Park Land, Part Two

On the southside of Country Park, along the road trail, you come across a sign for the entrance to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park (there are also various access points from the Country Park road trail all along its northern/western boundaries). GCNMP has a perimeter road trail, similar to Country Park, with various unpaved connecting trails throughout.

The GCNMP road trail runs in a loop for 2.25 miles and is also wide and long, shaded for much of the way, but there is often heavier people traffic than at Country Park. Especially around the area near the entrance -- the further away from it you get, the less crowded the trail is. I've never understood why this is unless people are just walking from their cars a little way and then walking back. The connecting unpaved trails take you across the various battlesites and these, unlike Country Park, have no mountain bikers.

Starting back at the entrance to Country Park, by Lewis Recreation Center, is the Bicentennial Greenway which runs, currently, for about 5 & 1/2 miles. The Trails of Greensboro guide says, "When complete, this trail will stretch from Country Park in Greensboro to the Piedmont Environmental Center in High Point. Currently, a 4.9 mile segment and a 0.7 mile segment of trail are completed in Greensboro and about 8 miles of trail are completed in High Point. The remaining segments, which will connect the parts into one continuous greenway, are pending at this time." I don't know how the recession as affected those pending segments.

I walked the BG with Severn last summer and when there was trail, we had a good time. There are a couple places where the trail disappeared even though the map made it look like it was right there. Normally I'm alright with disappearing trails and finding them on my own except at busy intersections with a dog who's freaking out about the traffic. The first disappearance was just past GCNMP at the road convergences/condo entrances around Cotswold and Lake Brandt Road -- at this point you're sort of following the sidewalk along Old Battleground. If you just keep going along Old Battleground and trust that it'll look like a trail again, you'll be fine. Keep going, feel like you're going to walk right on out of the county. You'll eventually see signs for the Nat Greene and Palmetto Trails on your right and after the Nat Greene but before the Palmetto, you'll cross Old Battleground to stay on the trail.

The next place where it gets nutty is when you come up out of the woods-behind-developments you've been walking along and suddenly there's Battleground Avenue. I bet fifteen years ago or so this wouldn't have been quite so shocking because it would've felt more like the 220 N, rural route Battleground eventually becomes but now there are turning lanes and a big shopping center you have to get yourself and your dog(s) across. The cars go fast. It is not so friendly to them on foot out there. Plus now you're back to what looks like sidewalk-along-shopping-center and there's some figuring out whether you're supposed to be on the right side or the left side of the road to stay on the trail. After you pass the shopping center, cross Drawbridge Parkway (that's the road you're now walking along) and walk along the left side. You'll do this for a ways, passing Wellspring Retirement Community on your right, but eventually the trail will drop off to the left, into the woods again.

This stretch is one of the most beautiful parts of the trail--this little patch that survived the subdivisions and shopping centers might move you to dingdang tears at what's lost.

Then the trail just ends, in a new neighborhood, and you're pretty much left to figure out a) where you are and b) how to get out. Severn and I just kept walking, looking suspicious and sweaty, until we reached the neighborhood entrance at Horse Pen Creek Road. I called my mom, and she rode out to pick us up. That's the thing with suburban distances -- from a car, they don't seem so long, like it's nothing to drive ten minutes to the grocery store. And I'm sure, for the folks who live out there, this isn't confusing at all. But on foot, it definitely feels like you're traversing the county (which you are) and it's one thing to set out to do that, to say, today I'm going to walk a good stretch of the northern part of Guilford County but it's a whole other thing to do that when you keep coming across scattered convenience stores and shopping centers and clusters of houses, like you've arrived at the next village, except you haven't and it's all part of the same town.

GO ON, BLUE RATING:
Guilford Courthouse National Military Park trails: ****
Bicentennial Greenway: **1/2 (for now -- I'll revisit at some point) (I feel bad giving it low scores because I love the idea of it but since I'm reviewing places for dog walks, you understand.)
Area of Town:
I don't know if it's called anything so I'll just say Northwest.
Location:
To access GCNMP, take Battleground north to Old Battleground. Right on Old Battleground to the parking lot at entrance. The park trails can also be accessed from numerous points -- consult the guide Trails of Greensboro (available for $5 from the city) and Park Land, Part One. For the Bicentennial Greenway, the beginning point starts at Lewis Recreation Center at the entrance to Country Park (or the Park Land complex), Pisgah Church Road. However, since the BG runs along Battleground/Old Battleground/Drawbridge Parkway, there are also numerous access points. Again, see Trails of Greensboro. (I do love that little book.)