On Saturday, June 4, 2011, the Town of Bethlehem, the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, and Albany County hosted the Grand Opening of the Albany County Rail Trail, Phase One.
The Rail Trail reception area, staffed by volunteers from the Friends of the Rail Trail (FORT) Committee of Mohawk-Hudson Land Conservancy (MHLC), was at Adams St. and Hudson Ave. and featured maps, historical photos, and information about the trail. Guests received delicious oranges from the Honest Weight Food Cooperative while there were free ice cream cones for the early arriving children.
The first two-mile section runs from Veterans’ Park in Delmar (near the Stewarts) to Firefighters’ Park in Slingerlands (near the Tollgate). It is open to pedestrians and leashed pets from dawn to dusk. It is a “carry in-carry out” facility. Bicycles may use this first section of the Rail Trail but only after completion of some required safety features. However, there are bicycle racks at Veteran’s Park, the Municipal Lot on Kenwood near Delaware, and at Firefighter’s park. Cyclists must refrain from using the trail until it is opened to them.
Eventually, the Rail Trial will connect Voorheesville and the port of Albany, thus providing commuter and recreational access to downtown Albany and the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail. For more information on the Rail Trail, please visit http://www.mohawkhudson.org.
Albany Bicycle Coalition 
We tried this out on Sunday, June 13th with a 6, 7 and 9 year old cyclists.
The are still “No Bicycle” signs up, but we did explore a bit. The grass is cut on these trails but the surface is still the types of rocks that you would find under the railroad ties, making the trail pretty much unusable for everyone except mountain bikers (who enjoy going straight and flat).
There is promise here though! Does anyone know who is driving the bicycling aspects of this trail and what the timetables are?