This was a beautiful morning for a ride. I was going to just do the greenway but found it a bit crowded as I started making my way toward Shelly Lake.
So I headed up North Hills drive toward Crabtree Valley Mall and got back on the greenway and scooted under Glenwood Avenue. The greenway cuts behind the mall, but I left it at the "Crabtree Tavern" and headed up the hill.
This short connector to Blue Ridge Road is actually called Edwards Mill Road. Turns out this road used to dip down to the creek then back up the hill. Up the hill I went through the Glen Eden intersection and toward the top. Once I made it to the top of Blue Ridge Road at the intersection with Duraleigh Road I turned left. If I were to have turned right that would have put me on the path of my north Raleigh 50K loop ride.
But turning left on Blue Ridge at Duraleigh sends you down toward the NC Art Museum. I almost immediately turned right on to Macon Pond Road and headed over to the new Edwards Mill Road that cuts across to the RBC center. When I arrived at Reedy Creek Road I took a right toward Umstead State Park. There is a nice bike path beside the road but there were so many walkers and runners I kept to the road all the way to the park Entrance. Rather than trust my 'road-bike-tires' to the packed limestone paths in the park I kept on the road which becomes Trenton Road at that point.
Trenton road goes pas the 'back-entrance' to SAS. I wonder if I could ride through the campus and come out on N. Harrison, since there is a 'guard shack' there perhaps not. So, Trenton road continues on and where it ends at Trinity I turned right on Trinity and took Trinity all the way to the end, back at Blue Ridge Road.
Turning left on Blue Ridge at Trinity I head back toward the NC Museum of Art. At the museum I get on the greenway for a beautiful ride through the campus toward the 'belt-way-bike-bridge'. The campus is full of outdoor art and this is one of the high points of any bike ride that goes this way. Here a pictures I took at the entrance to the bridge.
Once across the bridge I decided to see if I could take a short cut through the Meridith College campus and I came out on Faircloth Street and turned left to cross Wade Avenue into the Ridge Road shopping center. Once through the shopping center I headed down Ridge Road toward Glen Eden.
At Glen Eden I turned right and made my way down to cross Glenwood Avenue. The road turns into Granville street and at the bottom of the hill I usually turn right on Pasquotank then left on Alleghanny then right on Yadkin and on to Davidson street and back home. Since my original idea was to do a greenway ride I decided to ride the east leg of the greenway and continued past Alleghanny and right on Orange then up by the golf course and down the hill to Beaufort.
Beaufort street near Root elementary school has a greenway entrance that just shoots you over to Lassister Mill Road. Once on Lassister Mill it is across Crabtree Creek and right onto the east leg of the greenway.
Once on the greenway I felt like I was near the end of my ride. Knowing that I had to ride back home (up the hill from Crabtree Creek) I decided to turn around at the gazebo on the raised walk-way/bike-way you enter after going under US1 on the greenway. Here is a picture of view looking out toward the water in the swamp.
When I headed back to Lassiter Mill I turned right on Beaufort street and headed up the hill by Root elementary. That was a 'slog' I was about out of gas at that point. I made it back home with a lot of climbing.
Distance ....... 44.83 km (about 28 miles)
Average Speed .. 17.30 kph
Time ........... 02:34 hh:mm
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