Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.
Today’s 90-Second Escape: Neuse River Trail
On April 20, another 20 miles of the Neuse River Trail opened in Raleigh. That brings the trail to about 26.5 miles, about a mile shy of its eventual run, from Falls Lake Dam south along its namesake river to the Johnston County line. (The missing link is about 6.5 miles from the northern trailhead, at the WRAL/CASL Soccer Park and Horseshoe Farm Park. The mile or so is scheduled to open in early 2014.)
The recently opened 20-mile stretch is the longest continuos stretch of paved greenway in the state (it’s actually 25 miles of continuous greenway, meeting at the Johnston County line with a a 5-mile greenway into Clayton). The new 20 miles is marked by two suspension bridges over the Neuse (seven total pedestrian bridges over the Neuse will exist when the project is completed) and just one road crossing of any consequence. It is a remarkable trail that we will be writing more about over the next couple of weeks.
For now, enjoy a 90 seconds of greenway magic on the Triangle’s premier paved greenway. For more on exploring the greenway, go here.
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Joe, the Neuse River Greenway may be the best multi-purpose trail anywhere in North Carolina. We walked several miles downriver from Anderson Point on Sunday, and had a wonderful time. The quiet riverside scenery was perfect for calming two busy people and leaving us refreshed. With the connections to Clayton, Knightdale and Wake Forest, this is a treasure for the whole region, not just Raleigh. Lots of others were out with us getting going…traffic was almost at Shelley Lake levels between Anderson Point and Poole Road, and pleasantly busy further downstream. Looking forward to hearing more from you and seeing more for ourselves.