Orange County NC Website
8 <br />November 2016 <br />NC Mountains -to -Sea Trail through Orange County <br />Frequently Asked Questions <br />What is the INC Mountains -to -Sea Trail? <br />The NC Mountains -to -Sea Trail (MST) is a 1,000 -mile trail that will traverse the state from the Great <br />Smoky Mountains in western North Carolina to Jockey's Ridge State Park on the Outer Banks. Partners <br />across the state are helping to plan and build the trail that will link communities and serve as the <br />backbone of a growing system of land and water trails in North Carolina. <br />In 2000 the NC General Assembly authorized the MST as a unit of the North Carolina Parks System. <br />A map showing the Mountains -to -Sea State Trail across North Carolina is available at: <br />http: / /www.orangecountync.gov /MST statewide map 0612 Status .pdf <br />How many miles of the NC Mountains -to -Sea Trail are finished? <br />Over 600 miles of dedicated trail — well over half the planned length— has been completed to date and <br />is open for hiking. A series of interim roadway connectors (bicycle routes and back roads) have been <br />identified by the Friends of the Mountains -to -Sea Trail organization that knit together the completed <br />sections of the MST across the state. <br />Some examples of completed trail in this area include the following: <br />• In Durham and Wake counties there are 77 miles of the trail along the Eno River and Falls Lake <br />• Raleigh and Clayton completed a 33 -mile Neuse River Greenway from Falls Lake Dam to Clayton <br />• Alamance County has 15 miles of trail – including 8 miles from Glencoe to Town of Haw River <br />• Hillsborough completed the 1.3 -mile Riverwalk and Classical American Homes Preservation Trust <br />extended the trail another 1.5 miles. A third bridge over the Eno River opened in July 2016. <br />How was the planned MST trail corridor chosen? <br />The NC Division of Parks and Recreation held stakeholder meetings in 2005 -2007 to identify a suitable <br />MST planning corridor through Alamance, Orange and Durham counties. Trail planners began by <br />identifying existing trails on public lands and connected them to key natural areas across the region. <br />The result of that effort was a MST Trail Planning Corridor sent to local governments for consideration. <br />The Orange County Board of Commissioners endorsed the MST Planning Corridor in 2010 following a <br />review by three of its advisory boards and the towns of Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The <br />planning corridor for southwestern Orange County (Segment 11) was part of the MST State Trail master <br />plan that was developed in 2014 -15 and released in July 2015. <br />County staff are working in collaboration with the State Trails Program (NC Division of Parks and <br />Recreation), Eno River State Park, the Town of Hillsborough, the Friends of Mountains -to -Sea Trail <br />(FMST), Orange Water and Sewer Authority, and others to develop specific plans for the MST in Orange <br />County— thereby transitioning the trail planning corridor to an actual "trail alignment." The initial focus <br />is to determine the trail alignment through the County's Seven Mile Creek Preserve and linking the <br />Preserve with Occoneechee Mountain and the Hillsborough Riverwalk. A secondary focus is working <br />with the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) to identify a potential trail alignment through <br />OWASA's Cane Creek Reservoir lands, and then linking the Reservoir lands with the Alamance County <br />section of the MST along the Haw River. <br />