I’ve recently spent a lot of time, recently, finding the connectors between bits of Raleigh’s awesome greenways. I’ve done a bit of scouting on my own, but recently came across several PDFs of maps that originally ran with N&O stories about the various trails. The N&O did a great job with these, going above and beyond the Raleigh Park and Rec version to help point out turns and transitions that you might miss.

• Black Creek/Umstead/Reedy Creek -This trail will get you from Cary’s Godbold park on NW Maynard, past Lake Crabtree, through Umstead and the Museum of Art and eventually to Meredith College at the corner of Faircloth and Hillsborough. I’ve ridden about half of this with my 6-1/2 year-old son (Meredith to Edwards Mill). It’s a little hilly, but fun.

• Crabtree greenway map -This will take you from SW Raleigh’s Oak Park neighborhood near Umstead, along Crabtree creek past Crabtree Valley Mall, past some beautiful downtown neighborhoods, through some (suprising!) nice wetlands, across Raleigh Blvd and evetually to Milburnie road, not far from Wake Med.

  The section between Hodges and Raleigh Blvd is fun for the kids. There’s an interesting roller-coaster of a boardwalk and the wetlands are a great place to spot turtles and birds. There’s also a nice gazebo – a good spot for a break. There are some big hills on the eastern-most end of the path.

• American Tobacco Trail map -This trail is on my to-do list!

Note that it’s really easy to get to the Crabtree greenway from Shelly lake, making it a nice starting-point for excursions.

I’m planning on doing some research into the Walnut Creek trail, too. They’re dedicating a new section this week. The official greenway map is dated 2007, so it’s not 100% up-to-speed on recent completions. It shows some proposed peices along this stretch – I’m hoping that this means continuous travel from Centennial Campus on the west end, to Walnut Creek in the east.

Cary posts its “Bike and Hike” map here.

No discussion of Raleigh adventure would be complete without a link to Joe Miller’s “Get Out! Get Fit!” blog.

Anything to add? Please let me know in the comments.

Note: As of this posting, many of these routes are temporarily closed due to flooding caused by Hannah. Check the Raleigh Parks and Recreation site before you head out. They’ll have closing alerts on their homepage.