No narrow shoulders, no grueling hills, and only the tiniest chance of making a wrong turn — for a relaxing ride, nothing beats a bike path. And here in the Upper Valley we’re blessed to have dozens within easy driving distance.

For convenience’s sake, I usually hop on the Northern Rail Trail in Lebanon, often making the roughly seven-mile trip to Enfield, stopping on hot days for a dip in Mascoma Lake. The first glimpse of the water’s glittering expanse is always thrilling, and the chilly shady section where the trail slips between tall rock walls feels magical, as if it could be a portal back to prehistoric times. New Hampshire’s longest rail trail, it stretches on for about 60 miles, from Lebanon to Boscawen.

With its stunning mountain views and proximity to Flume Gorge and other White Mountain attractions, the 9-mile-long Franconia Notch Bike Path is also a favorite. The fact that it runs parallel to I-93 is, understandably, a turn-off for some riders. Yet for me, paths straddling asphalt and forest hold a certain allure.

As a teenager and young adult in upstate New York, I’d grab any chance I could to ride the rail trails along the Mohawk and Hudson rivers. Whizzing along past broken bottles and black-eyed susans, cottontail bunnies and boarded up buildings, I got a taste for the gritty places where industry and wilderness collide.

Locally, I’ve been meaning to check out the Toonerville Rail-Trail, which spans “three meticulously maintained miles” from downtown Springfield, Vt., to the western bank of the Connecticut River at the Vermont-New Hampshire border, according to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy website traillink.com. The paved trail, also known as the Springfield Greenway, starts behind the Robert Jones Industrial Center on Route 11, runs along the Black River, a tributary of the Connecticut, and passes near the historic Eureka Schoolhouse, ending at Route 5, about a third of a mile east of Hoyt’s Landing.

I’m also curious about the Warren to East Haverhill Railroad Grade Trail, a 10.7-mile trail that TrailLink describes as “pleasant and picturesque.”

Farther afield, there’s the 14-mile Island Line Trail, a paved and gravel span between Burlington and Colchester that boasts amazing views of Lake Champlain.

And there are so many more on my exploration wish-list.

Good online resources include VermontVacation.com’s “Biking in Vermont” page and “Biking in New Hampshire,” accessible from www.visitnh.gov. Traillink.com is searchable by parameters such as surface material and length.

Happy (bike) trails!