At Umstead State Park
Yesterday was my last day at my last job so, being in-between jobs and with the kids in school, I took the opportunity to spend the day bike riding with Kelly. We rode from our house through downtown Raleigh, then on the Chavis Way greenway to Chavis Park. While at Chavis we got a chance to ride the beautifully-restored carousel before heading on. The Little Rock Creek greenway brought us past the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center, at which point we headed west along the Walnut Creek Greenway.
We basically had the Walnut Creek Greenway to ourselves, which was nice. In fact, the biggest challenge for us was the treacherously-muddy culvert under Hammond Road. We somehow stayed upright through that culvert and were passing Dorothea Dix soon enough. Once again, I was stuck by the beauty of the Dix property, and thought that it would be a shame for it to become anything but a park.
By that time it was 11:30 and we were beginning to plot our lunch spot. I suggested Neomonde and Kelly readily agreed! We turned at Avent Ferry Road onto N.C. State’s campus and quickly burned up all the uphill climbing we had just done! Dumb, dumb, dumb. Leaving campus at Hillsborough Street we continued down to Neomonde, where I know we made a sight in our mud-covered biking clothes!
After a delightful lunch, we headed out again along the greenway through Meredith’s campus. Then it was through the demon hills of the North Carolina Museum of Art. We then crossed Blue Ridge Road and began the Reedy Creek portion of our ride.
Somewhere near the top of the hill I began to lose steam, though we pressed on long enough to roll into Umstead. Two women had just completed a jog there and happily snapped our picture for us as a souvenir. MapMyRun.Com tells us now that we had ridden 15.02 miles to get to that point, which was .02 more than what I had guessed we had ridden at the time. The accuracy of my guess amazed me, too!
Then it was back home. We were pressed for time as we had to be back to pick up the kids from school but being pressured was the last thing I felt I needed then. I had to hop off my bike in the middle of those dreaded art museum hills and walk a bit. Fortunately I soon hopped back on and rode over the Beltine’s beautiful pedestrian bridge and on through Meredith’s campus.
The rest of our trip was uneventful with the exception of one particular stretch of the Walnut Creek Greenway. We crossed the construction at Fayetteville Street (south) and continued east towards the Walnut Street. As we went over the bridge crossing Walnut Creek, a number of shady individuals were hanging out around the bridge. None seemed particularly interested in us so we continued on. As we turned to enter the long boardwalk behind the Walnut St. apartment complex, we approached three men who were involved in some suspicious behavior. One man put down a pipe he was holding as we passed and called out an insincere hello to us as we rode by.
A little ways after we had passed, I called the cops and asked them to check those guys out as I was betting that guy had been smoking crack there. To Raleigh Police’s credit, I got a call almost immediately from the responding officer, asking for more detailed directions and descriptions. Five minutes later he called again, asking for even more details. Though those guys probably scattered like flies before the cops got there I was glad to have called as I don’t like the greenway being used as a crackhouse. Dadgummit, I spend too much time working to improve Raleigh’s parks and greenways to let some crackheads take them over.
On the home stretch, we rolled down Person Street and made a stop in for our victory treat: ice cream at the Krispy Kreme! We had just enough time to finish our frozen rewards before we had to roll down the hill to pick up the kids at school. I had fun explaining to the other parents why I was covered in mud!
So we rode 30 miles total today and for the most part it felt great. I look forward to many more rides like that whenever I can get them!