You’re to be forgiven if, when looking at a map of the Greensboro Watershed Trails, a little drool escapes the corner of your mouth. To scope out the 16 trail representing 42 miles of trail along the shores of lakes Higgins, Brandt and Townsend is to imagine the seemingly endless possibilities of training runs offered.
We detailed one such scenario — several, actually, stemming from one trail — in our Nat Green Trail description. Our goal there was simply to show the potential of the Watershed Lakes Trails as a trail running training tool. Here, we’ll provide the map (below) and let you do the plotting.
What we will do here is let you know that these trails offer a multitude of training opportunities. The vast majority of trail is prime singletrack, the type of trail that attracts trail runners to trail running. Some are especially scenic (the 1.3-mile Beech Bluff Trail), some are especially challenging (the 4.3-mile Owl’s Roost, voted “best urban mountain biking trail” in the country by Bicycling Magazine in 2003), some are recent additions to the system (the 3.25-mile Blue Heron, open less than three years).
You can access the trails at various locations; consult the map for help.
Maps
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Difficulty: Easy to strenuous
Distance: 15 minutes from downtown
Length: 42 miles
Time to complete:
Address: 5834 Bur-Mill Club Road
City: Greensboro
State: NC
Zip: 27410
Latitude: 36.1013
Longitude: 79.5212