Originally Posted by
LittleRock
Sometimes road walks can be avoided. For example, the NC MST near where I live has a dangerous 4 mile road walk along highway 70 between Durham and Hillsborough. It made no sense to me as there is a lot of state park land along the Eno River there and it looks like it should be really easy to build a trail there. Last year I talked to a local trail maintainer about it and he showed me a fairly well established "bushwhack" route that local hikers use as an alternative. He said they've wanted to make it part of the official trail for years, but they are waiting for NC DOT to replace a road bridge across the river (and add a pedestrian walkway to make it safe for hikers), so they can connect to the existing trailhead. I've taken the alternative route twice now and it's very nice and quiet since most people don't know about it.
TLDR version: Contact the trail association, they may know of "unofficial" alternatives to the long road walks.