DAVIDSON – If you want to do a little off-trail hiking Saturday at north Mecklenburg’s newest greenway, then bring appropriate clothes and boots. Or bring your bike and explore the new trail.
Or just come out for the grand-opening ceremony for the West Branch Greenway, which lasts from 1 to 4 p.m.
Access to the greenway will be provided at the southern end of Shearer Road in Davidson. Park at the edge of Shearer Road, near the barricade to the River Run Phase V development. Pedestrians and cyclists will be permitted through the barricade to get to the greenway. All activities will start near the Shearer Road Bridge and greenway crossing.
Jim Garges, director of the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department, will welcome guests shortly after 1 p.m., and members of the Davidson Lands Conservancy will lead walking tours of the greenway trail, focusing on unique wildlife and habitat. Staff members of Mecklenburg’s Nature Preserve also will lead walking tours of the adjacent West Branch Nature Preserve, for which hiking clothes and boots are advised.
Other activities will include bike rides and scavenger hunts, and information on area greenways and bikeways.
With the addition of the West Branch Greenway, Davidson will have more than 12 miles of greenways and bike lanes throughout the town.
“We have sought to build this section of greenway for over a decade,” Lauren Blackburn, Davidson planning manager, said. “The West Branch Greenway reaches an area of the town that was previously underserved by public greenways. The overall trail network will reach regional destinations in Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counties when built out as part of the vision of the Carolina Thread Trail.”
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008, better known as the federal stimulus bill, paid to construct the new greenway.
Find a map and parking information at Davidson’s website, www.ci.davidson.nc.us.
Megan Pillow Davis is the public information officer for the Town ofDavidson.
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