Biking Information

Are you looking for new and interesting places to ride your bicycle whether it is a mountain or road bike? Be it in print or digital, there are plenty of places to find biking information. Google Maps (GM) now allows you to chart a bicycle path between two points and has incorporated some rail trail data courtesy of traillink.com onto its maps.

Using the traillink data in Google Maps, you can figure out how far two points within a rail trail are from each other. For example, let’s say you want to bike the 25 mile long Rockingham Recreation Trail (RRT), which begins at the Massabesic traffic circle. Most people would not want to bike the entire trail in a day so you need to figure out where to turn around. Using “placemarks” you can pinpoint two locations along the trail and GM will give you the distance.

Traillink.com is one of the finest websites for rail trail information. The information on the site is nation wide and includes numerous spots in New Hampshire. The site provides maps and driving directions to rail trails and registered users can post trail descriptions, conditions, and photos. Users are also encouraged to submit information on trails not described on the site.

Looking for a good book on the subject? Leach Library has plenty. Here are just a few:

917.4 MAS
Mascott, Cynthia. Best rail trails, New England: more than 40 rail trails from
Maine to Connecticut. Guilford, Ct: Falcon, [2009].

796.64 DUL
Duling, Sandy. Road biking northern New England: a guide to the greatest
bicycle rides in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Guilford, Conn:
FalconGuides, [2008].

917.42 MAR
Martin, Charles Fontaine. New Hampshire rail trails. Pepperell, Mass: Branch
Line Press, [2008].

796.64 TUR
Turner, Roger L. Bicycling on Boston's North Shore. Hanover, NH: University
Press of New England, [2007].