In the mid-1990s the Triangle’s greenway system wasn’t a system. It was a disjointed connection of asphalt strips scattered hither and yon. If you lived a block or two away from one of these strips, you probably paid it an occasional visit. If you didn’t live within a block or two, you probably had no idea the Triangle even had greenways.
There’s a nice cross-section of events going on this Labor Day weekend, from a 5K in Wilmington to a paddle in Charlotte to hiking in the high country.
Coast
September kicks off the fall running season in North Carolina, and they’ll be kicking it off in Wilmington with the March of Dimes 5K Run for Healthier Babies. GGNC is particularly fond of this race because in addition to the 5K ($30 race day) and Family 1-Mile Run/Walk ($10), they also have the Sleep Walk/Sleep In category — don’t show at all, contribute $25 to a good cause and you still get a nifty race T-shirt. Zs rule!
North Carolina’s brilliant fall weather means all kinds of events and programs will be competing for your attention. This weekend, for instance, you can paddle a swamp, run 5 miles on a greenway that doesn’t yet exist or take a really, really (really) long ride in the mountains.
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast, especially come summer. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease this trying transition, we’re running a new feature every Monday, at least during the summer, called 90 Second Escape. Essentially, it’s a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s in the sun.
Depending upon how adventurous you are, the first 8-mile installment of the Neuse River Greenway is open.
Based on a scouting expedition yesterday, roughly 7.9 miles of the Raleigh greenway, which eventually will run the length of the Neuse in Wake County, are finished. That tenth of a mile that’s not technically opened is over two short stretches. The first comes 2.6 miles from the northern trailhead at Falls of Neuse Road just below Falls Dam. There, a boardwalk is under construction: the footings and supports are in, the decking being screwed down. Although the area beneath appeared wet, tracks to the side of the structure suggested it had been bypassed by cyclists and travelers afoot.