Towards the end of March we headed out to Neuse River Trail to explore the area surrounding Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve, in anticipation of the new park opening sometime this spring/summer. Using the RGreenway app, we mapped our starting location at the small parking lot at 198 Trailhead Ln outside I-540 and off US-401. Knowing we wouldn’t pass a playground along our run, we brought the girls’ bikes and scooters to play on after our run.
We walked along the access trail to the main Neuse River Trail and turned left at the compass in the trail to head north towards Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve. After crossing over a wooden boardwalk we passed milepost 8 1/2. The vegetation at this point in the year was very sparse, but showing signs of life to come (you’ll see a remarkable difference in a future Neuse River Trail post that I write). We stopped every once in awhile to point out interesting things in nature to the girls – a rotting fallen tree, a wicked looking pale-as-a-ghost tree across the river, fallen gumballs, and pigeons resting under underpasses.
After running under US-401 we came to another amazing feat of steel, cables, and pillars – a massive suspension bridge spanning across the river with access to Horseshoe Farm Nature Preserve. The other suspension bridge I’ve seen along Neuse River Trail is further south at milepost 13.5. Even though signs indicate the park is closed for construction we looped around and over the bridge for a closer look. After a short 1/4 mile run we stopped at the “Greenway Closed” signs on the edge of the park and headed back across the bridge and further north along the greenway. We crossed over some more bridges before turning around near run-down barns around milepost 7 1/4.
This portion of the greenway continues to be relatively flat and shady. The areas surrounding the greenway are mostly dense forest to one side with the river to the other. We saw quite a few fisherman on both banks of the river with most of them concentrated in spots near US-401. Our run back to the car was much faster than the run out so we took advantage of happy little faces and retrieved a balance bike, scooter and helmets from the car and let the girls ride on the greenway. It wasn’t a busy morning on the trail, so the girls had a carefree time riding. Ashley biked south on the greenway all the way to milepost 9 where we crossed over a small bridge with a shallow creek below, perfect for spotting turtles. Claire enjoyed her first scooter ride where we pushed her from behind as she cruised along. They were troopers for such a long morning run of about 4 miles and then some bike time.
Upcoming event: Celebrate the completion of the Neuse River Trail on Thursday, June 4 at Anderson Point Park with live bands, food trucks, kids’ games and more
Thumbs up: suspension bridge, wide/flat trail, shady
Thumbs down: nothing to report

So, after a Monday morning camp drop-off at Greystone Rec Center, Claire and I researched nearby greenways to explore using the 
The pavilion area was great in that it could hold large family gatherings with nearby parking, but the amount of trash scattered throughout the area was disturbing. In reality, the problem seemed to be that the trashcans were light enough to be tipped over by small animals so some heavy duty trashcans with lids would probably solve that problem. The nearby horseshoe pit and sand volleyball court would probably get more use if they were raked and maintained more frequently.
All in all, this park had several great features despite some maintenance needs. And, it was nice to see so many people enjoying the soccer fields so early in the morning. Hopefully as the county continues to grow, more people will visit the local parks and draw more attention to what fun kids can have here!
After some playground time we busted out our princess kite in the nearby open space. We had the park to ourselves this morning which proved to be crucial when giving a 3-year old a kite – she ran all over the place instructing her kite to “C’mon on, kite!” It was super cute watching her fly the kite, until she ran into some small, unnecessary stumps located in the middle of the open space.


Every New Year’s Day, NC hosts First Day Hikes all over their state parks to promote a healthy start to the year. Even though the organized
To find the gravel pull-off parking area (
At the end of last summer we ventured out for some hiking at Umstead Park. Since Claire was only about a month old at the time, we wanted to keep it pretty easy so we explored Pott’s Branch Trail, which is only 1.6 miles and easy on the difficulty scale. To get to Pott’s Branch Trail, use the park entrance at
For some reason, even for two directionally-sound people we had a hard time finding the trail head for Pott’s Branch Trail. From what I remember the signage was horrible and after a lot of stumbling around, we eventually found it. Lucky for us, this is small looped trail so regardless of where we got on, we’d eventually get back to the parking lot.
When I decided to run the City of Oaks 10k this past November, I used my toddler-free Tuesdays and Thursdays (thanks to preschool) to do my longer runs at Lake Lynn Trail. During these times I only had Claire with me, which meant I could run longer with the single BOB stroller. Pushing a double BOB stroller is exhausting!
Fall is prime time for hiking, enjoying the great weather and taking in the leaves changing colors. We recently visited Brookhaven Nature Park in the Brookhaven neighborhood at