First we went to Stamford.  Then we went from Stamford to New Haven.  Now we're going to New Haven and riding on the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail!

The 5BBC last rode on the Farmington Canal Greenway in 2016. Since then more of the trail has been built.  It now goes a whole 25 miles without a break.

I'm listing this as a 35 mile happy face ride.  That is an estimate based on where I think the group will want to turn around, but we could easily do 50 (25 miles out to where the trail ends and back).  Usually when we ride the group rides together, but on this ride if some riders want to break off and go ahead and do more than the rest I'm fine with it (you won't get lost as long as you stay on the trail).

Meet at Grand Central (by the information booth) no later than 8:45 to take the 9:02 to New Haven (9:12 from Harlem 125).  When you get there buy a round trip ticket to New Haven.  If you miss the group somehow don't spend time looking for them, just get on the train.

Bring the usual: $ for train ticket, $ for lunch, MTA bike pass, bungee cords, spare tubes, pump, etc.  Lights strongly recommended (the day is long but so is the train ride back so be prepared to make your return home in the dark).

If you are planning to get to the start point by a way other than by taking the train from GCT let the ride leaders know by leaving a comment below.

Handy links:

Route to the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail

Route from the trail back to Union Station

Metro North New Haven Line schedule

Image credit: this blog

Postride Update:

For those of you who are interested, here is a RWGPS recording of my ride on the trail in June: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/36360461

After the first 25 miles the tail ends and there is an on street portion of 5 miles.  For part of that 5 miles there is a trail on the sidewalk but I didn't bother with that.  After 5 miles on route 10 you can make a left on Northwest Drive to get back on the trail.  I didn't know that on my way north so I went further than I had to.

This is the rail schedule of the Hartford line: http://www.hartfordline.com/fares-schedules/

After 11:57 am the next trail to New Haven from Springfield will be at 9:45 pm.  I actually didn't see this earlier because it was hidden in a frame that needs to be scrolled all the way to the right.  So I think doing the whole 80+ mile length of the trail and getting on that train is doable, but whoever does so will be getting back to New York incredibly late.  Maybe this could be done on a Saturday (I personally don't ride on Saturday) with Sunday as a recovery day.