What do the Albany Hudson Electric Trail, Ashokan Rail Trail, and the Maybrook Trailway all share in common?

In 2010, they were all just dotted lines on a map.

The Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) released the Statewide Trails Plan in 2010, offering a vision and objectives, along with long- and short-term goals, for the creation of a statewide trails system. The 2010 plan featured these three trails as dotted lines, indicating that at that time, they were simply “proposed.” Ten years later, one of these trails is open to the public and two are under construction, one to be completed by the end of 2020 and one in 2021.

Next year, we are highly anticipating the completion of the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail (AHET) which will open up a major pathway from the Capital Region to the Mid-Hudson Valley. Late in 2019 we celebrated the opening of the 11.5-mile Ashokan Rail Trail between West Hurley and Boiceville along Ashokan Reservoir. We can also look forward to the opening of the Maybrook Trailway in 2021, which will connect the Putnam Trailway at the south with the Dutchess Rail Trail and the Walkway Over the Hudson southeast of Poughkeepsie. Seeing these projects come to fruition after so many years is exciting.