Tag Archives: American Tobacco Trail

by Harold

The American Tobacco Trail, built over the former railroad lines that connected tobacco farms to the American Tobacco Company, goes over 23 miles across Durham, Wake and Chatham Counties. The rails-to-trails project offers some of the best biking around (this site has maps as PDF files).

There’s a parking lot with facilities if you start at the Southern tip in Wake County. This is also the first place that I’ve had to share a trail with horses, which made me actually study the right-of-way sign to see what the protocol was (it’s horses). The first six miles are all in Wake, and it’s level and very well paved.

It’s more of the same for the next five miles in Chatham County, except that the trail is a mixture of paved asphalt and compacted screenings. The trees are close to the trail, too, so you’re mostly in the shade, which helps when it doesn’t fall below 90 degrees in the summer.

The real adventure is in Durham County, which is like a giant stereotype come to life — at the 11 mile mark you see a sign for Durham County, and at 11 miles and one foot the trail becomes gravel and the trees seem to part. Now you’re biking through the sun and going slower. In another half-mile, it becomes grass and clay and it’s like biking over a hiking trail.

Finally, at mile post 13.5, the trail stops completely. It starts up again three miles away, so you have to cross Southpoint Mall and navigate the largest interchange in the area where Interstate 40 meets Fayetteville Road. There will eventually be an overpass for this area, but since it will cost almost $8 million, I’m not holding out hope for it anytime soon.

This interruption, along with the utter lack of water fountains on the trail, are my two biggest overall complaints (although a business was smart enough/nice enough to put out water coolers near Scott King Road when I went on Sunday).

If you manage to make it across I-40 and another major road, NC 54, you will eventually pick up the trail again, this time at the 6.5-mile mark (yes, for some reason, Durham has its own numbering system and so the mileage now goes down from 6.5). At least the path is paved again.

There are few major crossings (you randomly cross Fayetteville at milepost 4, and then go back to the other side at milepost 2, plus you cross MLK). Also, there tends to be a few characters hanging out around milepost 2, enough that I wouldn’t consider biking at night. And the last few miles goes through a residential neighborhood, so you’re stopping at an intersection every 100 yards. Alright, enough complaining – the Durham section is great, too, and there’s enough trees that you’d never know you were basically running parallel to a busy street most of the time.

The best part is that the trail ends at the American Tobacco Campus, which is the coolest place in Durham. It’s home to Tobacco Road (great sports bar), the Durham Bulls (No. 1 attraction in Durham), Mellow Mushroom and Tyler’s Tap Room (great places to eat), cool water features and design elements. You also have the option of continuing on through the North/South Greenway Trail, which is worth it at least to see the old Durham Athletic Park, which is where the Durham Bulls used to play when the movie was filmed.

Overall it’s the longest, best trail in the area. It’s busy enough that you’re not alone, but it’s never so crowded that you have to maneuver around people. There’s no facilities in Durham (and no parking lots), so I would start in Wake or Chatham. When you get to Southpoint, it’s hard to decide whether it’s worth the hassle to connect to rest of the trail, but even if you turn around and go back, that’s still 27 miles of good riding roundtrip.