Beautiful day brings out crowds on greenways, but social distancing was a challenge
After navigating the heavier-then-usual crowds, John Geuss and his wife, Belinda, stopped their bikes near a bridge on Little Sugar Creek Greenway Saturday.
“It’s crowded today,” Geuss, a 65-year-old real estate broker, told a reporter. “People being as cooped up as they’ve been, and it being such a nice day, they just had to bust out.”
Thousands of Carolinians busted out on a near cloudless day as temperatures climbed into the 80s. Many took to greenways in Mecklenburg County or across the state line in neighboring York County. Along the miles of emerald highways they biked, walked and ran, often towing dogs or pushing baby strollers.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, masks were rare. Social distancing was challenging. Sometimes aspirational.
On a free-flowing stretch of the Catawba River in South Carolina, Canada geese floated in the eddies. Turtles sat shell-to-shell on the warming rocks while a swirl of swallows gorged on a midair insect breakfast. As with the wildlife, most of the walkers, runners and bikers on the nearby Riverwalk Greenway didn’t bother with social distancing.
Over a half mile, a reporter with his wife and dog had to leave the nine-foot-wide trail about 10 times to maintain six-foot gaps with passersby. People were pleasant, sharing “hellos” and “good mornings” even as they didn’t share the space.
On the Little Sugar Creek Greenway in Freedom Park, congestion was often in the eye of the beholder.
“It definitely was more crowded than on weekdays, (but) I’m not uncomfortable because we’re outside,” said Dixon DeHority, 60. “Unless you’re in a wheelchair or on crutches, it shouldn’t be that hard to distance yourself.”
Lee Jones, who oversees 52 miles of greenways as Mecklenburg’s Parks and Recreation director, said because they’re in more populous areas, greenways such as Little Sugar Creek near uptown and Four Mile Creek in Matthews attract more people.
“We have a good amount of activity out there,” Jones said Saturday. “But I wouldn’t call it crowded to the point you can’t use them.”
As in the parks, greenways have signs urging people to keep six feet apart. “Bringing the community together,” they say, “by keeping us apart.”
But the number of people on Freedom Park’s greenway proved too much for Tara Johnson and her daughter, Asia.
“I don’t like it because it’s so packed,” Tara Johnson told the Observer. She said they prefer the sparser Mallard Creek Greenway in northeast Charlotte.
As regular riders along the Little Sugar Creek Greenway, Chris and Alison Hall tried to be conscientious of social distancing on a busy Saturday. Two of their sons, 8 and 6, rode bikes of their own. Alison towed her 18-month-old son in a carrier attached to her bike.
“We’re giving as much space as we possibly can,” said Chris Hall. “We are definitely more conscientious now.”
In South Carolina, where the Riverwalk trail draws hundreds of walkers, bikers, kayakers and picnickers from both sides of the state line, social distancing attempts don’t always go over well.
On a recent Saturday, a man asked two female passing runners who passed within a few feet of him as they ran side-by-side on the trail to give him some safe space. A brief argument ensued.
“If you’re so worried about getting sick, maybe you should just stay at home,” one of the women said over her shoulder as she ran ahead.
Her response left the man shaking his head.
“I’m not a fanatic about this, but I don’t want to be stupid either,” he told a reporter. “But they were close enough that I could hear one of them breathing.”
This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 4:01 PM.
