Three and a half miles of the Neuse River Trail is expected to open in August, another 8.7 miles in October and 7.0 more miles in November; coupled with the 6.5 miles opened last fall, the 28-mile greenway running along its namesake river from Falls Lake south to the Wake County line will be more than 90 percent done, at 26 miles. The entire trail, according to Raleigh greenway planner Vic Lebsock, should be done by mid-July 2013.

“We’re under construction, everything appears on target,” Lebsock said last week. “We don’t expect there will be delays of more than 30 days on any of [the sections].”

The Neuse River Trail is part of $35 million in Raleigh greenway construction currently underway that will add about 42 miles of pavement within two years.

The first 6.5-mile stretch of the Neuse River Trail, from the Falls Lake dam south to the WRAL Soccer Complex, opened last fall. When completed, it will link with 5 miles of greenway in Johnston County extending into Clayton. The resulting 33-mile greenway will be the longest in the state.

In August, 3.5 miles of Neuse River greenway will open between Anderson Point Park and Skycrest Drive to the north. (This stretch has existed since the 1990s as a gravel path.) In November, Lebsock says the 7.0-mile stretch from Skycrest north to U.S. 401 will open. Unfortunately, there’s a 1.2-mile gap between the north end of this trail and the first 6.5 miles of trail that opened in the fall, and that is the last stretch expected to open, next July.

Also expected to open in October is the 5.7-mile stretch from Auburn Knightdale Road south to the Wake County Line. That stretch will connected with the Johnston County greenway, creating a nearly 11-mile run into Clayton. North from Auburn Knightdale Road, the connection to Anderson Point will be made in two phases: a 3.0-mile run up to Poole Road that will open in October and the remaining 1.2 miles north from Poole Road, expected to open in February 2013. At that point, there will be 25.5 miles of continuous greenway uninterrupted by street crossings, from U.S. 401 south to Clayton.

What makes the eventual 33-mile run from Falls dam to Clayton all the more alluring is the fact there will be no street crossings to contend with. A series of bridges over the Neuse and smaller tributaries and passages under roads crossing the river will make for the longest unimpeded multi-use paved trail in the state.

The Neuse River Trail becomes even more significant as connections are made at Crabtree Creek and Walnut Creek.

• Walnut Creek: A stretch of connecting trail between existing greenway at Worthdale Park and New Hope Road to the east is expected to be begin construction within a month, the stretch from New Hope to the Neuse by mid-summer. The entire stretch should be done within a year, creating a 14-mile run along Walnut Creek from Lake Johnson to the Neuse River (pending completion, too, of connecting greenway through N.C. State’s Centennial Campus).
• Crabtree Creek: Currently, the Crabtree Creek Trail follows its namesake creek from just shy of Ebenezer Church Road downstream to Milburnie Road, a distance of 11 miles. The remaining 4.6 miles from Milburnie to the Neuse River Trail should go out to bid this fall, with completion targeted for late 2013 or early 2014. That connection, plus the nearing completion of the House Creek Greenway, would make it possible to take greenway from the Neuse Trail on the east side of Raleigh through Umstead State Park, into Cary and nearly to the American Tobacco Trail. Construction on the last remaining link of the ATT — a pedestrian bridge over I-40 and a little more than a mile of connecting greenway — is set to begin this summer after prolonged delays. When completed, the 22-mile ATT will link western Wake County with downtown Durham.

Unrelated to the Neuse River Trail and its east/west connectors, the 5.67-mile Honeycutt Trail is scheduled to go to bid in May, begin construction mid-summer. That trail will link existing greenway heading north from the Crabtree Creek Trail and around Shelley Lake north to the Mountains-to-Sea trail along the south shore of Falls Lake.

The Growing Greenway

View Raleigh Greenways in a larger map

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A week’s worth of Triangle greenways

Thursday, April 12: House Creek Greenway to Open June 25 (read: Memorial Day).

Monday, April 16: 90 Second Escape: The Triangle’s Growing Greenway System.

Today: Neuse River Trail: Another 3.5 miles by August, 16.1 miles by November.

Tomorrow: Within two years, Raleigh will have more than 110 miles of mostly interconnected greenway. What happens from there? A conversation about the future with the man who’s been overseeing the growth, Raleigh greenway planner Vic Lebsock.

Friday: The Triangle’s greenway system in two years, and beyond.

* * *
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The post Raleigh’s Neuse River Trail: Another 3.5 miles by August, 16.1 miles by November appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

If you’ve been driving Raleigh’s Beltline between Wade Avenue and Glen Eden Drive, sneaking peeks into the woods and wondering when on earth the House Creek Greenway is going to open, the answer is June 25.

That’s the official answer. In reality, it should be passable by Memorial Day.

The eagerly anticipated 2.9-mile greenway will link the 11-mile Crabtree Creek Trail to the north with the Reedy Creek/Museum of Art/Rocky Branch/Umstead/Black Creek greenway network to the south. It was supposed to open in March, but City of Raleigh greenway guru Vic Lebsock said the contractor encountered problems relocating utilities, especially around Glen Eden Drive, where the greenway tunnels under the road, then loops up to it to cross the Beltline before continuing north on the west side of the highway. Those delays late last fall pushed back the paving date, and this being a N.C. Department of Transportation-supported project, paving is prohibited between December 15 and March 15.

“You can’t lay asphalt when it’s cold,” says Lebsock. And while, yes, this was a mighty warm winter and they probably could have paved, “you need a number of continuous days in a row, and that’s hard to predict.”

Lebsock adds that the project isn’t late. “The contract date for completion is June 25. The contractor actually had been ahead of schedule.”

Tomorrow (Friday, the 13th), Lebsock says they should be paving the stretch of House Creek at Glen Eden. Next week the remaining missing pavement around Horton Street should be done. The last major work remaining will be boardwalk through wetlands, also in the Horton Street area. Lebsock says that should be done by the third week in May.

From there, it’s a matter of the contractor dotting the greenway’s i’s and crossing its t’s. But Raleigh greenway users are an impatient lot who aren’t prone to let a little incompleteness interfere with their fun.

Expect heavy thru traffic by Memorial Day.

* * *

Come back next week when GetGoingNC.com will give an update on the Neuse River Trail on Tuesday and on Wednesday take a look at what happens when the current $35 million greenway building boom concludes at the end of next year.

The post House Creek Greenway to open June 25 (read: Memorial Day) appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Last week, I wrote of the need to get out — at least once — on a sanity-saving hike over the holiday season. Because we realize you have a lot going on this time of year, and because we realize the one chance you might have to venture out should be extra special, we offered to come up with the perfect hike, just for you. To make that happen, we asked a few questions, such as: How long is your ideal hike? How far are you willing to drive? And what do you hope to find along the trail? You made my job easier by being pretty much in synch regarding your needs.

For instance, the majority of you — 75 percent — like a hike that’s 5-6 miles long. 37.5 percent said you’d be willing to drive up to an hour for that hike, another 25 percent said you’d drive up to two hours. You like a trail with a view, you like to walk along water, and you don’t mind a hearty climb. Since all of you who responded live in the Triangle, that narrowed the options.

Before I share my suggestions, one caveat: Great views are hard to come by in this neck of the Piedmont. There are some good ones, which I’ll get to, but “great”? That would be stretching it. In the interest of being honest, I must refrain from describing any view as great. That said …

1. Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area
Hillsborough
3 miles (according to the park website)
Yes, this is about half of the trail length you requested (the web site says three miles of trail total, but it seems longer). But it does offer the best view from a hiking trail in the Triangle. To reach that view, head west on the Occoneechee Mountain Loop Trail, which hugs the perimeter of this 190-acre preserve. Initially, the trail snuggles up to a noisy I-85, but in less than a half mile the trail veers north, then turns east where it buddies up to the Eno River. This is the topographical low point of the hike, but its scenic zenith: the 30-foot cliff immediately to your south is home to Catawba rhododendron, mountain laurel, galax and other plants more common to the Southern Appalachians. It’s a brief encounter with the mountains: quickly, the trail climbs to the Brown Elfin Knob Trail (named for a drab but rare butterfly rarely found at this low altitude), then climbs to an overlook made possible buy a long-abandoned quarry operation that hacked away the northwest flank of the mountain: On a clear day you can see Mebane. (This is not the highest spot on the mountain; Occoneechee peaks out at 867 feet, but the view isn’t as good.) A lot to see on Occoneechee Mountain, and if you’re heck-bent on putting in 6 miles, simply do the trail in reverse.
For directions and more info: Go here.

2. Falls Lake Trail, Sections 22 and 23
Durham County
8.7 miles
OK, so this one is a little more than 5-6 miles (this isn’t an exact science, you know). Section 23 is 4.2 miles and includes the good view; Section 22 has some good water sections. Both are worthy, but if together they’re too long, pick your preferred feature and do it. Section 23 runs along the Eno River from Pennys Bend Nature Preserve downstream to Red Mill Road. A little over a mile from Pennys Bend the trail suddenly finds itself atop a bluff maybe 50 feet above the Eno. It’s not that high, but high enough come winter to give a nice view of the countryside to the north. Section 22, which begins at Red Mill Road and runs a crescent before returning to Red Mill Road, includes nice passages along and above some more remote inlets of Falls Lake. On either section, the odds of seeing too many other hikers are slim. This is your best bet for solitude.
For directions and more info: Here’s a post about Section 23; for good (free) maps of the trail, check out Art’s Hiking Maps.

3. Eno River: Guess Road to Cabe Lands Access
Durham
6.2 miles
6.2 miles — pretty close, eh? And such a great trip you won’t even notice the extra two-tenths of a mile. This stretch, part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, runs along the south bank of the Eno River and offers some of the best scenic hiking along the popular waterway. From the Cabe Lands Access head east (downstream) and into some of the most vertically challenging terrain along the Eno. Truth be told, they’re just some quick ups-and-downs, but the passages take you into cozy ravines, atop bluffs offering good peeks at the Eno below, and through bottomland forest. It’s an Eno highlight reel all the way down to Guess Road.
For directions and more info: Go here to find out more about Eno River State Park and info on how to get to the Cabe Lands area. Here’s what you do at Guess Road end of the hike: The trail climbs up to this busy four-lane, crosses the bridge and switches from the river’s east bank to the west. Just on the opposite side of the bridge is a nondescript red brick house which is, in fact, the world headquarters of the Eno River Association. A good place to park your shuttle vehicle.

4. Umstead State Park: Company Mill Trail
Raleigh
5.8 miles
Ha! Nailed this distance on this one. This is probably the most popular trail in a very popular (800,000-plus visitors a year) park. At least the first mile is: The trail crosses three mild ridges on its passage down to Crabtree Creek. This is the destination for a goodly number of Company Mill hikers, especially those with kids and dogs. Linger a moment at the creek, where a breached mill dam creates a minor waterfall, then cross the green bridge and go right. The trail follows Crabtree Creek for a spell, then climbs, crosses a bike and bridle trail, touches Sycamore Creek, then returns, bringing you back to the bridge over Crabtree and your mile-long climb back to the trailhead. A popular trail for good reason.
For directions and more info: Go here.

5. Raven Rock State Park: Raven Rock Loop Trail, et all
Lillington
2.6, 4.1, 5.3, 5.3+ miles
I take it back: there is one great view in the bunch — the one from atop Raven Rock, reachable on the 2.6-mile Raven Rock Loop Trail. Raven Rock is a 150-foot bluff overlooking the Cape Fear River. An viewing platform offers a 180-degree views up and down the Cape Fear and north into relatively flat terrain where the Piedmont and Coastal Plain mingle. Tack on the adjoining 1.5-mile Little Creek Loop Trail for a surprisingly green hike (holly and mountain laurel) during an otherwise drab time of year. A wander down the Fish Traps Trail (0.6 mile, one way) takes you onto an outcrop in the Cape Fear, and if you’re especially energetic, the 5-mile Campbell Creek Loop Trail takes you away from the masses drawn to the park’s featured, namesake attraction. About an hour’s drive from I-40 and Wade Avenue in Raleigh.
For directions and more info: Go here.

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