CT Nutmeg Bikepacking Route
Connecticut bikepacking route
Name TBD
WORK IN PROGRESS, this document is going to serve as a scratchpad for a bit.
Distance: ~355mi
Climbing: ~21,500ft
Should be ~50% unpaved by distance, >50% by time.
Of the paved roads, always try to stay off major roads (state highways, etc) if possible, even if it adds distance or climbing.
Of the unpaved roads/trails, generally prefer roads or smooth singletrack. Connecticut singletrack can be pretty challenging (rocks, roots, etc). Should definitely include some, but it shouldn’t be an entire sufferfest. Also, singletrack is harder to plan around time-wise in the mixed-surface bikepacking context.
The ideal bike for the route is probably a mountain bike with XC tires, but a >40mm tire gravel bike should be acceptable too.
Process
Divide the route into sections, then route/plan each section individually.
To maximize the amount of dirt, examine a lot of the route manually using satellite images and street view. Add surface and smoothness data to relevant roads on OSM, then have a look at the big picture using the Overpass API. To minimize zig-zagging , use BRouter with a custom dirt-finding profile to smoothly connect dirt sections.
Potential Stops
- New Haven (start/end)
- West Rock
- Naugatuck State Forest (Naugatuck)
- Larkin State Park Trail
- Housatonic River (River Road north of New Milford, then Schaghticoke Road north of Kent)
- Alternatively, Steep Rock Preserve in Washington (long track along the Shepaug river)
- Some cool backyard “heads” at 41.6325377, -73.3158346
- Alternatively, Steep Rock Preserve in Washington (long track along the Shepaug river)
- Macedonia Brook State Park
- Cornwall Covered Bridge
- Mount Washington State Forest (???) Maybe. Would require going into MA to loop around, unless it is just a spur
- Great Mountain Forest
- Nepaug State Forest
- Penwood State Park
- Connecticut River / Windsor Locks Canal Trail
- Tobacco/corn fields (Windsor, Somers)
- Scantic River State Park (Enfield, Somers, East Windsor)
- Shenipsit State Forest / Soapstone Mountain (Somers)
- Bigelow Hollow / Nipmuck / Yale-Myers State Forest (Union, Ashford)
- Natchaug State Forest (Eastford/Hampton)?
- If cutting off the NE corner
- Prime gravel near Voluntown, but also adding a lot of paved miles to travel to/from there, so perhaps not:
- Moosup Valley State Park Trail
- Pachaug State Forest (Voluntown)
- Air Line Trail
- Salmon River State Forest / Comstock Bridge
- Shugrue Farm Reserve
- “Route 11”
- Slightly out of the way near the center of Salem but too cool
- Legal?
- Devil’s Hopyard
- All trails are foot traffic only (despite appearing on the CT mountain biking page?), but there’s a gravel road through it E-W
- Miller Farm Nature Preserve / Sheepskin Hollow Preserve
- Roaring Brook Reserve (Dam / swim spot) and/or Hatch Lot Reserve
- Gillette Castle State Park
- Chester/Hadlyme Ferry
- Cockaponset State Forest (Nutmeg Country)
- Guilford green
- West Woods? Too technical?
- Stony Creek / Shoreline Greenway Trail
- Lighthouse Point
- Shoreline
TODO
- OSM
- More Strava tracks / access restrictions in Pachaug State Forest (look at fairly comprehensive official map)
- More Strava tracks in Yale Forest near Ashford
- More Strava tracks (unblazed but ok) in Cockaponset (Chester/Lyme)
- More Strava tracks south of Roaring Brook Preserve, close to 82, and disused trails connecting the two (started mapping it)
- More Strava tracks near Roxbury center along river (in/around Roxbury Land Trust, Inc. (River Road) parcel)
- Central CT near MA border…any dirt?
- After first draft, finer alignment/surface info of the entire route
- Continue adding walkable/mtbable Wyndham Land Trust properties
- DONE bull hill
- DONE cartier
- Robbins/O’Leary/Blain Preserve
- Add CT backpacking shelters to OSM
- DONE Pachaug
- DONE Cockaponset (Pattaconk Reservoir)
- DONE Tunxis/Nepaug
- Natchaug
- Nipmuck/Bigelow
- Mohawk trail (wickwire rd)? Kinda far from the route, but could be useful
- Winchester Land Trust?
Overpass API
Visualize ways with dirt or bicycle-friendliness:
[out:json][timeout:60];
// gather results
(
way["surface"="dirt"]({{bbox}});
way["surface"="compacted"]({{bbox}});
way["surface"="earth"]({{bbox}});
way["surface"="gravel"]({{bbox}});
way["surface"="grass"]({{bbox}});
way["surface"="ground"]({{bbox}});
way["surface"="unpaved"]({{bbox}});
way["surface"="fine_gravel"]({{bbox}});
way["surface"="pebblestone"]({{bbox}});
way["surface"="sand"]({{bbox}});
way["tracktype"]["tracktype"!="grade1"]({{bbox}});
way["smoothness"="bad"]({{bbox}});
way["smoothness"="very_bad"]({{bbox}});
way["smoothness"="horrible"]({{bbox}});
way["smoothness"="very_horrible"]({{bbox}});
way["smoothness"="impassable"]({{bbox}});
way["highway"="cycleway"]({{bbox}});
way["bicycle"="yes"]({{bbox}});
way["bicycle"="designated"]({{bbox}});
// OPTIONALLY (a bit generic)
way["highway"="track"]({{bbox}}); // likely to be dirt, so include all tracks
// way["highway"="path"]({{bbox}}); // likely to be dirt, but often hiking trail, which is fine in small doses
// way["highway"="footway"]({{bbox}}); // sometimes dirt, sometimes paved
);
// print results
out body;
>;
out skel qt;
Quick version for wizard:
type:way and bicycle!=no and access!=no and access!=private and ((highway=track and surface!=asphalt and surface!=paved) or ((highway=residential or highway=unclassified or highway=service or highway=cycleway) and surface!=asphalt and surface!=paved and surface=*))
BRouter
See ./nutmeg-brouter-profile.brf and ./nutmeg-brouter-profile-2.brf.
Also see:
- poutnikl profiles (Trekking, MTB, etc) https://github.com/poutnikl/Brouter-profiles
- Dedicated MTB profiles, especially “mtb-zossebart-hard.brf” https://github.com/zossebart/brouter-mtb
Sections
Staring in New Haven (41.30733,-72.92582), going clockwise:
- Macedonia Brook State Park (~75mi) (41.76623,-73.49493)
- Nepaug State Forest (~68mi) (41.84531,-72.963359)
- Nipmuck State Forest / Bigelow Hollow State Park (~77mi) (42.00922,-72.11551)
- Gillette Castle (~77mi) (41.42235,-72.42873)
- New Haven (~59mi) (41.30724,-72.92558)
Each section:
- Waypoints (list of coordinates for BRouter/whatever)
- BRouter profile used
- GeoJSON export (computed segments with tags + coordinates/elevation)
Trail Maps
List of CT state parks and forests allowing mountain biking: https://portal.ct.gov/NCLI/Outdoor-Activities/Mountain-Biking
“Trails and service, logging and other roads are open to non-motorized, multiple use activities (foot travel, mountain biking, equestrian) unless posted closed.”
“Connecticut Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails and the National Park Service Appalachian Trail are limited to hiking except where they overlap a multiple use trail.”
Surface/terrain Analysis
Wrote a short script in JS to take the individual routing sections from BRouter (csv export, or directly on BRouter Web) and spit out a more useful breakdown of surface and terrain. It yields paved/unpaved distance and percentages, as well as more detailed breakdown of the specific surface (if available), percent bike path, etc.
Camping
Provide a list/map/POIs of nearby campgrounds and backpacking campsites/shelters.
CT backpack camping areas/shelters (free / no reservation): List: https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/State-Parks/Camping/Backpack-Camping—CT-State-Parks-and-Forests Map: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/DEEP/stateparks/maps/backpacking/BackpackCampingIndexpdf.pdf
Other:
- Cockaponset State Forest has lean-tos (around Pattaconk Reservoir)
Misc Notes
- Unfortunately it isn’t possible to go anywhere in the SW corner of CT without adding many paved miles. The Pequonnock River Trail would have been nice but would involve almost all pavement to there from New Haven (and from there to New Milford).
- Similar with the Colebrook/Barkhamsted/Peoples State Forest area