Tonight, proponents of the Falls Whitewater Park will go before the Raleigh City Council in hopes of adding the proposed park to an upcoming Raleigh parks bond referendum. The council should unanimously approve the request. A little background, then the “why?”
The effort to create a modest whitewater park at the base of Falls Lake dam began more than a decade ago. It was spurred in part by efforts to lure the headquarters of USA Canoe/Kayak, the governing body of Olympic paddling. (USA Canoe/Kayak ended up going to Charlotte, which had a shinier thing in the U.S. National Whitewater Center. In 2011, USA Canoe/Kayak abandoned Charlotte for Oklahoma City.)
Herein lies part of the beauty of the Falls Whitewater Park: unlike the 500-acre, $38 million National Whitewater Center, which offers everything from mountain biking trail to a climbing tower to whitewater paddling on a half-mile man-made river, the Falls Whitewater Park epitomizes simplicity. Utilizing the existing rock structure at the base of the dam with minor channeling tweaks, the Falls Whitewater Park could offer whitewater paddling on release from the dam near its minimum of 150 cubic feet per second; thus, nearly guaranteed recreation year-round. Approximately $345,000 has already been allocated by Raleigh and Wake County toward the project; the overall cost has not been determined, but the investment would be overshadowed by the ultimate return.
The Falls Whitewater Park would be at the heart of a rapidly-emerging outdoors playground; it’s addition could establish the area as a regional adventure destination. Consider:

• Neuse River Trail. This summer, the 27.5-mile Neuse River Trail (with another five miles extending into Clayton) will be complete. The paved greenway in itself has become a destination for road cyclists tired of dealing with traffic. There’s the overall 32 miles of Neuse River greenway itself, there’s also the connecting 15-mile Walnut Creek Trail,  a paved greenway spanning south Raleigh, and the soon-to-be finished Crabtree Creek Trail, which will also run about 15 miles along its namesake creek. With a combined 58 miles of connected greenway, the Raleigh network is one of the most complete secondary transportation networks around, making it a destination in itself.
• Mountains-to-Sea Trail. From the parking lot at the base of Falls Lake Dam, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail disappears into the woods and doesn’t end, currently, for about 72 miles, in Orange County. It’s one of the longest natural surface trails in an urban area in the country. Although it’s closed to mountain biking, it’s an ideal escape for hikers, the perfect training ground for runners.
• Forest Ridge Park. Construction is scheduled to begin early next year on Forest Ridge Park, a 600-acre City of Raleigh nature park nearby on Falls Lake. Initially, the park will include five miles of mountain bike trail, hiking trail, ropes courses and more.
• Neuse River. Raleigh has five access points on the Neuse River, making it a convenient and popular escape for urban paddlers.
• Falls Lake. The 12,500-acre lake is popular with a range of outdoors types, from paddlers and fishermen, to sailors and water skiers. Oh, and stand-up paddleboarders, too.

Already, at least two outfitters run paddling trips exclusively on the Neuse and a new bike shop has opened near the base of the dam. It won’t be long before bike shuttle service and guided trips, a la the Virginia Creeper Trail, are added. Restaurants will benefit even more from the throngs of famished hikers, runners, cyclists and paddlers. Properly promoted, the local lodging industry should prosper as well as outsiders come for a broad sampling of adventure in the capital city. Raleigh Parks & Rec’s own Adventure Program would be able to up its offering of paddling-related classes.
The Falls Whitewater Park is one of the best investments the city and, hopefully, local voters, can make. Here’s hoping the City Council will act to include it in the next park bond.

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Update: The Raleigh City Council will vote at its June 17 meeting whether to include $2.8 million for the Falls Whitewater Park in its next park bond referendum. That meeting will begin at 1 p.m.

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I want to, I just don’t have time.
Too often we put off a good time because we don’t have a good grasp of time. Between work, the yard, that jar of pennies that needs marshaling into sleeves … . Who has the time?
We’re not suggesting you’d rather spend an afternoon arranging metal portraits of Abe Lincoln, but isn’t that something you could do in the evening during some binge TV?
Truth is, you likely have the time — you just need some direction regarding how to best use it. You need someone who’s likewise strapped and has refused to say no to adventure.
You need Quick Escapes.
Quick Escapes is a new, occasional GetGoingNC feature that helps you find time in your busy schedule for adventure by streamlining the process. We propose an adventure you don’t think you have time for, then show you that you do.

This week’s Quick Escape: The 90-minute Self-Shuttle River Trip

Challenge River paddles are great. Unfortunately, we’re of a mindset that we a shuttle buddy to do them. That can involve numerous emails, texts and phone calls to figure out schedules and logistics, not to mention the possibility the whole thing could be scuttled by Shuttle Buddy remembering at the last minute a conflicting spousal obligation. In fact, while certain moving water should not be paddled solo, there are plenty of safe, slow-moving waterways in the Triangle and to the east that can be paddled by your lonesome.

Solution To varying degrees, many of these rivers lend themselves to a self-supported shuttle. Find a stretch of water you’re interested in paddling, pull up Google Maps, drop pins at both the put-in and take-out, then check out the recommended shuttle route. Google will show you the best routes by car, by foot, by bike, and give you distances as well as estimated travel times. Note: Google is sometimes unclear on the notion of what constitutes a “safe” route for biking or walking; be sure to double check the recommended route: if GM suggests you bike on a stretch of interstate highway, for instance, you might consider plan B.

Quick Escape’s recommended solution: Neuse River One of the best candidates for the self-shuttle is the Neuse River through Raleigh. The Neuse runs about 28 miles through town, from the base of Falls Lake Dam to the Johnston County line. For several years, the City of Raleigh has maintained five canoe accesses along the river; in the past year, the city has opened all but about a half-mile of the Neuse River Greenway Trail, a paved greenway that parallels the river for that entire 28 miles (and continues another five miles to Clayton). The greenway makes an excellent shuttle route, either by foot (running or walking) or by bike.

Access points Here are the distances and locations of the city’s five Neuse River access points. Plan your shuttle accordingly.

0.0 miles         Falls Dam
10.5         Buffaloe Road
14.0         Milburnie Dam
16.0         Anderson Point
17.5         Poole Road

Today’s trip In the interest of time (we are trying to squeeze in a Quick Escape, remember) we opted for the two-mile Milburnie to Anderson Point trip. Here’s how that trip unfolded, on the clock.

0:00 — Arrive at put-in. Unload boat, paddle, pfd and water bottle. Store under pedestrian bridge. Lock your boat to the bridge with a bicycle cable lock. The worry is less about someone stealing your boat; unless they happen to be prowling with a roof rack and tie-down straps, that’s unlikely. Rather, you don’t want a prankster casting off your craft absent the captain (you).
0:05 — Leave put-in to set up shuttle.
0:13 — Arrive at Anderson Point take-out. Get pack containing: car keys, wallet, cell phone, snack. Recommended: use a trail pack made for running, either around the waist or a low-profile backpack type.
0:30 — Arrive back at put-in. In my case, I elected to run, covering the 2.1 miles of greenway in a little over 17 minutes. Google estimates the walking time at 42 minutes, the cycling time at 11 minutes. In contrast, the less-direct 4.2-mile car shuttle is estimated to take 7 minutes.
0:33 — Launch.
1:16 — Take out. Total paddle time: 42 minutes, 54 seconds. I did minimal paddling, relying mostly on the 2+ mph current. A relaxed pace that allowed for plenty of ogling and picture taking.
1:32 — Boat racked, car loaded; ready to leave.

Elapsed time 1 hour, 32 minutes

Obviously, this does not include the time it takes to plan the trip, pack, travel to the put-in, drive home from the take-out and unpack — which could easily take another hour and a half. Do these trips often enough, get in the mindset of planning your trips and efficiently executing them, and you’ll economize that part of your trip as well.

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Got an idea for a Quick Escape, or one you’d like us to figure out? Drop us a line at joe@getgoingnc.com.

The post Quick Escapes: Your Guide to Timeless Adventure appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Last Thursday on a trip down east  was my first day on the water and it put me of a mind to spend more time paddling. The quiet, save for the birdsong and the occasional gal-lump of a turtle inelegantly abandoning sunny log for murky water. The wildlife, including an alligator that was even more distracted by the sun and warmth. The emergence of spring, with the pastel buds of green, white and crimson giving the world a soft focus field. The unique calm that only paddling flat water can offer.

Milltail Creek in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and the Dillard’s Creek tributary feeding the Chowan River north of Edenton are both on my list for return trips. But where to go next? That got me to thinking of some other great paddles in the state, places I’d like to get to this year, places you might like to explore as well.

Here are 10 such places. I’ve included a quick description and location. If you’re intrigued, click on “More info here” and you’ll find nearly everything you’ll need to plan a trip.

Charlotte area

1. Lake Wylie Dam
Rock Hill, S.C.

There’s a Jekyll-and-Hyde nature to the 31-mile stretch of the Catawba River below the Lake Wylie dam just over the South Carolina line. At nominal water flow, the stretch is friendly flatwater river paddling, a few rocks here and there, a Class I rapid but no more. But when the volume gets cranked up this stretch requires a whole ‘nother paddling skillset. What exactly do we mean by that? Click on More info here.
More info here.

Triad

2. Lake Brandt
Greensboro

Lake Brandt is one of three main watershed lakes rimming the north side of Greensboro. The lakes were created for drinking water, revered in these modern times for their vast recreational value. Brandt is the middling of the three lakes — Townsend is the biggest ( at 1,542 acres, Higgins the smallest at 226 acres. All are open for paddling.
More info here.

3. Yadkin River (Old 421 Park Access)
Winston-Salem

The 125-mile-long Yadkin River Trail includes 15 access points to help make exploring the river easier. It begins small out of W. Kerr Scott Reservoir in Wilkes County and gains steam as it meanders past Pilot Mountain, Boone’s Cave Park and Tanglewood Park before giving it up to High Rock Lake. Forsythe County’s Old 421 Park Access 20 minutes west of downtown Winston-Salem is close, but it also affords easy access to an easy stretch of the river. This is a 5.4-mile run where a steady current takes you through typical Piedmont countryside.
More info here.

Triangle

4. Falls Lake (Beaverdam Recreation Area)
Wake Forest

There’s a bit of dues paying associated with this paddle. It’s big, open water for the most part, but that changes after you paddle under Old Weaver Dairy Road. You begin paddling amid reedy grass and rushes, and clumps of red maple and oak. You’ll paddle into what looks like a promising channel only to be rebuffed by downfall or a simple dead end. If the lake level is up you paddle another mile and a half and improve your chances of seeing the waterfowl known in the area, the wood ducks and mallards, the osprey and bald eagles.
More info here.

5. Haw River (Swepsonville River Park to Saxapahaw0
Swepsonville

This dammed 5.8-mile stretch of the Haw River is good, reliable paddling year round, but it may be best in summer. Put in at Swepsonville River Park, warm up with a 0.7-mile paddle downstream to the Puryear Dam, then portage — a portage made fun, funky and easy with a set of slides (for your boat, not you). The rest of the trip is on wide, slow-moving water. Take-out is river left, just above the dam above Saxapahaw, which makes for a great after-paddle visit.
More info here.

6. Neuse River (Falls Dam to Buffaloe Road)
Raleigh

Raleigh is often called a city within a park. But did you know there’s a navigable river within the city within the park? From the tailrace of the Falls Lake Dam, the Neuse River flows east and south to the Atlantic Ocean. Along those first 17 miles through Raleigh the city has installed 5 boat launches, divvying up the relatively peaceful Neuse into easily paddlable stretches. A favorite is the 10-or-so miles from the Falls Dam Access downstream to Buffaloe Road, where dense foliage along the river’s banks shields you from the civilization beyond.
More info here.

Coastal plain

7. Black River (Section 5)
Ivanhoe

The Black River may be the most beloved place to paddle in eastern North Carolina, and for good reason. It’s remote, making its way through the Down East farmland of Sampson, Bladen and Pender counties. Despite the fact it passes numerous hog farms, it also has some of the cleanest water in the state, earning Outstanding Resources Waters designation in 1994. And the blackwater swamps through which it passes have some of the oldest living trees in Eastern North America. I shouldn’t need to say more, but I can and will. Read on, by following the link below.
More info here.

8. Merchants Millpond
Gatesville

The 760-acre millpond is peppered with bald cypress and tupelo gum trees that make every stroke an adventure. Sidle up to a trunk and see what creatures might be living in this microclimate. Or, conversely, let the enormity of the swamp wash over you and, before you know it, you’ll have no idea where you are or how you got there. A great place to paddle with a compass and map, though there is a marked trail. Canoes available for rent as well, at $5 an hour.
More info here.

Coast

9. Brunswick River Trail
Wilmington area

Only at the coast could you do a loop trail — on a river. This 16-miler begins at the Davis Creek Estuarine Water Access Area on Cartwheel Branch. After just over a mile, hang a right at the Cape Fear River. At the four-mile mark the Northeast Cape Fear intersects; continue downstream and you’ll be paddling along the Wilmington waterfront. To finish the trip, follow the link below.
More info here.

10. Zeke’s Island (The Basin)
Wilmington area

You’ll find true exploring within the Zeke’s Island area, a lagoon surrounded by Zeke’s Island, North Island, No Name Island, a beach, a barrier spit and fringing marshes and tidal flats. This unusual combination results in a small area — the Zeke’s Island National Estuarine Research Reserve consists of 1,635 acres — with a variety of habitats, from tidal flats, salt marshes, shrub thicket and maritime forest to sand dunes and beach. Great paddling.
More info here.

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Need a boat? Check out our list of 51 places to rent a canoe or kayak in North Carolina.

The post Ten places for a spring paddle appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Not long after Falls Lake opened in 1981, there was talk of creating a whitewater park below the Falls Lake Dam. A white paper on the whitewater was done, but the project soon faded. A little over a decade ago, the white paper was dusted off and interest in the park — spurred in part by news of Charlotte’s National Whitewater Center — was renewed. Raleigh and Wake County got on board and more than $350,000 in government money was committed to the project. Now, a group of paddlers, the Falls Whitewater Park Committee, has formed to raise the remaining funds to make the park a reality.

The park is a much more modest version of the NWC. Plans call for basic rechanneling of the river below the dam to create viable spots for beginners to accomplished paddlers to play. Find out more about the effort here.

And spend the next 90 seconds looking at the future of paddling in the Triangle.

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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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