If You Build It, They Will Come: Seacoast Style

 

When Mad Dog moved to Hampton in 2008 he discovered the only place to bicycle was along roadways; what New Hampshire considered a bicycle path was a yellow line painted along the road which was not much respected by pick up trucks pulling trailers with landscaping equipment, F-350 trucks, motorcycles or anyone really. 

So he started looking for a real bike trail, like the rail to trails system he new which surrounded and interdigitated with Washington, DC, the "Crescent Trail," which allowed you to ride into downtown, or along the Potomac to Mount Vernon or out almost to Dulles Airport without ever having to share the road with motor vehicles.

Scott Bogle

By 2009, he tracked own an employee of the Department of Transportation named Scott Bogle, who was hoping to purchase an old railroad path running from Hampton to Portsmouth. The company which owned it and had not used it for decades was in no mind to sell it cheap, especially when it learned someone might want to buy it, but Bogle persisted and there were lots of hurdles to overcome, mostly from people who owned land abutting the path who were sure, in quintessential New Hampshire mindset, that whatever anyone was planning it would violate their property rights; never mind that having a bike path run behind your house would increase its value substantially, as it has everywhere else bike paths have been built. Mad Dog stopped going to meetings after a few years, as he concluded the path would never be built.

But Scott Bogle soldiered on and in May the segment connecting Hampton to the trail was completed and now the trail ran continuously, unvexed to Portsmouth and it is a joy to behold.

Joe's Meats Breakfast Nook on the Trail North Hampton

Along the way Bogle had to navigate around Free Staters, who believe any number of things but one thing they all believe is the state has no business doing anything at all, from public roads to public schools, to public health and certainly, if the Free Staters had their way there would be no bike path.

North Hampton

But now, there is a bike path and Mad Dog has been on it nearly every day, along with scores of other bicyclists, baby strollers, walkers, dog walker,  and nature freaks, not to mention wild turkeys, ground hogs, and some animals Mad Dog cannot identify which look like foxes with clipped tails.

Bogie's Hampton

And commerce has blossomed: Free Staters would be surprised to learn a government project can actually stimulate private enterprise: In Hampton, Bogie's restaurant, which has a back porch on the trail is expanding it's porch; the Airfield Cafe lies right on the trail on the Border with North Hampton and further down in North Hampton is a breakfast place connected to Joe's Meats, also on the trail. Just before Portsmouth is an exit to Portsmouth Hospital, in case you work there.

Along the way are signs reminding bicyclists that in hunting season, hunters are allowed to shoot their guns along the trail, because, you know, this is New Hampshire, where the rights of the dozen or so hunters who may want to walk out their back doors to shoot their guns take precedence over the rights of the hundreds of bikers and hikers, so bicyclists are advised to wear orange in hunting season. In New Hampshire, there are only 8 roads a hunter is forbidden to shoot across--mostly eight lane divided highways like Route 95 and Route 101, but otherwise, a hunter spotting a deer roaming in a field across Route 27 can stand in his yard and shoot across the road to nab the deer, because, well, it makes sense in New Hampshire.

The trail, if Mad Dog had his way, would be named the Scott Bogle Bicycle Trail, but this being New Hampshire, it will likely be named the Kelly Ayotte Community Connection.

Some things will have to be worked out: Kids and adults on two hundred pound electric bicycles going 40 mph are a menace to life and limb and there is no sign of police presence or cameras or even speed limit signs. 

The local government in Hampton has been typically mute and clueless about all this. It's not entirely clear the Select Board is even aware of its existence, or would care if they knew.

The police have enough to do controlling the crowds at Hampton Beach and worrying about finding police officers who might want to ride even electric bikes along the trail would be a big ask.

But, overall, Hallelujah! the Bike Trail done cometh.