Townsend Greenway

We decided to get our bicycles out for an early autumn ride on the greenway in Townsend, Tennessee. Since we hadn't been on our bikes in months, we chose to ride the flatter route on the north side of US-321 and TN-73 or East Lamar Alexander Parkway. We parked at the firehall at the west end of town and rode our bikes to the east end of town at Towns End Drive. We biked a total of 9.6 miles roundtrip with an elevation gain of about 90 feet from west to east.

While the bike trail on the south side of the highway is often more than 100 feet from the roadway, the trail on the north side of the highway is a sidewalk that is often just a few feet from automobile traffic. In addition, the north side trail is concrete with numerous rather abrupt driveway transitions. It is still a nice ride, but requires paying more attention to traffic than does the south trail. The north trail also requires crossing Wears Valley Road at the only traffic light in town. There is no crosswalk light, so crossing often requires making eye contact with several drivers to ensure that you are seen.

I recorded the 34 minute ride east on my GoPro HERO3. We biked the eastern leg in 34 minutes. Heading west, we returned in under 30 minutes as we lost a bit of altitude.

My short 2013 post about the parallel trail on the south side of the highway can be found here.

There is no fee to use the greenway.

The city website is http://cityoftownsend.com.