Ride to Umstead State Park

Tuesday, a beautiful September morning, I decided to take my first ride around the trails of Raleigh. I decided to head west to Umstead State Park which is just outside of Raleigh.

The trailhead for the Reedy Creek Trail begins at Meredith College at the intersection of Gorman and Hillsborough, not too far from where I live. From my understanding, the trail isn't always open. Strangely, it closes at dusk.






The first stretch of the trail runs heads east through the campus of Meredith College, past their sports facilities and turns northward, and passes underneath Wade Avenue.




There is a trail bridge over I-440 that is quite impressive. The only problem is that I think they may actually close the gates to the bridge at dusk, effectively leaving you stranded on one side of the bridge if you happen to be on the wrong side at the wrong time. As you can see, at the time I was here on a weekday morning, it was being used by both bicyclists and pedestrians.





The next portion of the trip was very hilly and wooded. I actually didn't get a lot of photos of this area because it can be quite steep at times. It's a really fun stretch of the ride but you must be sure to keep to your side of the road because of blind corners, inclines and declines, you can come up on someone pretty quickly. As you can see from this photo that I snapped, there is a posted speed limit on some of the curves. This is actually the first time in my life I've ever seen a posted speed on a trail. I'm glad it was there. it made me think twice before bombing down the hill.






Next, the art. You start noticing it on the trail in the form of random billboards that don't actually advertise anything. Then, paisley markings start appearing on the pavement. A few hiking trails are scattered through this area as well. Definitely a place to go back to explore someday. I saw a few kids bmx bikes parked on the side of the trail here so I knew there was mischief happening somewhere in those woods. Pretty soon you pop out in the middle of a sculpture field. I'm only posting pictures of the sculptures that I liked. They definitely had one of those phallic sculptures like the one at Camp Randall made out of footballs -- this one, I believe, was made out of pine cones. My favorite was this hot pair of stone legs.

Careful when you read the signage in this area. Unless you actually want to explore this area it's almost best to ignore this sign if you're on your way to Umstead. It can get you quite lost, seeing as how the north arrow is pointing DOWN!




After you pass the North Carolina Museum of Art, you cross a very busy multi-lane road at a signaled intersection -- Blue Ridge Road. There are pedestrian signals and it appears well signed to motorists as well. Following Reedy Creek Road, at this point, you're on a relatively quiet country road that is signed for bicyclists. Then, heading northwest, signage directs you to cross the road to an underpass at Edwards Mill Road.



On the other side of Edwards Mill Road, you are back on trail again, passing an area of farms/ranches, although on this stretch of the trip you will start to see some McHomesteads nestled out in the countryside.






Here's my favorite stretch of path which runs along Reedy Creek/Trenton Road just before you get to Umstead State Park. It was gorgeous.

I actually missed the entrance to the park the first time I went by. There were several cars and trucks parked alongside the road, next to the woods and you could see an opening in the woods off the path that looked like a trail, but I guess I was expecting the entrance to be paved, signed, and obvious. It wasn't! It really just looked like an opening in the forest. I actually biked to the Cary city limits down Trenton Road until the shoulder started getting dangerously narrow. I realized that I must have missed it, and turned around.


Once inside the "entrance," which is obviously not the main entrance to the park, you find the signage and the park map. I wasn't very impressed with the Reedy Creek Lake. As it's name suggests, it looked more like pea soup than a lake.





The park was quite active for a Tuesday morning. There were joggers, walkers, mountain bikers, and cyclists enjoying the trails. The next few photos are from trails inside the park.




I timed myself on the way back home. Without stopping to take pictures, from the entrance to the park to my front door going at a pretty decent pace, I made it back in 16 minutes.



Wow. This gorgeous state park is a 16 minute ride from my door. Pretty incredible!