A Little History

I first rode on the Neuse River greenway in the late summer of 2012. Several people in my Knightdale neighborhood recommended it to me and told me how to find it. I rode over to the Princeton Manor subdivision where the Mingo Creek trail started (back then). It went back behind the neighborhood and dead ends near the river. There was a gravel path leading off to the right, but I thought that looked like a path to a storage area for construction equipment used to build houses in the subdivision. So, I turned around and rode back home.  

One of my friends told me later that the gravel path led to another segment of trail that took you to a bridge across the river that ended with a turnout onto the Neuse River trail. So I tried again and made it onto the greenway for the first time. The trail runs parallel to the Neuse River. It was nicely paved for about a mile but came to a stop where they were building a bridge over a swampy area. You could take a muddy path around the swampy area and pick up the trail on the other side, but only in dry weather. I think you would have sunk in the mud there after it rained. The trail went on for several miles, under New Bern Avenue then behind the Hedingham subdivision and stopped where they were building a suspension bridge across the river. That was the extent of the trail available for the next five months.  I rode it every few weeks or so and could see progress on the suspension bridge. The total round trip was about 10-11 miles. It made for a nice ride.

The suspension bridge under construction.

 

Finally in December there was enough progress on the bridge that you could sneak across despite the signs and yellow warning tape strung across the entrance. There was no railing on the sides of the bridge, so a slip or a false step would have meant a fall and a swim (note to readers: please don’t mention this to the Raleigh Parks and Rec Staff, even though there were others who “took advantage”. The staff does a great job planning and maintaining the trails, and I don’t want to get on their bad side.) The first time I went across I found the trail blocked by more construction just a few hundred yards past the bridge. So I waited and tried again in January. The bridge was complete and open, even though there was still no railing on the sides. The weather was on the warm side and I was able to ride all the way to Highway 401, where I once again ran into ongoing construction. The total ride that day was 24 miles, or about 10-15 miles further than I had ever gone before. When I got back to my house I was beat, sore, hungry, thirsty, you name it. My lungs were threatening to go on strike, my legs were like soggy mac and cheese and my butt felt like it had been kicked, many times. My inner thighs were giving me a 24-hour reprieve before they made themselves known. But I had such a sense of achievement. I felt 10 feet tall. I injured a knee in my mid-20s and was left without an ACL. Consequently, I had not been able to do much in the way of physical activity on my legs since then. It felt absolutely wonderful to get out and ride. It reminded me of the long meandering runs I used to take. It was a great, great day, one of my best ever.


Greenway trail spectators watching as I go by.

I continued to ride north over the next few months, sometimes going all the way to the end of the trail just past 401 and sometimes turning around earlier, usually based on time. Eventually I turned south and rode across the bridge over the 264 bypass to Anderson Creek Park. The trail makes a wide circle around the park and ended at that time at Crabtree Creek. The first time I rode down to the creek I could see where they were building a bridge across the creek and  extending the trail.  That was as far as you could go for several months. I rode that stretch for the first time in the spring of 2013 and followed the trail all the way down into Clayton, where it joined up with an existing trail. That total distance was about 36 miles. There’s even a neat little welcome sign by the trail when you enter Johnston County; it reminds you of the signs at the state lines on the interstates. I felt that same sense of achievement after that first ride to Clayton because of the increased distance. It wasn’t quite as magical as that first long ride north, but it still felt pretty good.

There is one key difference between going north on the trail from Knightdale and going south: hills. There are none going north, just a few rises. Going south, however, there are a number of large hills that require downshifts and hard, hard pedaling. That took longer to get used to. You also break away from the river on the southern route and don’t spend as much time going behind or near neighborhoods. The open areas and woods are lonely at times. So lonely that you can almost imagine a new t-shirt being added to those quirky catalogues you get in the mail at Christmas: Pedal faster! I can hear the banjo music. So if you’re a beginner on the greenway, stick to the northern route. You’ll need to build up your endurance before tackling the southern route.

The last phase of the greenway opened in 2014 when the trail was connected just past 401 near the WRAL Soccer Park and ran about eight more miles to Falls Lake. I found that the connection was complete on a ride in November of 2014. Now the Neuse River greenway runs from Falls Lake all the way south to Clayton. The place where I get on the trail near Knightdale is almost dead center. With the addition of the now-completed Mingo Creek Trail in Knightdale, the round trips to the ends of the trail are both about 40 miles. There are also connections to the Walnut Creek, Crabtree Creek and Abbott’s Creek trails (more on them later). There’s plenty of opportunity to mix and match your routes. There are even more greenway connections in the works. To learn more, I recommend the City of Raleigh’s greenway website: http://www.raleighnc.gov/parks/content/PRecDesignDevelop/Articles/CapitalAreaGreenwayTrailSystem.html