Sam's Branch Archives - GetGoing NC!

90 Second Escape: Clayton/Johnston County Greenway

JoeMiller — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 09:29:53 +0000

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 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: Clayton/Johnston County Greenway.

Another long stretch of greenway is open in the Triangle; this time, it’s the 5.5-mile run from Clayton along Sam’s Branch out the the Neuse River, then North to the Wake County line. In shorter order this stretch will connect with the rapidly emerging Neuse River Trail, running 28 miles down the Neuse from the Falls Lake dam.

Come along for a ride.

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5.5 miles of Johnston County greenway open along Neuse

JoeMiller — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:00:33 +0000

End of the 5.5-mile Johnston County line (for now).

“Do you know how far this goes?” the grade schooler on the Razor scooter asked as he scouted the greenway.
“It goes five and a half miles,” I said as I wrestled my bike off the roof rack.
“Five and a half miles?!” he repeated. “Wow!”
I caught myself as I noticed his mom standing nearby before adding, “And if you don’t mind breaking the law, you could go another five and a half.”
We were in a gravel parking lot off North O’Neil Street in Clayton, the trailhead for the Sam’s Branch Greenway. The 1.2-mile Sam’s Branch runs south, then east to the Neuse River, where it connects with a 4.3-mile stretch of now-open greenway that reaches the Wake County line, for a total run of 5.5 miles. There, a sturdy 3-foot-high wall of orange No Trespassing webbing emphatically blocks the trail, which was paved as far as the eye could see (about 200 yards).
That stretch marks the beginning of Raleigh’s Neuse River Trail, a partially completed work-in-progress that eventually will run upstream for 28 miles to the base of the Falls Lake dam. The 5.7-mile stretch runs from the Johnston County line north to Auburn Knightdale Road. It’s scheduled to open in October.
For those of you without calculators, that would be 11.2 miles of continuous greenway when the finished Auburn Knightdale stretch links with the Johnston County greenway.
This section will be especially enticing for greenway users seeking solitude. Unlike the northernmost 6.5-miles stretch of the Neuse Trail, from Falls Lake dam downstream to the WRAL Soccer Complex, which opened last October, the southern segment travels through more rural, less-developed country.
Check back Monday for a quick video escape down the new Johnston County stretch. And return next week for more updates on the Neuse River Trail and on Raleigh’s House Creek Greenway.

View Clayton/Johnston County Greenway in a larger map

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3.6-mile stretch of Johnston County Greenway opens

JoeMiller — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:53:21 +0000

31.5.

It was a mileage marker by the side of the greenway. Having spent last week hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I was accustomed to seeing mileage markers in the form of the parkway’s knee-high stone obelisks that tick off every mile. And I have seen them before on greenways, but never with such a high number. Rarely, in fact, in double digits.

The 31.5-mile marker was about 3.5 miles inside the Johnston County line along the Neuse River, on a patch of newly minted greenway that will soon attach to similar greenway making its way downstream from Wake County. Already on the opposite end, originating at the base of Falls dam, 6.46 miles of greenway opened last fall. By the end of next year, another 21.54 miles is scheduled to be done, creating 28 miles of greenway will link with this 3.5-mile stretch to create a 31.5-mile dedicated, paved, pedestrian passage, the longest in the state.

This lower stretch is the most recent to open. In total, it’s 3.6 miles. That includes the 1.2-mile Sam’s Branch Greenway, with runs from a gravel parking lot off N. O’Neal Street in Clayton to the Neuse. There, the greenway turns upstream and runs 2.4 miles, crossing the Neuse, going under Covered Bridge Road (where there’s also parking and trail access) and heading up to Marks Creek. There, a nearly complete bridge will make the remaining 1.4-mile connection up to the Wake County line. The 31.5-mile stretch will be part of the statewide Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

As it is, the just-completed greenway makes for a nice bike ride with the kids or a nice 7.2-mile (out-and-back) walk or training run.

Our two-minute tour (above) gives a sense of the experience. Enjoy.

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Clayton/Johnston County Greenway

View Clayton Greenway in a larger map

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