For Father’s Day, my 10-year-old daughter and I rode a 30 mile loop on our tandem that followed mostly the Farmington Valley Greenway. We started in Collinsville, and followed the route clockwise. There were many route marking on the road for TM which stands for Trails in Motion (a recent organized ride that follows the greenway route). If you are considering doing this loop, just follow those marking.
Farmington Valley Greenway Map
The trail is not continuous, so to make to whole loop you have to ride on some roads, and some dirt sections of trail. The section of the trail through Stratton Brook State Park is mostly crushed stone or dirt, but is is pretty smooth, and we had no problems riding through on our tandem with 26×1.5 tires. We spotted a deer grazing on a ball field in the park.
Trail through Stratton Brook Park
After we made it to Simsbury we stopped at J. Foster Ice Cream, which is close to the trail near Iron Horse Blvd. From Simsbury we rode south on the main paved trail. There is a small detour to an underpass under Route 44, then through a business park before connecting back to the rail trail.
One of the highlights of the route is the bridge over the Farmington River in Farmington. The old railroad bridge is very high over the river, and there are benches that make for a good place to stop to take in the scenic view of the river.
Bridge in Farmington
When the main rail trail ends at the southern point, a short trip along the road to the west connects the the Farmington River spur trail that we followed back to Unionville. This is where the newest section of paved trails takes you along the river and under route 4 to a new trail parking area near Riverfront Minature Golf.
The section of trail from Unionville to the Route 4 turnoff in Burlington is not paved . It is passable on a mountain bike, but there is loose rock and mud in some places that make it rough going on narrow tires. We opted to take the wide shoulder along the road on Route 4 until we got back to the trail parking lot in Burlington. There we got back on the trail and followed it back to Collinsville.
The Burlington to Collinsville section of trail is starting to get broken up with tree roots that are running under the paved trail making a lot of bumps. I doubt that there is any funding to repave the trail any time soon.
It is too bad that the trail has so many unfinished sections, but there is enough paved trail to make a very nice loop.
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