PA ECG Team

Today's ride will take us to the Union Station in New Haven where we will catch the train to Philadelphia. Within a mile or so from the motel we were back on the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail. We will be riding this trail almost all the way to New Haven. It is a gradual downhill all the way. Nice way to end our epic ride!  Somewhere near Cheshire, the trail transitions to the Farmington Canal Linear Trail. A few miles from New Haven, we encountered a sign the says we only have 2,158 miles left to Key West! No sweat, we got this! It was not hard to tell that Yale is in New Haven. Everywhere you looked you either saw buildings or vehicles with the name on them.  New Haven has a good system of bike lanes which made it relatively easy to travel through this busy city. Except for when a delivery truck or two parked in the bike lanes! Train stations are always a challenge with bicycles. We had to ride a ways too small elevator down, walk across under the tracks and ride the same s...

The motel was to have a “breakfast” for us ready at 7 a.m. We were present at 7 and the doors were still locked. We waited till about 10 after then walked across the street to the McDonalds. About a mile or so after departing the motel, we were back on the Air Line State Park Trail and Veterans Memorial Greenway heading west out of Willimantic.  On the west side of Willimantic, we transitioned to the Hop River State Park Trail. The Hop River Trail was not paved but well packed and relatively smooth. It also was a steady climb from beginning to end. We encountered a section where there was some trail washout. It appeared that the beavers had done an excellent job of plugging up the drainage systems. The recent storms, both remnants of hurricanes, created new ways for the excess water to escape and thereby damaging the trail. This trail took us to the outskirts of Manchester where we transitioned to the Charter Oak Greenway along I384.  The Charter Oak Trail parallels I384 and t...

Yesterday we departed the Washington Secondary Rail Trail on the most direct route to our evening lodging. The route designer also did the same for this morning, that is, used the most direct route to get back on the very nicely paved Washington Secondary Rail Trail. Note to route designer, check elevations on your short cut direct routes! We climbed two very steep and long hills only to drop back down to the Trail. I think we all agreed that we would have been glad to ride a few extra miles back to the trail if we could have avoided those two climbs!  The rest of the morning was spent hopping from one trail to the next. We started on the Washington Secondary Rail Trail, then onto the Moosup Valley State Park Trail, then the Quinebaug River Trail, and finally for the morning the Putnam River Trail. This final trail dropped us in downtown Putnam CT. This was Sunday, Sept 12 and the town was alive with tourists. Apparently there was something on the order of a restaurant/microbrewery...

Fall River  Fall River  Fall River  Fall River  Fall River  Fall River Fairhaven into New Bedford  Fairhaven into New Bedford  Fairhaven into New Bedford  Fairhaven into New Bedford Fairhaven into New Bedford Fall River  The motel said that due to COVID they stopped serving breakfast. Convenient for them, but the rate did not go down to reflect that loss of service. The desk staff suggested we go up the street a “little” way to the Phoenix restaurant for our breakfast. A little way was almost a mile and not in the direction we were going. This added two miles to an already 67 mile day! The breakfast was worth it though. Our waitress commented that she had just purchased and rode with padded bicycle shorts for the first time in her life! She is a convert!  Crossing the bridge from Fairhaven into New Bedford, I couldn’t help but stop to take a couple photos of fishing boats docked there.  We were soon in Fall River looking at the Navy...

The weather forecast was for the rain to end between 7 and 8 a.m. As we exited the motel at around 7 a.m., the weather was overcast and looked like it would continue to rain. The motel did not provide breakfast so we elected to go just around the corner to the Chatham Village Cafe and Bakery for breakfast. A very pleasant lady helped us with our selections. It certainly shows when you love your job!  I got a half size apple fritter and could not pass up the jelly donut! By the time we were done eating breakfast, the sky was opening up and the sun was shining through. It was going to be a nice day. We had about 80 miles to do today. As we examined our route, we saw several “U” shaped loops where we could trim off a few miles. Soon after leaving Chatham we found ourselves back on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. When the prepared route deviated for the CCRT, we made a consensus decision to remain on this trail. It was going in generally the correct direction and it was nice to ride without v...

The weather forecast for today was rain, then rain, and more rain! We prepared to get wet. It was a short ride day, only about 54 miles! As we carefully examined the route, we decided to cut off a portion of the ECG route and head directly to the motel in the most direct route possible. This ultimately reduced our mileage to about 43 miles.  Along the way we traveled many miles on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. A very nice black topped surface. I saw another flock of turkeys and watched most of them cross the road in front of me! We stopped in Orleans for a bite to eat and to dry off for a while. The waitress/hostess was very nice and brought us each a small towel to dry off with. Just coincidentally we stopped at the location of the first Howard Johnson’s restaurant!  As we arrived at the motel, we were greeted by the owner and (I am assuming) and her husband. She showed us where we could store our bicycles for the night because she did not want them in her freshly redecorated room...