On Saturday, May 18th, TRTC is sponsoring a second clean-up session at the Eagle Spur Trail.
The Eagle Spur is the remnant of the original 1920's "Tobacco Trail" rail grade abandoned with the construction of Jordan Lake and runs from Stagecoach Road 2.3 miles to the lake. The land is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and managed by the Wildlife Resources Commission. Triangle Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has taken the responsibility for maintaining the trail.
The Eagle Spur Trail has taken quite a “hit” lately mostly due to lots of rain and inundation from historically high Jordan Lake levels that have put large sections of the trail corridor under water for significant amounts of time. There are quite a few trees down, many logs that floated in and remained when the lake level receded, and a generous portion of "Jordan Lake trash". If you have ever hiked a trail and most of us have… Here is your chance to give back! A LOT of trails exist only because they have been volunteer built and maintained. This is one of them. We now need YOUR help to reopen this trail. Bring water and a snack, sturdy shoes or hiking boots.

DETAILS: We will be meeting at 69 Colvard Park Drive, Durham 27713-5808. From there it is short walk to the trail through the woods.
SATURDAY, May 18th. Time: 9:00 A.M.- 1:00 P.M – You can stay longer if you like!

Trail Map (reference only!): See (http://www.triangletrails.org/pdfs/EagleSpur.pdf)

The White Oak Greenway opening ceremony will be held at 2 pm on March 9th, 2019. This new greenway has been under construction for several years and the final sections were completed late in 2018. It connects with the ATT just north of the Wimberly Road parking area at ~mile 18.25. Give it a try, its all hard surface but has lots of boardwalks and is a bit different than the ATT. This greenway is 7.3 miles long and ends at Bond Park at High House Road.

We have just posted updated maps of the ATT (see left hand sidebar) showing mile points, water access and other info for all three counties as well as connections for the nearby greenways in Durham. Among other changes, we added notes about the recently completed White Oak Creek trail which now connects with the ATT just north of the Wimberly Road parking area. Give it a try, its all hard surface but has lots of boardwalks and is a bit different than the ATT. As previously, our maps are in PDF format and can be printed. Hard copies of these maps are generally available at the trail kiosks at Scott-King Road, O'Kelly Chapel Road and by the rest room bulletin board at the New Hope Church Road trailhead. Copies are also available at the REI stores in Durham and Cary.

TRTC has completed efforts to put in compliant parking and a new hard surface connector trail. Our efforts on this started in May 2017 with the clearing of a dozen trees and later efforts that year to install a 20' culvert and grind the stumps. The concrete connector is ~180' long, 8' wide where it meets the ATT, tapering to 5' wide for the rest of its length. The project includes one concrete parking space with an attached aisle that is ADA compliant for van and auto access by the handicapped and an expanded hard surface area around the fountain. When the State approved our plans to put in this trailhead in 2012 no requirements for ADA compliance were included but by 2017 we were notified that the State considers TRTC to be the "owners" of this lot since we had built it. We were able to build these improvements thanks to contributions from the Tobacco Road Marathon over several years and smaller donations from individual donors. We hope ATT users enjoy these improvements.

Take a look at our 2018 End-of-Year Letter to catch up on what we have been doing on the ATT and Eagle Spur Trail.

Earlier in July, City of Durham contractors broke ground to construct a new lot on the east side of the ATT just south of Scott King. The initial funding for this lot was authorized in 2014 and after the initial bids received in 2016 the City had to allocate additional funds to support a second bidding cycle. Site plans call for parking for ~20 cars and 3 horse trailers. Vehicle access to this lot will be via the Duke Energy substation access just east of the trail. There is no hard date for completion but mid-Fall seems a good estimate.