A&Y Greenway, a hidden treasure

Traveling the A&Y Greenway

This well-used trail o ers bikers, hikers, walkers and joggers an opportunity to enjoy the sights and sounds of nature

By ANNETTE JOYCE

Northwest Guilford County is home to several beautiful trailways, off ering locals and visitors a scenic backdrop for enjoying the outdoors while exercising. Among one of the area’s most popular trails is the A&Y Greenway; with its northernmost point in Summerfi eld, the 7.5-mile greenway will one day extend all the way to downtown Greensboro.

A combination of three greenway segments – the Lake Brandt and Bicentennial greenways and the Battleground Rail-Trail, the A&Y Greenway follows the abandoned bed of the Atlantic-Yadkin Railroad, which operated from 1899 until 1950.

According to “TrailLink,” an online resource and app that provides information on over 40,000 trails in the country, “some of the line was part of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway and ran from Wilmington to Mount Airy, transporting granite and, on occasion, visitors to the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park” in Greensboro.

The trains have long since been replaced by runners, walkers, bikers and sightseers – all people who enjoy being outdoors in the quiet of nature.

On any given day – but especially when the sky is clear and temperatures are mild – the greenway is bustling.

Summerfi eld resident Clark Doggett lives about two miles from the greenway and, when training for the Boston Marathon several years ago, he said he ran on it about three times a week. Although he’s no longer running, he still regularly walks on the greenway and enjoys seeing the people he passes along the way.

“Everyone is very cordial and friendly to each other,” he said. “There are people on bikes, people with dogs and people with strollers. Everyone gets along.”

Doggett parks and gets on the greenway at the Summerfi eld Road Trailhead just beyond where the pedestrian tunnel passes under U.S. 220. On the other side of the busy highway, the nearby Anna Long Marshall Wayside parking lot also leads directly to the greenway.

Kara Winicki, whose Summerfi eld home continued onpage 34

Photo by

Annette Joyce/NWO Annette Joyce/NWO The A&Y Greenway follows the abandoned bed of the Atlantic-Yadkin Railroad.

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