Windham Rail Trail
Salem Bike-Ped Corridor
May 17, 2018
16 miles
Two blue modes of transportation
Today we combined three trails together for our ride. These three trails will eventually join with several other trails to the north and will span the length of New Hampshire to create the Granite State Rail Trail.
We started in Derry, NH and pedaled south through woods, wetlands and swamps. All along this trail were memorial benches to honor fallen veterans from Derry. They also had flags placed on them. I thought this was a very nice way to honor these individuals . As soon as this trail ended the Windham Trail began.
The Windham Trail was very scenic, running along the abandoned Manchester and Lawrence Rail. We passed the Windham depot which had a restored Boston and Maine caboose (C16) and was interesting to see. Along all of these trails you could see old stone walls on both sides. These stone walls separated the Scottish immigrants fields back in the early 1700's. As we got to the end of this trail the Salem trail began.
The Salem Trail was just over 1 mile long but had some historical markers placed along the trail so we made several stops to read them. We learned that in the early 1800's there was a turnpike that went from Boston, MA to Concord, NH. It was the first time that a road traveled that far into New Hampshire from Boston, and Salem was the halfway point. After our bike ride we drove by the house that served as the traveler's Inn for that turnpike. Love the history!
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