By Stephen Melville

Norfolk residents driving to and from nearby destinations like Sand Road Animal Hospital, LaBonne’s Market or the Millerton Moviehouse may have noticed a new series of green-and-white signs along their route. These signs mark the Western New England Greenway (WNEG), also known as U.S Bicycle Route 7.

This multi-part, multistate bike route largely follows U.S. Route 7 through the western edges of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. When completed, the route will run all the way from New York City to Montreal. As it currently stands, the route is essentially complete, but there are small breaks at various points along the way. At its southern end, it connects with the East Coast Greenway, proposed to run from Key West to the northern tip of Maine, and at its northern end it joins up with Quebec’s Route Verte.

Coming up Sand Road, the Canaan stretch of the WNEG turns left on Boinay Hill Road and then joins Route 44 headed toward Salisbury before veering off to the right up Twin Lakes Road, carrying on up through Ashley Falls, Bartholomew’s Cobble and Sheffield to Great Barrington, Pittsfield and Williamstown.  

Somewhere along this length, probably near Twin Lakes, the WNEG can be expected to cross paths with the still-fragmentary Rails-to-Trails bike trail. At the moment, this trail consists only of a short segment (the Railroad Ramble) in Salisbury, the Billings Trail in Norfolk and some recently completed sections crossing Haystack Mountain State Park.  

A completed Rails-to-Trail system could ultimately serve as a spine that links Haystack and the various Barbour Woods trails through City Meadow to the trails around Dennis Hill State Park and potentially even Great Mountain Forest, while also connecting Norfolk’s extensive trail system to the larger bicycling network emerging in Connecticut.