Raleigh’s untamed greenway: Walnut Creek Trail

The beautiful morning and the promise of a sunny afternoon in the mid 70s got us itching to go for another family bike ride. After considering a trip out to Durham’s American Tobacco Trail greenway, we opted instead to explore one greenway we’d never tried before, Southeast Raleigh’s Walnut Creek Trail.

Our goal was to start at the easternmost point possible and go as far west as we could. Worthdale Community Center seemed to be the trail’s official starting point but after reviewing the maps I decided the 8/10ths of a mile from there through the surrounding neighborhood to the paved greenway was not worth riding. I know what homes and sidewalks look like: I wans the trail!

We thus drove to the end of Little John Road and parked at its dead end. The residents of the house next to us gave us long looks through the storm door, making me think that they didn’t see many greenway users parking here. Though I felt the neighborhood was completely safe I decided that parking on the narrow neighborhood street was being too disruptive to the neighborhood. Next time I’ll look for a lot at one of the nearby community centers.

We began our ride westward, first crossing Rose Lane. There are a handful of roads to cross on this greenway but the majority of them go through pedestrian tunnels. Some of these tunnels are short and clean. Others can be cool, dark, long, and sometimes dangerously muddy I’m told. If you don’t like tunnels this isn’t the greenway for you.

The scenery around us was pretty amazing. The pavement was in good shape though covered in leaves in some parts. A good mix of old and new homes backed up near the trail: most all of them in good shape. Occasionally we passed some graffiti on a tree or tunnel but aside from that it was natural.

Along one wooded spot Kelly was leading the way for us, followed by Travis, Hallie, and myself. Up ahead Kelly and I both saw a bald black man by a park bench. He wore a brown shirt and seemed to me to be leaning over, unhurriedly placing something in a black duffel bag at his feet. When we saw him he was just beyond the turn in front of us. We were on him in seconds.

Except when we got there he was nowhere to be seen. He had completely vanished!

When I’m riding on greenways (and especially while on unfamiliar ones) I like to be aware of the people in front of me. This guy was there one minute and then gone the next. It was downright spooky!

We stopped for a water break a few minutes later and before I could say a word Kelly spoke up.

“You saw him too, didn’t you?” she said. “I saw you looking around back there.”

No kidding. It was an amazing trick to go from being on a bench to being invisible in seconds – with no sound of crunching leaves, broken twigs, or anything. When we rode back by that spot on our return trip I studied the area again and could not find any obvious paths through the woods the man might have taken.

We continued on the path and (other than ghostly bench visitors) seemed to have it all to ourselves. I really enjoyed seeing the new wayfinding signs, too. This was the first greenway I’d seen them on. A wayfinding sign showed us that we were nearing the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center, so we scheduled a stop there to look around.

To be continued.