuen line as it is fairly flat and clear already. I think most of the rail is already gone.
Windham and Derry has done a nice job paving their part, two parts paved with one trail "closed" and them finishing up paving (we justw ent on it, it was muddy but we made it. You can easily make it from Windham into Derry center. Past this you enter Only 1.5 miles of this.) a park in Derry, and the trail peters off, which you then cross a road into Londonderry where the trail is very confusing, but if you stay on it, you then cross a stream, which was up to my knees as we crossed it, very cold, then we continue on. It turns and crosses under the new 93 construction and again is "closed" but you can go through there. We had to avoid a small bridge over some water and go into the parking lot at Boston Express then back into the woods to get the trail. Past the Coke Bottling plant, and then into some brush where the trail is hard to ride. From there the Londonderry rail trail is a rail, and is too bumpy to ride, but a convenient, yet muddy, road that follows a gas line is next to it and crosses through the necessary swamps and woods to reach the edge of Harvey Road, where you must travel like 6 miles around the airport to get to the rail trail again off of Perimeter road. Only then to find out that after going 300 feet into the woods, the trail with the track still there leads into a bridge that is blocked off. So we turned around and continued along South Willow Road which does have a sidewalk, but is not too enjoyable. We went all the way to Lowell Street, went to the Red Arrow for dinner, and managed to finish in time and on time to catch one of the few Boston Express buses leaving from Manchester Southbound to Salem. $8 and as long as they have room for bikes they let you put them below. We got off at the Exit 2 and biked back to Cycles Etc., along rt. 28. Which we could have gone along Canobie, but we had to make a stop at the dollar store.
Now, I was able to experience multiple times the lack of bike racks. At the Red Arrow Diner they have one tiny bike rack off to the side, but it is hard to chain your bike to it and the whole rack can be moved.
The bus station in Manchester didn't seem to have bike racks! Yet the Londonderry stop had plenty of high quality ones.
All in all, I would not recommend this ride to anyone as the trails are not complete, very long and time consuming due to having to deal with blocked bridges, trails, construction, and other stuff like that. But we did it, and I personally can't wait until bike trails are more complete here in NH.
Anyways a friend and I decided to bike the Windham Rail Trail from Salem, which we have done before, but we decided to try to make it to Manchester.
We started out in Salem, which lags behind in paving their portions. We parked our car at Cycles Etc. Salem is going to pave down to Old Rockingham Rd. Which is good, but I wish it was further, much further. It could easily be paved down to the Methuen line as it is fairly flat and clear already. I think most of the rail is already gone.
Windham and Derry has done a nice job paving their part, two parts paved with one trail "closed" and them finishing up paving (we justw ent on it, it was muddy but we made it. You can easily make it from Windham into Derry center. Past this you enter Only 1.5 miles of this.) a park in Derry, and the trail peters off, which you then cross a road into Londonderry where the trail is very confusing, but if you stay on it, you then cross a stream, which was up to my knees as we crossed it, very cold, then we continue on. It turns and crosses under the new 93 construction and again is "closed" but you can go through there. We had to avoid a small bridge over some water and go into the parking lot at Boston Express then back into the woods to get the trail. Past the Coke Bottling plant, and then into some brush where the trail is hard to ride. From there the Londonderry rail trail is a rail, and is too bumpy to ride, but a convenient, yet muddy, road that follows a gas line is next to it and crosses through the necessary swamps and woods to reach the edge of Harvey Road, where you must travel like 6 miles around the airport to get to the rail trail again off of Perimeter road. Only then to find out that after going 300 feet into the woods, the trail with the track still there leads into a bridge that is blocked off. So we turned around and continued along South Willow Road which does have a sidewalk, but is not too enjoyable. We went all the way to Lowell Street, went to the Red Arrow for dinner, and managed to finish in time and on time to catch one of the few Boston Express buses leaving from Manchester Southbound to Salem. $8 and as long as they have room for bikes they let you put them below. We got off at the Exit 2 and biked back to Cycles Etc., along rt. 28. Which we could have gone along Canobie, but we had to make a stop at the dollar store.
Now, I was able to experience multiple times the lack of bike racks. At the Red Arrow Diner they have one tiny bike rack off to the side, but it is hard to chain your bike to it and the whole rack can be moved.
The bus station in Manchester didn't seem to have bike racks! Yet the Londonderry stop had plenty of high quality ones.
All in all, I would not recommend this ride to anyone as the trails are not complete, very long and time consuming due to having to deal with blocked bridges, trails, construction, and other stuff like that. But we did it, and I personally can't wait until bike trails are more complete here in NH.