Durham - peaceonabike

November 3, 2020November 4, 2020

American Tobacco Trail

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA

A search of trails in the area landed me at the American Tobacco Trail. This is a 22-mile trail (15 miles are paved) starting at the American Tobacco Company in Durham, right next to the ballpark for the Durham Bulls. From there the trail heads south to Cary.

The trail loosely follows a rail line that was built in the 1970s for the American Tobacco Company. In the 1980s it was shut down. That wasn’t a good investment.

My first order of business was to find parking. There is parking in Durham at the trailhead as it is a shopping and entertainment district. Despite the offer of free parking for two hours, it necessitated downloading a parking app for my phone which I didn’t want to be bothered with. And I didn’t know if I would take more than two hours.

I looked for locations south of the city and found Solite Park. There was a playground and the parking lot was almost full. It looked safe enough. In preparation for this ride, there seemed to be a lot of safety questions on the reviews on TripAdvisor. Someone smarter than me can research this but this rail line divided neighborhoods, i.e., the wrong side of the tracks. But I was oblivious to that history and just rode my bike.

Solie Park was located at MP 4.5. It ad restrooms and a water fountain. I headed south on the trail. I was expecting rail trail – straight and level. However, as I would soon learn, in this section it was part sidewalk and often turned where one would not expect. Keep the eyes open for turns.

The bridge over Interstate-40 was pretty cool. It had its own contour instead of being a flat bridge. For this user, it was pretty awesome.

Around Mile 8 I seemed to come to the real rail-trail portion of the trail. Straight and flat. Not real sure of the location except it’s the Huntington Ridge section of Durham. It’s really a one-mile section where one is seemingly on sidewalks and has the feeling of an urban trail rather than following a former rail bed. This often happens that development takes place after removal of tracks and before a rail trail is created. These detours are a minor inconvenience compared to having use of a 20-mile trail.

Mile markers were provided every quarter-mile which was very cool. At 14.5 the trail turned to gravel so I turned around.

The city of Cary had a nice lot at New Hope Church Road and if I ever rode this again I would come to this lot. There were also restrooms here as well. The trail has more restrooms and water fountains than any I have been on.

New Hope Church Road Trailhead Park, Cary

When I arrived back to my car I saw the trail was closed for a detour. It wasn’t a new discovery as I had driven through a construction zone to park there. It was part of the reason I started my ride heading south as I could navigate the detour later. The parking lot was almost empty. I wanted to ride the 4.5 miles into Durham but was concerned this was one of the high crime areas that I had read about (one user said police were making more patrols).

But when I got to the main street (Fayetteville Road) to follow the detour, I was lost. I could not find the detour, and not being from the area, didn’t really know where to go to pick it up. I wasn’t about to set out on a trail that wasn’t well-marked. I put my bike in my car and drove 1/4 mile where I saw the end of the trail detour was. From there I parked and rode the rest of the way into Durham.

As I got close to Durham, I went across at least three, and maybe four, bridges or trestles with great rickety boards. They really made a racket. The closer to Durham the louder the bridge that I rode across. This was awesome, actually.

The downside was around Mile 2 I went through a litter-strewn section. There were some men hanging around. I’d say it looked like a homeless hangout. Nothing wrong with that but it didn’t feel safe although I went through it, twice, with no issues.

Bottom line – very nice trail. For this ride, the detour section was not well-marked but that will be temporary. There was the one-mile section where the trail zigged and zagged but just take it slow and watch for lane markings. The users all seemed courteous and it was surprisingly busy on a November weekday. My recommendation for others or if I am in the area again, is to park at the New Hope Church Road Trailhead.

Distance: 29.3 miles
Average Speed: 14.8 mph
Weight: 168

April 8, 2013April 29, 2016

Duke Cancer Center

MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA

It was a comfortable 60 degrees and getting warmer. A great day to ride. No warmers would be necessary today. I dedicated my ride to my friend Elaine B.

I was in Group 1 with Meg Shipman, Jae Slye, Paul Lemle, and Chris Zahlis. Except for Chris, all were cancer survivors but Chris may be the biggest survivor of all since he lost his 10 year old son, Dominic, to cancer five years ago. Unthinkable pain for a parent.

Barry, Chris, Jae, Meg, Paul

Arriving in Durham, we parked one mile away so we could at least give the appearance that we had biked in from somewhere. We did. Dunkin’ Donuts. We rode in from Dunkin’ Donuts.

Inside Relaxation Room at Duke

We were to visit the Duke Cancer Center. But this organization was not about giving hope to patients. This ride was loosely “modeled” after the Spokes of Hope ride from Indianapolis to Washington DC/Baltimore in 2012, but was more about relationships. With hospitals.

We were given a tour of the facility. We saw a relaxation room. And a store of wigs for chemo patients. Met hospital administrators. Yippee. But at the end Duke arranged for us to meet some patients and the organization warned us not to take any pictures due to HIPPA. Of course, the law applies to medical providers releasing patient information, not a bunch of cyclists. We called B.S.

The day at Duke spoiled a day of riding. Not that we didn’t have enjoyable riding. We did. We just weren’t able to complete our 50 miles which we were supposed to do.

On a gorgeous day our other groups rode by the U.S.S. North Carolina and took a ferry across the sound. Those were routes I would have preferred but I knew, if done right, our real mission was to bring hope to patients. Today I got to do that if only briefly.

Samantha, Paul, Meg, Chris, Kristy, Jae, Barry, Laura

Although disappointed that I could not ride more today, I was honored and humbled to have spent part of my day off the bike visiting patients at the Duke Medical Center. I can bike anytime. This was a special day.

We finally were “wheels down” in the early afternoon. As we rode we twice discovered the cue sheets weren’t that good. Sometimes they told us to go left when it should have been right. After twice going the wrong way we came to an intersection. Cue sheet right. Barry left.

My group challenged me but I told them to look at the sun. Key Wets was east and south. The cue sheet said to go west. That did not make sense. Although they started into the sun, eventually they turned around and followed me. We sort of blew up the cue sheets after that.

The group activity and dinner was at a firehouse in Myrtle Beach which we missed because we spent so much time at Duke. Three days in a row late for dinner. Once we arrived at our hotel, last, we went to Outback Steakhouse.

Campbell University
Chris, Barry, Meg, Paul, Jae

And at night in the hotel lobby as I was doing referee assigning, I was up so late that the night manager opened the restaurant for me to get some breakfast.

Photo Credits: Matt Brown (for most but I claim credit for the bike on top of the van photo)

April 7, 2013April 29, 2016

It Was That Kind of Day

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA

A chill in the air greeted us outside the Best Western hotel in Zion Crossroads, Virginia. Like yesterday, it would be a day for leg warmers and long fingered gloves. After breakfast we got our group assignments and mine was Jimmy Kondisko and Jae Slye along with our drivers, Liz Kaplan and Vince Schiano.

At our dedication circle I dedicated my ride to Joe Petrucelli.

Meg, Patti, Barry, Paul

We drove south on U.S. 15 and then to a very remote location out in the woods. We didn’t know much about our route except our mileage today was supposed to be 60 and Liz had said we would end about five miles north of Farmville. Shortly before we turned off toward our country start location, I saw a sign that said Farmville 21 miles. Seemed to me we had 60 miles to go 16. We could do this!

Jimmy, Jae, Barry

Even though we had cue sheets we weren’t sure which direction we were to head. A local drove up in his pickup truck. While Liz was asking directions I saw the gun. Well, guns, handguns, on the floor in his truck. Welcome to rural Virginia.

Weather Barn which is actually painted vinyl siding

Once oriented, we pushed off with confidence. In the first couple of miles we were greeted by a 3-legged dog chasing us. Then a 4-legged one. Then two 4-legged ones. Repeat (except for the 3-legged dog). It was that kind of day.

A Couple Miles of Gravel Logging Road

Early on Liz, at least figuratively, went off cue and directed us down a gravel logging road. Two miles on gravel. It was that kind of day.

A Chalked Turn for us to Follow

Liz decided to go ahead and “chalk” the turns. Well, one turn. A very nice smiley with a left arrow. It would be the only turn she chalked.

When we came to US 460 the turn wasn’t far but it was a major highway, fast traffic, and no shoulders. We all discussed how best to ride “protected” from the traffic. As we discussed our plan a convoy of at least 50 army vehicles came by. We were wearing “camo” jerseys and many vehicles saluted us with a friendly horn tap as they passed by.

Thumbs Up to the Military

At one intersection Liz and Vince were waiting and directed us to turn right and informed us of a trail ahead. The trail was the High Bridge Trail. We rode for a few miles on the gravel rail bed which was quite enjoyable although the wheels didn’t roll as freely as on pavement.

We reached the end and saw we were getting closer to Appomattox and farther from Farmville. We turned around and headed towards Farmville, just enjoying a day on the bike. As we approached Farmville we noticed an upside down smiley chalked on the road. Jimmy pointed out we had passed this way before. We laughed. And laughed some more. We had just ridden a figure eight. It was that kind of day.

Liz wasn’t happy. She knew we were way off course and was worried that she would be in trouble. Why? I don’t know. We were having an enjoyable day on the bike even if pointed in the wrong direction. But we enjoyed the ride no matter where we were headed.

Jimmy and Vince
One of these guys is going the wrong way

We rolled into Farmville and met Liz and Vince. Aware that we were under time constraints to get to Durham, we still wanted to ride our assigned distance to “do our part for the team.” At that point we had given up on actually finding our way to the real route. Jimmy and I wanted to push forward, on the rail trail, just for fun, and go over High Bridge, a high trestle on the old Southside Railroad (later Norfolk Southern).

We urged Vince to grab Jae’s bike, even though it had a women’s designed seat. We had fun with him as he struggled to control it and its areobars but he loved riding eight miles with us.

Soldier

Normally a “roadie” I was glad that we found this rail trail. I doubt that I would travel here to ride it and it was definitely worth doing.

Barry, Soldier, Jimmy

High Bridge could have been called Long Bridge. It was high. And long. At the west end we found some reenactors, presumably Confederate, and stopped and talked with them.

It was also very windy. But it was a beautiful sunny day and a great day on the bike. In all we had ridden 20 miles on gravel.

High Bridge

We followed the trail and met Liz and Jae in Rice, Va., and then drove to Durham. Running late all day, after a quick shower we went to Raleigh Times restaurant for a group dinner. We were the last ones to arrive. It was that kind of day.

Vince, the Rock Star