Yale Gravel Road Bike Route
Length: 8.8 miles
Elevation change: 520 ft.
Surface: 71 % on gravel roads
Difficulty: Easy
Bike type: Any with tires that can go on gravel
Updated 11/16/2023
Description:
Yale Forest Gravel Roads Route is an easy, nearly flat, bike ride. It is perfect for beginners. It includes two out-and-back legs so you can stop in the middle if you need to quit early.
Parking: Park on the Eastford side of the bridge at the NE end of Boston Hollow Road. There is a good parking area on the side of the road there.
Route Directions:
Once on your bike, head west back across the bridge into Ashford and take an immediate right onto Barlow Mill Road.
You will reach the site of the old mill at the .8 mile point as the road crosses over Bigelow Book. It then swings in an S curve and again crosses Bigelow Brook.
At the 1.2 mile marker, the route passes over Lead Mine Brook on a wooden bridge, and you bear right. (Hillside Road goes to the left. It is not maintained and is not a good biking road.)
The road becomes Kinney Hollow Road (in Union) where the pavement begins. Continue along the road to the 2.7 mile mark. Here the road turns sharply to the left and steeply uphill. There is a right turn into the Hull Forest Products property here. You turn around at this point.
Follow Kinney Hollow Road back to Barlow Mill Road and follow that back to Boston Hollow Road. At this point you have gone 5.4 miles and your car is just over the bridge to your left. You can stop now or continue.
If continuing, go right onto Boston Hollow Road and follow it until you reach pavement at Eastford Road. This is the 7 mile mark. Turn around and return back along Boston Hollow.
As you return look for the cave in the ledges off to your left at the 7.2 mile mark. This was an old mine.
At the 8.2 mile mark the Nipmuck Trail crosses the road. Look to right and up to see ahidden stair in the woods. That is for another adventure.
Continue on Boston Hollow Road until you again cross Bigelow Brook Bridge into Eastford and your parked car.
Biker crossing Bigelow Brook on Boston Hollow Road right at the beginning of this ride.
Biking Bigelow Brook at the old Barlow Mill Site
Biking along Barlow Mill Road in Ashford, CT.
A pair of cyclist crossing Leadmine Brook on Barlow Mill Road in Ashford.
Biking over the twin tubes on Barlow Mill Road on the Ashford/Eastford town line.
This is the stop to turn aroun at the northern end of this route. This is where Kinney Hollow Road takes a sharp left turn up a steep hill. Turn around and head back along the road you came.
Very hard to see in the photo but the finger is over a black hole in the woods. That is the entrance to an abandoned mine. Can you find it on the NW side of Boston Hollow Road?
Follow the finger up into the woods to see the hidden stairway. Can you find it as you bike past it Boston Hollow Road? Where does it go?