Rich's PedalPoint: Manchester

Showing posts with label Manchester. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Bolton Notch Revisited

Even though I rarely repeat myself on Rail Trail visits, the Hop River Trail is so great I came back for a repeat ride - this time in the opposite direction: from Bolton Notch back to Manchester. (Previous ride on this section - Sunday, June 13, 2021)

I had the morning free and fortunately the weather was gorgeous and sunny for most of my ride.

At the turntable at the Vernon Rockville spur junction

The map at the Manchester end shows all of the area's rail trails

At the Dobson mills

This section of the trail--back near the Bolton Notch parking lot, where the stream parallels the trail--is mighty rough--the bike was really shaking as I rode it!

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Hop River Rail Trail - Part 2

It was perfect weather today - especially welcome after a long oppressive hot and humid spell last week.

I rode south from Hop River State Park to where the actual rail trail ended and you had to ride on the road which was almost in Willimantic.

It was a bit of a long slow climb going back - no wonder it felt so easy at first going south!

It was a very scenic ride with rock cuts, riverside views, meadows, swamps, deep forests and even a covered bridge!

At the start

Loved the rock cuts!

And lots of stretches of raised embankments...

There were old telegraph poles along the way.

It's a bit hard to tell, but there was a beautiful gorge and small waterfall

A Covered Bridge (Andover)

Under the highway - the echo was nice inside it!

A beautiful stretch where the river runs parallel...

Crossing the River.

Loved the green along the edges here!

Another short "tunnel" under a highway

Blowdown! At least it was easy to ride around it!...

Short video (I reduced the audio volume as there was lots of wind noise from riding)

Details on my previous Hop River Trail ride and info on the railroad history can be found here:

Hop River State Park Trail

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Hop River State Park Trail

What an awesome ride - the scenery is magnificent! I started the ride in Manchester and went to a little past the Bolton Notch where I turned around and returned. Kudos to the Towns of Vernon and Manchester for all the wonderful kiosks detailing the railroad history - everything was super informative and a pleasure to see such a tribute to the history of this trail.

Manchester - where I start my ride

It was great to see the rails preserved here!

Remnants of a telegraph pole

All the kiosks were great! :-)

Some stretches of the trail had ties still (on the side!)

Dobson Mills

The Dobson Mills were a short downhill walk off the trail

You could barely see the falls from here

The ravine was gorgeous!

The Falls

Short Video (includes footage all the way to The Notch)

At the former Vernon Depot Area

There was a big yard here including a turntable. Kiosks were once again marvelous!

Yep - that's the remains of the turntable!

The parking lot was full at the Vernon Depot Area -locals know the railroad history!

Onward to the Notch!

Rail racks

Ah yes - there were plenty of these telegraph poles still standing!

There were long stretch of tall embankments

A road tunnel below!

Google Street view!

I love rock cuts and there were plenty to enjoy riding through!

I stopped for a nice chat with two lovely ladies here - we chatted about our mutual fondness for finding old foundations and mill ruins, etc. They sent me off with a mouthful of wasabi coated almonds - mmm mm good!