Sometimes I’m amazed by the bike infrastructure in New England. Other times I find out first hand that we have a long way to go to make biking safer for everyone.

Join me as we bike from Derry, New Hampshire to Lawrence, Massachusetts along several bike trails, some in beautiful shape while others downright dangerous.

Transcription

Sometimes despite doing extensive research conditions can either be better or worse than expected. This trip from Derry, New Hampshire to Lawrence, Massachusetts offered both, the best of worlds and the worst of worlds.

We passed through leafy forests, past pretty ponds, through rock canyons, recited some prose from Robert Frost, crossed dangerous intersections without crossings and navigated the crowded streets of Lawrence as cars zipped by.

Overall the trip clocked in at 34.3 miles round trip. Consisting of stringing together several rail trails:

• The Derry Rail Trail at 3.4 miles
• The Windham Rail Trail at 4.1 miles
• The Salem Rail Trail at 5 miles
• Methuen Rail Trail at 1.2 miles

And ending in the streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Derry Rail Trail

We started our adventure parking at Hood Park in Derry, New Hampshire. Derry is a town of 3,400 with a nice walkable downtown. We could have gone North all the way to Manchester, but we decided to go South all the way to Lawrence this time.

The trail was right next to the park and after a short ride through downtown, the trail quickly became a green forest. Everything was well maintained and we continued for 3.4 miles.

Windham Rail Trail

After an intersection, we entered the Windham portion of our ride. This was by far the highlight of the entire trip with by far featured the best nature. 

Not only was this the longest segment in between road sections, the trail was absolutely gorgeous leading us through forests next to shimmering ponds and rivers and through canyons of rock.

Well done Windham, your section of trail is worth the trip by itself!

Salem Rail Trail

After 4.1 miles, we entered the Salem portion of the rail trail. If Salem, New Hampshire sounds familiar, that’s where American Stonehenge is (you can check out that video below).

At first, the Salem portion was nicely paved with proper crossings. However, about a mile in, you’ll reach an intersection with the trail turning into gravel.

This is where you should turn around. DO NOT continue onto the gravel portion unless you’re ok with dangerous and non-existent crossings for high volume mall access roads and highway access ramps.

Unfortunately, we did not know the conditions, so we continued onto the gravel path. 

This section of trail follows the overhead high capacity power lines, running mostly parallel with North Broadway.

Honestly, at first it was smooth sailing. It wasn’t as scenic as the other portions, but it was functional.

Soon we reached our first obstacle. A mall access road with a crossing. We pressed the button and waited. And waited. Aaaaaaaand waited. Despite waiting a full 3 cycles, the pedestrian light never came on. We decided to just go for it after a short lull in traffic.

The gravel got rockier, but the trail was still fine. Less shade, so it was also hotter.

Then we came to our second obstacle. One so dangerous, we decided to take an alternative route back, bypassing most of the Salem Rail Trail altogether.

We came to an intersection for a high volume highway access road and there was no crossing at all. There wasn’t even a pedestrian crossing. We waited until the traffic stopped, navigated the curb and carefully crossed the street. 

Honestly, I don’t even know why this section is even a trail without even basic safety measures at some extremely dangerous intersections.

Methuen Rail Trail

The gravel trail continued for a while more and then we entered the land of paradise, a state that gives their towns proper funding for bike infrastructure – Massachusetts.

Upon entering Methuen, the trail became paved and enjoyable again. There were proper crossings and even bike comfort stations with tools and air pumps.

Overall the short 1.2 mile trail was great. Even better there was prose written by once resident of Lawrence, Massachusetts, Robert Frost.

Biking the Streets of Lawrence

The trail continued into the City of Lawrence and at first it was great. The trail was paved and we got a great view of Lawrence as we cycled. Lawrence is a city with a population of 90,000 along the commuter rail line North of Boston.

However, this bliss was short lived as we experienced a section with a lot of trash and broken glass. The rail trail was going to end soon so we got off early and traveled down May Street.

I thought this was going to be a quiet side street but was a lot busier with cars than I would have liked. It was particularly dicey with cars backing out of parking spaces for shops lining the road.

Ultimately we wove our way around downtown until we got to the North Canal and Mill District. We were on the edge of our seats the entire time. The narrow streets combined with the traffic made for a harrowing experience. So we took an alternate route on our way back.

WTF Massachusetts, you couldn’t at least extend the bike trail to the waterfront? I will say riding through the mills was pretty fun however.

Soon we made it to our destination – Spicket River Brewing

Spicket River Brewing

Spicket River Brewing is an urban oasis hidden away behind a mill complex. Featuring an impressive beer garden, spacious indoor tap room, and a food truck serving up Mexican & Caribbean favorites.

We got a seat outside and ordered some beverages. They have a full bar and offered all day mimosas which we couldn’t say no to. I got a flight which came in the form of an artist pallet with 5 colors, er I mean beers. The L.I.T. Pilsner was a nice respite for the warm day of bike riding, followed by the equally delicious Lawtown Lager. I followed that up with the No Talent Kolshe. As I’m sure you can tell I was keeping things light. I also had the Grapefruit Fresca, a citrousy India Pale Lager and finished with the Bodega Juice which was on the sweeter side for dessert.

While we were enjoying the brews and sun, we mapped out our planned route back to the Methuen Rail Trail and an alternative to the Salem Rail Trail we didn’t feel safe taking.

Spicket River Trail

We discovered there was actually another trail that winds its way through Lawrence, the Spicket River Trail. It was just a short ride away, stringing together several on street sections before we got to the trail.

The trail itself was much safer, not only was it mostly off road it also offered proper road crossings. Much much nicer and calmer of an experience.

Once we made it to Broadway, we took it the rest of the way to the Methuen Trail. Broadway is a higher capacity road, but it wasn’t too congested when we biked it, with only 2 dozen cars or so passing us. Thankfully, it was also wide, allowing passing cars to give us more room and there were a lot of empty parking spots that gave us a nice buffer.

Still, this could be a more dicey route if there was more traffic.

Our Way Back

It wasn’t long until we met back up with the Methuen Rail Trail which once again was in immaculate condition. We took the trail until we got to Kelly Road. Instead of continuing onto the Salem Rail Trail, we took a left onto Kelly Road. 

While Kelly Road was fairly busy with vehicles, most cars gave us a wide berth. Best of all we bypassed the dangerous highway access ramp completely via an underpass.

Eventually, we made it to the mall and were able to ride behind the mall which was completely free of traffic and then through several parking lots until we got to a small trail leading to a newer apartment complex which featured bike lanes.

This led us back to the Salem Rail Trail, bypassing the gravel section that lacked proper bike crossings.

Ice Cream

When you’re biking and you see a sign for ice cream, it’s mandatory that you have to stop. We did just that off the Methuen section of trail stopping at Glenn’s Kreme and Kone on our bike ride back. 

I got the blue slushy which was the perfect way to cool down after a hot day of biking.

After our pitstop it was just a few miles back to where we parked in Derry.

This is where I’ll end the video. Are you a cyclist? What did you think of the route we took and how we had to pivot? Have you encountered anything similar?