We bicycled on a section of the Air Line Trail to camp at Goodwin State Forest, our first time there. We had 4 youth and 2 adult participants on this trip. This was "bikepacking" in a different sense of the word: some of us wore our full backpacks while riding our bicycles.
With only about 10 miles to cover the first day, our estimates ranged from 1-2 hours for the ride. To start with we had 5 riders on bicycles with one pulling a small trailer filled with camping gear. The Air Line is an unpaved trail, relatively flat, except where it ramps to meet road crossings. The trail crossed roads at several points. At each of those, we met up with Mr. MacNeal, following along as a support vehicle. Things slowed down when one of the bicycles (a road bike) got a flat. The Scouts replaced its tube, but that tire still would not hold pressure, slowing progress on the trail.
The youth camp site is located very close to the nature center at the park. We signed up for and attended that Saturday's program, which was on tree identification. Led by a park staff member and a volunteer, this centered around a walk along some of the park trails. We also learned a bit of the history of the park. In the afternoon on Saturday, we rode a short distance to a nearby convenience store and made our way back through the park.
On inspection at the camp site, we had determined that both the original and replacement tubes in that failed tire were torn at the base of the valve. Mr. MacNeal drove to a bicycle shop to purchase another replacement tube. In replacing the tube, the Scouts damaged the derailleur on that bicycle.
Back on the Air Line Trail on Sunday, the repaired bicycle frequently ground to a halt as its derailleur moved its chain into the rear wheel spokes. One attempt to resolve this was for one Scout to tow the other Scout with a rope. Even still, the chain still got caught up periodically. Then, a second road bike got a flat; we dumped that one into Mr. MacNeal's truck. To continue, one of the Scouts rode in the small trailer for a while. For another stretch, two Scouts rode on one bicycle. In the end, the equipment failures drove us to stop at Pomfret Town Hall, get and load up the trucks and drive to the end point at Pomfret Station. The two city bicycles and one mountain bike (really an e bike minus its power pack) experienced no mechanical failures. This trail is probably a bit too rough for road bikes.
Our actual distances were 11.5 miles on Friday and 9.5 miles on Sunday. See our actual trail, as recorded by Joshua Froimson's GPS:
My Maps - map uploaded into Google My Maps
GPX file (for downloading)
Page updated 11/2/25
J. Froimson
