Trail blossoms in the Triangle

Developers and local leaders, citing demand from residents, put weight behind project

Norwood Thompson was skeptical when he was first approached about letting the Mountains-to-Sea Trail run through his gated Portofino development near Clayton.

But he did a little research and made a surprising discovery: "I found out that walking trails are the No. 1 requested amenity in subdivisions."

Now more than a mile of crushed gravel trail destined for MST designation crosses property that features million-dollar homes in Thompson's equestrian community. And he is working on fellow developers to embrace the concept, giving the 30-year-old trail the impetus it needs to knit together additional plots of land from Hillsborough to Johnston County and beyond.

Eventually, the MST will span a 900-mile belt across the state, from 6,642-foot Clingman's Dome on the Tennessee border to the sand dunes of Jockey's Ridge on the Atlantic Ocean.

Today, the trail is more than half done, with nearly 500 miles, most of it in the mountains, complete. The next significant stretch to come online likely will be in the Triangle.

Local guidebook author and hiking guru Allen de Hart says hikers may be able to walk the entire 104-mile corridor from Hillsborough to Johnston County within five years.

Darrell McBane, state trails program manager for the Division of Parks and Recreation, says the amount of trail development along the corridor may be unprecedented in the state.

"There is a tremendous amount of activity in this area," McBane says.

Conceived during the back-to-nature movement of the 1970s, the MST has 21st-century issues propelling it forward: a booming population in need of more recreational options; an aging population that gravitates toward walking and hiking; growing concern over obesity; and more sources of funds for building trails.

"It's a combination of things coming together," he says. "People see the need."

Momentum picks up

The Mountains-to-Sea Trail enjoyed an initial burst of excitement when it was first proposed in 1977, but the notion of a walking path across the state remained pretty much that until the concept got a second wind with the creation, in 1997, of the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Group members have served as trailblazers, lobbyists and ambassadors.

Then in 2000, the state legislature designated the MST a state park, authorizing the state Division of Parks and Recreation to acquire land for the trail.

Earlier this year, the state parks division got $8.5 million to buy land for the MST, with up to $2 million allocated for 400 acres in Johnston County. That land is in the vicinity of the Marks Creek area along the Neuse, where the Triangle Land Conservancy is attempting to preserve 7,500 acres. Eventually, that land could become a state park.

Now, local governments are also buying in. Raleigh's city council dedicated $13 million to the project from the 2007 parks bond and has turned its attention to the Neuse greenway, which will require negotiations to access 37 parcels of private land.

"I don't think it will be a problem," says Vic Lebsock, Raleigh's greenway planner.

The reason he isn't worried is that a good deal of that land is owned by developers, and in the past few years, trails have become the darling of developers, including Thompson, who was initially concerned that homeowners would be put off by unrestricted access to a trail near their properties.

"I now recognize that the trail system can be an economic boon to areas which are on the trail system," Thompson says.

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker and Wake County Commissioner Joe Bryan convened a meeting of every government entity with a stake in the project, including officials from Wake Forest and Knightdale, both of which have greenways that can tap into Raleigh's.