News filtered up this way a couple of weeks back that construction had begun on the $25 million U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte. Featured attraction: a man-made, Olympic-style whitewater canoe and kayaking course that will allow paddlers year-round access to choice rapids; $15 to $25 will buy you up to 90 minutes on the course and conveyor belt lift ride to the top included.

The news may have gotten local whitewater enthusiasts to wondering: Wasn't there a similar type of whitewater course planned for Raleigh? On the Neuse?

There was. And is.

Class V kayaker and WRAL-TV meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner tells TIO that the city could begin taking bids at the beginning of the year.

"We were very happy with the meeting in September," says Gardner. That would have been the confab with Raleigh Parks & Recreation officials about how to proceed on the course. Gardner heads a committee of committed kayakers pushing for the park.

Raleigh's park will be more natural than Charlotte's. It will be at the base of Falls Lake dam, just upstream from the Falls of Neuse Road bridge. Tentative plans call for three channels to be formed out of the Neuse through the strategic placement of man-made boulders. The course would run less than 1,000 feet, but it would have plenty of spots for playboaters to do their thing.

The $300,000 park would be funded through Raleigh parks bond money approved in 2003, and additional sources.

"Theoretically, we have all the funding," says Gardner.

Construction, and possibly paddling, could begin in 2007.

Other projects you might have been wondering about:

Harris Lake horse trails

For what seemed like an eternity to park superintendent Tim Lisk, Wake County, Progress Energy and N.C. State University have been negotiating a lease agreement that would let Harris Lake County Park add 1,200 acres -- land that would be used for a multi-use trail.

Finally, in August, the deal was signed.

"We're going to begin building a public access parking area, a gravel road access, then start laying out trail and beginning construction, hopefully this winter," says Lisk, Harris superintendent since the park opened in 1999. Up to six miles of trail could open by summer, he says.

Heading up the trail's development will be the Jordan Lake Trails Committee, a volunteer group composed mostly of equestrians trying to create more horse trails in the area. Lisk says that while the new trail will be multi-use -- open to hikers, bikers and horseback riders -- it primarily will cater to equestrians.

Still, mountain bikers should be cheered by the development. Harris Lake already has the fine Hog Run system, an eight-mile network of singletrack. The addition of the wider (roughly access road width) trails will add a nice aerobic complement to Hog Run's more technical riding.

The park also has the five-mile Peninsula Hiking Trail.

Lisk describes the 1,200 acres, owned by Progress with some land managed by N.C. State for forestry purposes, as "rolling terrain, a mixture of hardwoods and pines. It's typical piedmont rolling hills, similar to the rest of the park."

The trail will have a natural surface, with screened gravel in perpetually wet areas. The parcel is just across New Hill-Holleman Road from Harris Lake County Park.

An über ATT?

Word is seeping out that the American Tobacco Trail could be expanding.

Eventually, cautions Harris Lake's Lisk.

"The discussions are very preliminary," he adds. "Like early discussions of the ATT in the early '90s."

Here's the scoop: An initial meeting was held last week about building a trail that would run from Raven Rock State Park on the Cape Fear River west of Lillington north to Harris Lake. From there, the trail would run five miles west to the southern terminus of the American Tobacco Trail. It essentially would follow the old rail bed that the ATT follows.

Sound like one long trail? It would be:

* Raven Rock to Harris Lake: 15 miles.

* Harris Lake to ATT: 5 miles.

* ATT (Bonsal to downtown Durham): 23 miles (13 miles of which is completed).

* Total (from Raven Rock to the Durham Bull's Athletic Park): 43 miles.

Again, Lisk cautions that this multi-use trail is in the early discussion stage, that there are numerous property and permitting issues to resolve.

"We're connecting the dots," Lisk says, "and there are a lot of dots to connect."

Raleigh's greenway from heck

One of my favorite beat calls is to Vic Lebsock and Dick Bailey --Raleigh's greenway guru and parks design development director, respectively -- to check on the status of the 2.3-mile Middle Crabtree Trail. This is the pivotal section of Raleigh greenway from Kiwanis Park (near Wake Forest Road) to Raleigh Boulevard that, when completed, will create a 10-mile stretch of mostly uninterrupted greenway along Crabtree Creek.

It's a fun call because rarely do city officials speak with such candor about "issues" with a contractor.

A chat last week with Lebsock was no exception. "Can you censor what I say?" he began the conversation.

The stretch of greenway is over a year late in opening, thanks to disagreements between the city and the contractor about the feasibility of certain elements of the trail. The stickiest sticking point: how the trail should proceed under Atlantic Avenue.

There's also a little matter of three missing bridges and a section of yet-to-be completed boardwalk descending from Capital Boulevard to Crabtree Creek.

Lebsock said the bridges were expected to be put into place this week and that the remaining boardwalk should be done by year's end.

And that bit of trail under Atlantic Avenue?

"My expectation is that they will never complete the trail under Atlantic Avenue," says Lebsock.

That means one of two things: You can either hike or bike up to Atlantic Avenue, walk down to the light at Hodge Street, cross Atlantic, then hike or bike back up to the trail. Or, you can proceed under Atlantic on what won't be asphalt but will be a relatively level surface (unlike the jumble of ric-rac that's there now).

In short, you should be able to get on this section of trail, in a useable form, by year's end.

Got a question about an outdoors project you've heard was in the works? Touch base; we'll see where it stands.