The state Division of Parks and Recreation toyed for a year with the idea of opening a third automobile entrance to Umstead State Park (at Graylyn Drive), and it received a few hundred comments expressing sharp opinions on both sides.

The Raleigh City Council's Public Works Committee struggled this year with calls to erect "No Parking" signs in residential neighborhoods where Umstead users leave their cars There were sharp, competing opinions here, too.

State and city agencies helped create these problems. The Umstead maintenance gate at the corner of Trenton and Reedy Creek Roads became an even more appealing destination for park users after the city and the state extended the Reedy Creek Greenway west from the NC Museum of Art -- and stopped it there. The closest parking lot is two miles away at the art museum.

NCDOT banned parking on the state roads outside the Graylyn and Reedy Creek Road maintenance gates -- after it justified paving Graylyn by using high traffic counts that had been generated by those same parked cars.

Both the city and the state are wary of taking steps that will set uncontrollable precedents, cost money and perhaps create new sets of environmental, legal and political problems.

So the parks division refused this week to open the Graylyn gate. And the city council said ... [MORE]

Runners and cyclists hoping for easier access to the state's busiest urban state park lost ground today:

State officials said they won't turn dead-end Graylyn Drive into a third automobile entrance to Umstead State Park.

And the Raleigh City Council prepared to post more No Parking signs on neighborhood streets near an Umstead gate on Reedy Creek Road. [Update 5 p.m. Tuesday: The council delayed action on the No Parking proposal, sending the matter back to committee for more deliberation.]

Lewis Ledford, the state parks director, announced a plan to improve a bumpy gravel road inside the park that provides access from the Glenwood Avenue entrance to the Sycamore Bike and Bridle Trailhead (see map). The road will be paved when funds are available, and the trailhead parking lot will be expanded.

He rejected an option, floated a year ago, to let park patrons drive to the same trailhead on what is now a maintenance road with a locked gate at the end of Graylyn Drive off Ebenezer Church Road.

“Our overriding philosophy must be to minimize the development footprint at Umstead as one way to protect the wild and natural landscape of this state park,” Ledford said in a news release. ... [MORE]

248, 74 and 15:05:03 are just some of the numbers from the weekend's race.

Here's a hike I'm guessing you haven't done: Umstead State Park to Carter-Finley Stadium. (Unless you've done it before on a Rod Broadbelt marathon hike.) On the face of it, that might sound like an odd hike. It's not. It's just unusual ...

At its meeting Thursday morning, the Raleigh City Council's Public Works Committee will discuss a proposed parking ban on the streets of Trenton Woods, one of the nice new West Raleigh subdivisions springing up on the outskirts of Umstead State Park.

Trenton Woods is on Trenton Road near its intersection with Reedy Creek Road, and that's close to a park maintenance road that has become a popular neighborhood access point for folks who bike, hike, run and walk in the park.

The council agreed in February to have the committee reconsider the request after some park patrons protested that it would make it even harder -- and it's getting harder all the time, already -- simply to find a place to leave your car so you can visit the park.

The meeting is in Room 201, City Council Chamber, Raleigh Municipal Building, 222 West
Hargett Street, Raleigh. For information call 996-3040 (City Clerk’s Office).

Up for a long venture in the woods this Saturday? At a fast pace, a really fast pace?

Marathon hike leader Rod Broadbelt reports that his schedule of really long monthly hikes — the hikes aren't quite that long; he conducts them monthly — at Umstead State Park is such. (Note: all hikes depart at 8 a.m. from the Umstead parking lot off Harrison Avenue and I-40. )

Saturday: "Wilderness Hike," a 10-mile, mostly off-trail hike. A return by 1:15 p.m.is expected. Cautions Rod: "Wear sturdy footwear and long pants as we will have steep and slippery banks down and up, fallen trees to get over, under or around and maybe some briers."

April 4: Carter-Finley Stadium Hike, 13.5 miles.

May 2: Umstead to Lake Crabtree mountain biking trails and back to Umstead, 14 miles.

June 6: Approximately 12 miles, no off-trail.

Questions? Email Rod at rbroadbelt@nc.rr.com or call 363-6611before 7 p.m.

What opening our state parks earlier means to North Carolina's role in the global economy. Sorta.

The Access Umstead Committee, which has been politely petitioning for a reversal of the parking ban at the Graylyn Drive neighborhood entrance to Umstead State Park, is working on the same thing at the Reedy Creek Road neighborhood entrance.

The Raleigh City Council on Tuesday removed from its consent agenda a proposal to ban on-street parking in the Trenton Woods neighborhood near the Reedy Creek Road entrance. A council committee will take up the question.

Park lovers warned the council against setting a precedent that could make it easier for other neighborhoods all around Umstead's fringe to bar those pesky parkers, too. Now Access Umstead is inviting its allies to e-mail City Council members with a request that they uproot the dense thicket of No Parking signs (actually planted by NCDOT, not by the city, I think) around the entrance.

Meanwhile I learn on the Access Umstead site that state parks officials have at least tallied the public comments they solicited last fall regarding alternatives for providing new access at the Graylyn gate. Of the 249 people who offered their opinions, 150 favored Alternative C. No word on when, or whether, any of these alternatives will be implemented.

This stuff shouldn't be hard. The barriers really are bureaucratic. ... [MORE]

A bumper crop of “No Parking” signs is flourishing along Reedy Creek and Trenton roads at the southeast edge of Umstead State Park in West Raleigh.

Even in winter, they’re spreading like kudzu.

In the past two years, the state Department of Transportation has planted about 60 signs on a quarter-mile stretch around this quiet corner.

They stand barely 30 feet apart, closer than needed for a simple regulatory message. They’re dense enough to serve as crude barriers — to anyone who dares to park the car and indulge in the guilty pleasure of fresh air and exercise in a splendid state park.

On Tuesday, the Raleigh City Council will consider making a further extension of the Umstead unwelcome mat.

The council’s consent agenda — items to be approved without discussion — includes a parking ban on the streets of Trenton Woods, one of the nice new subdivisions springing up on Umstead’s outskirts. Homeowners there don’t like park users parking in front of their homes.

[Tuesday 2/3 update: The Trenton Woods proposal was pulled from the council agenda and sent to a committee for study.] ... [MORE]