If you head west on 70 from Nashville a few miles past White Bluff you'll see a small wooden sign for the Montgomery Bell Mountain Bike Park. This park has excellent trails and plenty of miles to explore. I still get lost on some of the trails. Last week I went to give my knee a test on some more difficult trails than I had been running on and I ended up running for close to two hours through a thunder storm before I started cutting through the brush to get back to the main trail.
This park has a fair number of bikers on the weekends and weekday evenings when the weather is really nice. Otherwise I guess it's a little too far of a drive from Nashville and people in Dickson county aren't too interested in bike riding so it's usually pretty empty. I typically run around 10 a.m. so that probably adds to the fact that I rarely see other people when I run. I've seen a couple runners there but, normally I don't even see a bike rider. When you look at a map of the park it's amazing how small it looks especially if you've been running the yellow trail for over an hour. The trails wind back and forth through the park cramming twenty miles of trail into a small area. The park is pretty heavily wooded and quite beautiful. It doesn't have any long climbs but there are a lot of small climbs that add up and start to take a toll on your legs. There is one section of the yellow trail where you cris-cross a small creek about five times and have to run up and down the steep bank on each side. There are a lot of spots on the trail where I'm always hoping I'll see a biker come by because I can't imagine how anyone could ride a bike down that part of the trail.
The green trail has a few spots like that where the trail is really steep with loose rocks and it looks like a death trap for a biker. I'm sure they have as much fun as I do though. Every so often you hit a spot, on the green and yellow trails mostly, where you do a lot more hopping and skipping down hills than running. This park is definitely a fun place to run, but it can be pretty tough at times and there are a lot of those camouflaged roots and rocks lurking in the shadows waiting to stub your toe or twist your ankle if your not very vigilant/lucky. I've twisted my ankle there pretty badly a few times, but never too seriously. For some reason I only twist my right ankle and never the left.
This is an overall excellent park and the terrain is difficult enough that it will take you a while to exhaust the twenty miles of trail. Don't let the fact that it is a "bike park" scare you away it is a great place to run and you don't have to worry about getting run over at every turn.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Cheatham WMA - Main Road
I decided to go for a run at the Cheatham Wildlife Management Area yesterday evening. It was really hot even though it was overcast. The heat index today is 108 so it was at least 100 yesterday. I went about 7 miles very slowly. The knee held up pretty well, but I've got a lot of work to do to get back to where I was before the injury still, the heat didn't help much either.
The WMA is about 21,000 acres and it's located just north of Pegram and goes almost all the way to Ashland City. You can access it from several different locations. The main entrance is off of County Road 250, but I park at the gate just past the dump on Sam's Creek Road. From there you can do a pretty nice 13 mile out and back run to the park headquarters where you can get water and use the facilities if need be. The main road which I think is called Beeler Road is your typical fire road. Depending on the time of year you might run into some hunters or four wheelers, but I've never had any problems. One time there were a couple good ol' boys hunting raccoons with their dogs and I think they were so shocked to see some half naked furry man run by them they forgot to point their shotguns away from my face. This is not Percy Warner Park, you are in the country and there are people with guns. If that bothers you do not run here. I have seen only one person in the WMA without a motorized vehicle or a gun, the dude from Team Nashville riding his bike. The worst thing about running in the WMA is that it can get extremely hot and you have to cover a lot of distance completely exposed to the sun. In the fall and winter it's no big deal. If you really want a cool experience go for a full moon run once you know your way around.
I think I got all the negatives out of the way so why would anyone want to run on a gravel fire road in the heat surrounded by hunters? I've been running in the WMA for over a year pretty regularly and I've barely scratched the surface of the trails running through the park. It is huge.
Before I got hurt I'd gotten where I could do ten or twelve miles pretty easy and I started exploring off of the main road. There are some great trails to find if you are looking for a place to explore. If you are looking for somewhere to just put down some miles and get some solitude there is no better place I've found. It is also a truly beautiful spot to see nature. The wildflowers lining the road are pretty awesome from spring through fall and while the hunters keep the deer population down there are a ton of turkey and coyotes in the park. It's pretty flat but you definitely have a few good climbs along the way if you want to do some hill work.
If you want to give the WMA a shot I recommend starting out running from the gate off of Sam's Creek to Pipe Line road. It's a bout 7 miles out and back and you can't miss the road to turn around.
The WMA is about 21,000 acres and it's located just north of Pegram and goes almost all the way to Ashland City. You can access it from several different locations. The main entrance is off of County Road 250, but I park at the gate just past the dump on Sam's Creek Road. From there you can do a pretty nice 13 mile out and back run to the park headquarters where you can get water and use the facilities if need be. The main road which I think is called Beeler Road is your typical fire road. Depending on the time of year you might run into some hunters or four wheelers, but I've never had any problems. One time there were a couple good ol' boys hunting raccoons with their dogs and I think they were so shocked to see some half naked furry man run by them they forgot to point their shotguns away from my face. This is not Percy Warner Park, you are in the country and there are people with guns. If that bothers you do not run here. I have seen only one person in the WMA without a motorized vehicle or a gun, the dude from Team Nashville riding his bike. The worst thing about running in the WMA is that it can get extremely hot and you have to cover a lot of distance completely exposed to the sun. In the fall and winter it's no big deal. If you really want a cool experience go for a full moon run once you know your way around.
I think I got all the negatives out of the way so why would anyone want to run on a gravel fire road in the heat surrounded by hunters? I've been running in the WMA for over a year pretty regularly and I've barely scratched the surface of the trails running through the park. It is huge.
Before I got hurt I'd gotten where I could do ten or twelve miles pretty easy and I started exploring off of the main road. There are some great trails to find if you are looking for a place to explore. If you are looking for somewhere to just put down some miles and get some solitude there is no better place I've found. It is also a truly beautiful spot to see nature. The wildflowers lining the road are pretty awesome from spring through fall and while the hunters keep the deer population down there are a ton of turkey and coyotes in the park. It's pretty flat but you definitely have a few good climbs along the way if you want to do some hill work. If you want to give the WMA a shot I recommend starting out running from the gate off of Sam's Creek to Pipe Line road. It's a bout 7 miles out and back and you can't miss the road to turn around.
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