Black Creek Greenway is my favorite place to go running in the area! I think that's saying a lot if your familiar with the stellar trails and greenways scattered across the triangle, especially considering the legendary ATT. I can't think of another trail to even compare it to, maybe that's why I like it so much. A run on the greenway involves, in equal parts, passing through immaculate parks, beautiful landscapes, suburbia, and right alongside busy streets. The trail can be confusing to follow at first, and at times has water hazards, but it just always provides for an interesting and refreshing run.
Black Creek Greenway is currently the longest in Cary at just over 7 miles. End to end it connects Bond Park to Lake Crabtree Park, two of the nicest and most well maintained parks I've ever been to. The greenway runs through a good part of Cary and intersects with several other greenways and neighborhoods as well as connecting a bunch of Cary's parks (way more than Bond and and Lake Crabtree). It even connects to Umstead park via Reedy Creek Trail at it's end by Old Reedy Creek Rd and Lake Crabtree. I love Black Creek mostly because it's a great scenic trail where you end up running by creeks, ponds, lakes, beautiful forest, sculptures, and art work all surprisingly tucked away within the modern suburban landscape of Cary. I'll give it to them, they do parks well out here, and really make the most of what nature has to offer.
Their are a few caveats I should mention about the greenway though, just so your not surprised if you ever decide to come out here. I'd first warn that the trail can be hard to follow at a few road intersections, like at Dynasty Drive, and especially on Maynard (at both the Godbold Park and the High House Road intersection). I'd recommend looking over the full trail map before even coming here and keep your eyes peeled for the blue greenway post when your out here. Since the greenway hooks into several other trails you can also end up going down the wrong one. As a general rule stay straight and watch out for the directional arrows on post at intersections. As long as you do all these things you have a pretty good chance of not getting lost. Anyway it only takes one time getting turned around or lost then your good from then on, but to me it's all part of the fun...you gotta go exploring sometimes!
Also any time it rains a significant amount out here there's about an 50 yard lakeside portion of the trial that always floods, and it can get over ankle deep easily. It's about 1/3 mile from the end of the greenway at Lake Crabtree and Old Reedy Creek right before you run up the earthen dam between the lake and Crabtree Creek. If it rains real bad there is a very good chance the section between Dynasty Drive and Lake Crabtree will be waterlogged and muddy in all the low spots. I'd just run on another part of the trail if this is the case...unless your trying to get your Tough Mudder on for free.
My favorite parts of the greenway are near the end over by Lake Crabtree (when it's dry), and the segments that weave through and run parallel to Maynard Road. Even though the greenway never strays too far from Cary's main drags, you'd find it hard to believe throughout most of the trail as your usually surrounded by serene landscapes. There are not a lot of hills, which I love, but almost all the hills on Black Creek are pretty serious. All in all it's a great moderate difficulty running trail that always provides for an awesome run, and is a great way to see a lot of Cary. Right now the greenway is never as busy as other trails I've been on in the area, but eventually Black creek will hook into the ATT via White Oak Creek Greenway as they have both been added to the East Coast Greenway system, so I'd expect it to get more and more traffic in years to come. read more