Where to run in Chapel Hill/Carrboro?

There's not a huge amount of trails in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, but there's a few. Some of them include:

-Bolin Creek Greenway

-Airport Road/Sewell School Road trails

-Duke Forest ( a little north of Chapel Hill)

-Battle Creek trails (behind Gimgouhl by the UNC Campus)

-Mason Farm nature reserve (by Finley Forest GC)

-Meadowmont trails (not expansive but ok)

-Umstead Park (out by Raleigh)

there's some others I'm sure I'm forgetting also

Good time to move to the area. Mr. "I-think-I'm-a-badass-terrorist" runs over students in an SUV, 3 people shot at the annual Apple Chill festival on Sunday, student brings shotgun to school and holds teacher and student hostage on Monday, ... what's next?

a few one mile loops by the public library on Estes;

some short trails on UNC campus behind baseball field mainly;

probably the best bet is the long series of trails in Chapel Hill/Carborro; accessible from Estes Drive and N. Graham St(?).

Duke forest is a really beautiful area to run, particularly in fall.

trails by Finley Gold course are nice, too. UNC Chapel Hill's home XC course is here.

as mentioned earlier, there are some decent (though not real long- ~2 miles?) trails running from UNC's campus to Community Center Park.

if you want to stay off the roads, you should have no problem doing that.

chapel hill is reasonably safe, despite the funky things happening in CH and surrounding areas lately (e.g. apple chill shootings, the "pit" incident, Duke LAX, the hostage situation at East Chapel hill high, etc.).

great timing wrote:

Good time to move to the area. Mr. "I-think-I'm-a-badass-terrorist" runs over students in an SUV, 3 people shot at the annual Apple Chill festival on Sunday, student brings shotgun to school and holds teacher and student hostage on Monday, ... what's next?

ah, racial and other tensions from da 'utes of the Triangle is such a beautiful thing. Apple Chill is always full of roving bad-ass, gang member wannabees trying to prove their manhood in front of their hot girlfriends who are out baring their camisoles for the first time since October. And you forgot about the wholesome little gathering with the festive punch that went awry about 7 miles away up highway 55. Yeah, a great time to be on "tobacco road".

"A bluer slice of heaven."

Not to worry, you've seen the last of Apple Chill, Chapel Hill has decided to discontinue it.

Apple Chill is no more my friends...

May I ask the original poster what they are doing in the area?

I have been thinking of moving back to the area but do not want to work for the University...

Just wondering... I am thinking of changing careers and looking for ideas...

Run to Carol Henry's place and admire her beauty.

I'll be in a graduate program at UNC and so I hope to find a place to live that's convenient to both running and school. I'm female so the Carol Henry idea didn't do much for me, but keep the suggestions coming.

there are a couple of apartment complexes around MLK Blvd (used to be Airport Rd.) and Estes Rd. These are close to a pretty good network of trails (Chapel Hill High School and Seawell School Rd. trails). No mile markers, but anywhere off of the track, you may have problems finding decent places with mile markers.

use the usatf.com program "routes" to find the mile markers by satellite or map. you can start with your house and mark the run from there.

There won't be many mile marked trails other than the course, which is marked by the K.

There are tons of great trails in the Chapel Hill area though, don't worry about that. I wish I still lived there to be honest.

Go see Bobby Biles at the Fleet Feet in carrboro, he will give you a map or something, and there are plenty of accesible tracks in the area for workouts.

You will like the area.

Check out ShadowWood and Timber Hollow for decent apartments. Nothing super-nice, but safe, clean and far enogh from campus that you won't have a kegger every night. Actually, i lived in ShadowWood and we had a few loud parties... Hmmm... There are these little places called Glen Lennox right down the 54 hill from campus, they are like little clusterhome things, those used to be nice when I lived there, and should be really safe and clean.

If you can, Rent a house in Carrboro, that would be your best bet, just make sure it is in a safe part of Carrboro, near the Weaver Street market, great community in Carrboro.

Go eat breakfast at Elmos every morning, and get Pizza at Pepper's. Go get Burritos at Carrburritos and drink a few cold beers at Tyler's. Tyler's is a smoke free beer joint and it is a great place.

Open Eye coffee is superb as well. Carrboro has some great places...

Go eat at Players, they have great Holy Grails.

The apartment complexes on MLK Blvd. are Timber Hollow and Shadowood - I lived in Timber Hollow - great place, very close access to trails (literally miles of trails right across the street) and a short drive to duke forest.

Professor Frink wrote:

The apartment complexes on MLK Blvd. are Timber Hollow and Shadowood - I lived in Timber Hollow - great place, very close access to trails (literally miles of trails right across the street) and a short drive to duke forest.

Dude, it is Airport Road, what is your deal?

Thanks for the apartment suggestions. Any thoughts on what the running in Duke Forest, Tobacco Trail, or Research Park is like?

It is very nice in Duke Forest, but you won't be going to those trails every day unless you want to drive, they are great for longruns, etc.

Plenty of good trails in Chapel Hill, I trained there for a long time and always ran trails, you can get in a great 10-12 miler just using the XC Course and adjacent Botantical Gardens. Or run up to Mason Farm for workouts/tempos. You will see the team runningin most of these places, go talk to Fleet Feet if you have trouble finding trails.