There are a lot of places to run at Yale, but only a few that actually let you leave.
The Canal Trail is one of them. Technically the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, it’s a repurposed rail line turned greenway that starts just behind Franklin and Pauli Murray and extends north through New Haven into Hamden and beyond. It doesn’t go past Metro-North towns, really—it just goes far enough that, after a while, you forget where campus ends and everything else begins.
I started running it because I needed something consistent. Cross Campus is too chaotic. Science Hill is a trap. East Rock, beautiful though it is, asks a bit too much of your quads. And the Morse-Stiles gym treadmills—beloved as they are—can only get you so far before you start asking existential questions. I needed space. I needed off-road. I found the trail.
You enter just a few blocks from campus, and within minutes, the noise dims. The pavement is clean, flat, and buffered by just enough green to feel like a departure. No stoplights. No street crossings. No campus Wi-Fi. Just a long, reliable stretch of trail bordered by chain-link fences, trees, quiet neighborhoods, and the occasional dog-walker or rollerblader. Enough life to remind you you’re not alone, but never enough to demand small talk.
I’ve run this trail angry. I’ve run it overstimulated. I’ve run it just to kill time, to clear my head, to find rhythm when I couldn’t find focus. Some days it’s fast and light, other days it’s a slog, but it always helps. And that’s the thing: it’s not about pace. No one’s watching. There’s no performance here. It’s just you, your body, and the long, straight line ahead.
The trail won’t change your life. It won’t give you sweeping vistas or motivational speeches. But it will give you an hour of forward motion when everything else feels stuck. It will hold you in the kind of quiet that helps your thoughts rearrange themselves. And when you’re back on campus—feet sore, shirt damp, problems a little less loud—you’ll be grateful it’s there.
So if you need a break, or a reset, or just somewhere to move without thinking too hard, start heading north. Cut through the back of Franklin or Murray, slip onto the trail, and run until Yale disappears. Then keep going. The Canal Trail is waiting.
