On a cloudy summer afternoon, Jim MacRoglou has the White Oak Creek Greenway pretty much to himself; on days with better weather, it's a lot busier.

"Cary trails are awesome," said MacRoglou.

It's just one of many greenways that crisscross Cary and have become an integral part of its identity.

"The connection to open space and providing access to the public to the open space through greenways has been a big, big priority for the town council for the last 10, 15, 20 years," said Doug McRainey, Cary's Parks Planning Manager.

Soon, those trails will be connected with hundreds of other towns thousands of miles away.

Cary, Raleigh and Durham are all being added to the East Coast Greenway Alliance, which is trying to link a continuous route of existing trails stretching from the Canadian border in Maine all the way down to Key West.

Cary's portion of the alliance offers a lot of options.

"The town currently has 40 miles of existing trail that we've completed," said McRainey. "With at least another 20 miles that are on the books that will be completed in the next few years."

McRainey thinks the White Oak Creek and Black Creek greenways are likely candidates, but nothing has been set quite yet.

The goal is to take outdoor enthusiasts through urban areas, while avoiding traffic as much as possible for a 3,000-mile route.

Organizers want a lot of it to go off-road completely, which is where trails and greenways come into play.

Folks like MacRoglou are already grinning at the idea.

"If they all interconnect, then anyone who wants to do some real long bicycling, they'll have more miles than they can chew up," said MacRoglou.

Cary officials will be discussing possibilities with the East Coast Greenway Alliance organizers in the next couple months.

The addition won't cost Cary anything other than some additional signage along the route.

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