Yesterday Rooms and I set off on a little exploratory adventure. I’ve been talking about wanting to ride the Greenline all the way out to Shelby Farms for a long time now and yesterday seemed like the perfect day to do it! It’s not the Greenline itself that’s kept me from attempting this, in fact that’s the easy part of the ride – smooth, shaded and flat with no cars. It’s getting there that’s the trouble. But after my practice ride on Thursday, I was feeling confident and we set off (carefully sharing the road with the cars). We discovered a better route than taking Highland and instead cut through on Lafayette and then through the park by East High School to hop on the very Western point of the trail.
This was taken last fall....not so many colors right now!
Tillman St. close to Republic Coffee is the Western start of the trail and from there to Shelby Farms Park was about 6 miles. The trail was fun to ride on and much more crowded than the usual 6 AM running outing!
Lots of traffic!
My favorite part is the long bridge over the Wolf River.
Bridge Heading over the Wolf River
The Wolf! Wonder how to get down to that beach....
I’ve run in Shelby Farms a few times and have ridden the 6 mile Tour de Wolf trail there before but had never come in the back entrance. This is what greeted us after a quick hilly ride through the open fields (hello breeze!).
How did I miss this for five years?!
At this point we had been out for about an hour and knew that we had to still get back (and do our weekend chores!) so we decided not to continue exploring – but that just leaves reasons to go back!
The path we didn't travel.....next time!
I can’t wait to go back and continue to explore the Farms! 
By this point, we had worked up quite an appetite so on our way home we turned off on High Point to grab some lunch at Cheffie’s. Cheffie’s is a fantastic sandwich and salad place where you get to “Be the Chef” with incredibly fresh ingredients (seriously – think gourmet Subway)! Or if all those choices overwhelm you (trust me, I know the feeling), they’ve got a menu of sandwiches and salads they’ve designed and the combos are fantastic. I’ve been multiple times and have found my favorite – The Santa Fe Salad (+ celery and red and green bell peppers).
This sign is not very big! Don't miss it!
Santa Fe Salad - so many healthy colors!
We sat outside on their gigantic patio, and you know what a fan of patios I am! This place is heaven. They have beer, wine and gelato too AND 3 giant flatscreens outside on the patio too! I love this place – if you’re wanting to go, let me know and I’ll gladly tag along (I won’t make us ride the whole Greenline either…)
Gigantic Patio!
All in all we rode 25 miles! Whew – I would not normally advise undertaking this on the same day as a race but sometimes life just can’t wait.
Have you been on the Greenline yet?
What fun to explore. Glad it was cool enough to sit out on the patio at Cheffie’s this time. If you buy one of those funky combo bikes at the bike shop next to Cheffies, you’ll be able to ride 4EVER! 25 miles + race = crazy girl
If I have the $5,000 in spare change layin’ around, I’m buying a plane ticket to the beach – not a bicycle!!