An (almost) uninterrupted bike path runs from New Haven, Connecticut all the way to Amherst, Massachusetts. The trail sits on an old railway, recently converted into a bike path. In Connecticut, the bike path is called the Farmington Trail, though it takes other names in Massachusetts: Southwick trail, Columbia Greenway, Manhan Rail Trail. We decided to bike the path in mid October to enjoy the colors of the fall foliage. We biked from New Haven, CT to Greenfield, MA and took the train back to New Haven. It took us three days with two nights accommodation.

This website helped us plan the route, though we still had to do quite a bit of planning ourselves.

Day 1

We started in downtown New Haven and followed the Farmington Trail. The scenery along the way is nothing breathtaking, but the trail is paved, well maintained, away from road traffic, in a tranquil setting. The southern part of the trail — see map of the route here — crosses the small towns of Hamden and Cheshire. Unfortunately, it ends at Lazy Lane in Southington, about 2 hours biking from New Haven. Some easy route finding on moderately trafficked roads is necessary to connect to the northern part of the trail.

The trailhead for the Northern part — see map of the route here — starts at Northwest drive in the town of Plainville, about 40 minute biking from the end of the Southern section. We biked another hour and reached the town of Simsbury, where we spent the night at Simsbury 1820 house, a characteristic bed & breakfast. This part of the trail is more scenic as the route goes over the Farmington river.

That evening we had dinner at Millwright’s Restaurant. We splurged a bit and went for the chef’s tasting menu — which was very good! — though a burger with fries was on the menu, as well. The restaurant sits by a waterfall. That evening, however, was raining heavily. So we had to stay inside and could not enjoy the view. The restaurant gets busy, even on weekdays, so a reservation is a good idea.

Day 2

While the pace of the first day was relaxed — 3 hours biking in total — our second day covered significantly more miles. We biked from Simsbury, CT all the way to Greenfield, MA. We started at 9 in the morning and reached our destination at 8 in the evening, well past sunset. We only took a short break for a late lunch, but otherwise we biked non-stop. In retrospect, we should have split the miles to be covered more evenly between the first and second day. The original plan was to spend the night in Amherst, but since we could not find any available accommodation, we had to extend the trip by 2 hours and spent the night in Greenfield.

Starting from Simsbury, the northern part of the Farmington Trail continues all the way to the border with Massachusetts. This part of the trail goes through thick forests, but occasionally opens up to magnificent views of the surrounding hills. The colors of the fall made the ride even more remarkable. It was quite cold in the early hours of the morning.

In Massachusetts, the bike path changes name a few times:

• Southwick trail: Suffield, CT – Southwick, MA (30 min) — map here
• Columbia Greenway: Southwick, MA – Westfield, MA (30min) — map here

The bike path is still under construction after Westfield until East Hampton. So we had to be on the road for about 1 hours, mostly a pleasant ride, with limited traffic, through rolling hills in the countryside. After that, the bike path reappears again but gets a new name:

• Manhan Rail Trail: EastHampton – Amherst (1hr) – map here

We had a late lunch in Northampton at Local Burger and then kept biking to Amherst. It was getting late and the sun was about to set. Once in Amherst, we biked through the university campus, crowded with college students. The bike path ended north of Amherst. We biked on the road for about 2 hrs to reach our airbnb host in Greenfield, MA.

The ride from Amherst to Greenfield was miserable. We biked in the dark. We had no bike lamps. Sometimes cars were speeding right next to us. We had no clear sense of how much longer it would take to get to our destination. But we made it to our destination all in one piece!

Day 3

We took the Valley Flyer Amtrak train leaving from Greenfield train station in the morning. Strangely the train could only hold one bike – come on Amtrak! – but the conductor was kind enough to let us board with two bikes. So in less than three hours, we were back to New Haven. We had pizza at Zeneli to mark the end of our little bike excursion.