Northern Rail Trail Names New Welcome Center in Danbury

New Danbury Country Store welcomes trail users.

June 14, 2013 • Saved under Outdoors
By Lindy Heim, FNRT
Audrey Pellegrino, who taught kindergarten for many years at AE/MS, has rebuilt and reopened the country store in the center of Danbury. The Danbury Country Store is an official Rail Trail Welcome Center just steps from the Northern Rail Trail. Photo: Lindy Heim
Audrey Pellegrino, who taught kindergarten for many years at AE/MS, has rebuilt and reopened the country store in the center of Danbury. The Danbury Country Store is an official Rail Trail Welcome Center just steps from the Northern Rail Trail. Photo: Lindy Heim

There is good news for users of the Northern Rail Trail. The Danbury Country Store is now open for business. Designated an official Rail Trail Welcome Center by the Board of the Friends of the Northern Rail Trail in Merrimack County, the store offers important amenities to bikers and walkers on the Northern Rail Trail in Danbury.

Audrey Pellegrino, Danbury Country Store operator, when asked if she would accept the Welcome Center designation said,

“I would love to have the store designated as a welcome center.  We were actually talking today about where the bicycle racks should go! We will have a handicap-accessible public bathroom for people to use as well as a separate sink to rinse travel mugs and water bottles.The name of the store has been changed and is now The Danbury Country Store. This may not be much of a change, but hopefully it is enough for people to realize it is something different. We are offering made-from-scratch cookies, donuts, and muffins daily as well as Boar’s Head Deli order-to-go sandwiches, homemade pizza slices, and salads. Hopefully, people will stop at the store while out enjoying the rail trail!”

The distance from the first Rail Trail Welcome Center, the Highland Lake Inn in East Andover, to the Danbury Country Store is just about 13 and a half miles – an excellent distance to ride for lunch. Also, the rest stop is just about seven miles from the Potter Place trailhead.

“We’re very excited about the opening of the Danbury Welcome Center at the Danbury Country Store,” said Alex Bernhard, Vice President of the Friends of the Northern Rail Trail in Merrimack County (FNRT). Good food, a public bathroom, water, and a warm welcome – a bicyclist’s dream. We’re delighted that local businesses are developing along the trail.”