Broad River Greenway

 Last weekend, I got a chance to run on the Broad River Greenway. The little greenway is about an hour or so west of my home, and lays between I-85 and Shelby, NC. 

I did a little research before going. Seems they have about 15+ miles of trails there. I printed off a map and headed over on Saturday morning. 

There were only a couple of cars in the parking when I arrived. I pulled on my trail shoes, looked at the map, and headed off. 

The first couple of miles were down along the river which I liked. This morning was cool, and with the sound of the river in the background, I was in heaven. 

Later, I ventured away from the river and back over to the equestrian section of the trails. The trails were a bit rougher in sections. A couple of places pushed me in to some power hiking but overall, quite nice. I did encounter some horses i.e. riders. I need to make this clear. No Mt. bikes here. I slowed to a walk as I passed them. Share the trails and be nice. 

I wondered about this, because most seem to turn the horses away from me. I wondered why. Turning them away puts the dangerous end next to me. LOL. 

Like I said, this is a pretty good place to run. 

One thing that I wanted to point out, they "charge" $5.00 fee for using the greenway to non-Cleveland County residents. However, they didn't have a way to pay this fee on-site. Typically, they have box where you can grab an envelope, put in $5, and tear off a stub to put in your windshield. When I went through entrance, the box was empty. This left me a bit confused considering it was a Saturday. Once would expect that someone had refilled it. 

I then checked at the Ranger station, but it was all locked up. I really wanted to run and if someone said something, well, I thought I had a pretty strong case to defend myself. And I would have been happy to pay the $5 given an opportunity to do so.  

When I got back, I have expected to see a ticket on my windshield. Surprisingly, I didn't. Then, I looked around, I didn't see anything on any of the rest of the cars, and several of them were out of state. I don't know; maybe they don't collect this fee anymore. Note, when I got back the Ranger Station was still locked up or at least appeared to be. I didn't actually check the door, but it was closed.

I would definitely recommend checking out their trails. The 7ish miles down along the river are quite nice.

The Cool Down Runner