Bowie Nature Park - Perimeter Trail

The knee is feeling alot better, I'd say about 70%. I was going to wait until the evening to run today since it's in the mid nineties and humid as hell, but I saw my fast shoes laying in the closet and couldn't wait.

My running partner and I headed to Fairview's Bowie Nature Park to give the knee a little test.


The 17 miles of trails at Bowie are extremely underused. I know this after running there for over a year and barely seeing a soul. The first few days of spring when the weather is perfect the citizens of Fairview appreciate their park, other than that not so much. I've seen a grand total of two trail runners and maybe three dozen hikers, bikers, and horseback riders. Today I encountered one hiker. That along with the close proximity to my home is probably why I enjoy running there so much.
The history of the park is also pretty amazing. Evangeline Bowie's family bought the land in the 50's after it had been deforested by poor farming practices. She replanted the land and set up a system of small lakes to help stave off erosion. I'm no expert on the history of the park but after running there for awhile I had to know how it got there. It's pretty unusual to have a tree-lined trail with obviously planted mature trees in the middle of what appears to be a natural forest. While I've run every trail in the park the one I'm most intimately aware of is the Perimeter Trail.

This trail more or less skirts the boundaries of the park covering a distance of 4.5 miles. The beginning and end of the trail don't exactly meet up so I like to think the trail is actually 5 miles. I can pretty much run this trail step by step in my head. I like to run it if I'm curious about my fitness level or if I need to do a quick easy run. Today's run was a test of my knee to see if I can handle trails yet. I did pretty well. The heat got to me a little. Staying indoors a lot for the last month has definitely reduced my heat tolerance. Two things about this run that make it a good place to run in the summer are the shade and access to water. There are only two spots on the trail where you are completely exposed to the sun for a total of maybe 3/4 of a mile. There are several small creek crossings along the trail where you can cool off and you can get a drink at the parking lot so if you're doing a couple laps you still don't need to carry water. Today I had to do a quick dip in a spring right alongside the trail that was shockingly cold. There's usually a very small creek flowing across the trail right there so I hadn't realized there was a spring. Today there was just a deep pool of crystal clear cold water with a small trickle flowing over the edge of the pool. It looked just big enough for me to lay down in, so I did. I felt my knee tighten up as soon as I hit the water, but otherwise it felt great. A crawdad jumped off my shoe, he was probably pissed I muddied up his pool. There are a couple short climbs on the trail but nothing too strenuous. I was pretty cautious on the downhills which have alot of loose stones thanks the the rains earlier this year. It's not the most technical trail around and it's wide enough to drive a car down, but you definitely feel like your on a trail as opposed to a fire road. Another perk of trail is the wildlife. I'll typically run into several deer regardless the time of day. The Perimeter Trail is one of my favorite trails in the area. It can get a little old, especially on the second lap so I usually do one lap and then try and get lost on the other trails in the park I'm less familiar with.
I was really slow today but the knee survived and I had much less pain in my thighs and hip than I have after my other recent runs. I'll probably be back tomorrow to see if I can speed up a little.