Are the Warner Parks West of Nashville?

I would like to admit that I wasn't very excited about running in the Warner Parks. The first time I went there with my wife and I ended up getting pissed when we got lost trying to find a place to park in Percy Warner. I had no idea where the trails were and ended up just running on the roads. Which wasn't awful, it just wasn't what I was looking for. There were people driving down the road, a lot of bikers and I guess it was a little crowded for my tastes. On a lot of my runs in the less trafficked areas a little farther west it's rare that I see anyone at all. So the roads through Percy Warner on a nice evening made me feel like I was running down Times Square. It was a while before I made it back and decided to give Edwin Warner a try. I was able to locate the trails with no problem, and quickly made more of an effort to quit smoking. I found the first decent hill I'd run in Tennessee. I got that good deep cough after I finished the climb and was reminded of the physical toll inhaling smoke a little too often can have on you. I've cut back a good deal since then and don't get that reminder too often anymore, but remember it well.
I started running the blue trail there and when that got easy I added some of the paved parts of the park too. It took me a surprisingly long time to cross Old Hickory though. One day while running with my dog she decided that she wanted to try a new trail and we ended up in Percy Warner on the Mossy Ridge trail. I quickly realized I'd found a really good trail. I actually felt a little ashamed that I'd written off the parks for so long.
If you're training for a trail run with some decent elevation gains the trails in the Warner Parks are the best I've been able to find near Nashville. I ran the Stump Jump in October and if it hadn't been for my training runs in the Warner Parks I'd have gotten my ass kicked even worse.

Montgomery Bell - Mountain Bike Park

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.

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.

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.

Recovery Trail

It took me three weeks and a trip to the physical therapist to get enough movement back in my knee to run again. Basically, after the injury I couldn't bend my leg for so long the joint froze up. Now I'm working on stretching the tendons in my knee back out to normal. Yesterday I was able to run a mile and a half. Today I upped it to two miles. I'm running at a paved path at Burns Park in Kingston Springs. It's a pretty nice little park and it didn't get too damaged when the Harpeth flooded in May. If you are looking for a place to get started running I'd definitely recommend it. There are very few people there the majority of the time and it gives you the opportunity to run off road for about a mile. The paved loop is a half mile so once you work your way up to six miles or so it starts to get pretty boring. The dirt trail splits off of the paved trail and takes you down along the river. Depending on how much it's rained recently the trail can get very muddy. Another drawback of this park is the lack of shade. In the summer it can be pretty stifling when you add a little humidity. The only reason I'm running here right now is the flat paved track so I don't trip and screw up my knee again while it's recovering. That said if you aren't ready for hills and want the opportunity to run on dirt a little and you live in south Cheatham county, definitely give it a shot. Otherwise, ehh.

I'd pretty much written off running in the races I'd been training for, but it looks like I might recover quickly from this injury after all.

Running West of Nashville

The purpose of this blog is to provide information and perhaps entertainment about running in the area located to the west of Nashville, Tennessee. The emphasis will be on trail running in Cheatham, Dickson and Williamson counties. What follows is an attempt to get the "Who am I?" and "Why am I writing this?" answered.

I'm a 28 year-old man who ran on and off growing up, but rarely more than a couple miles. In 2003 I began working for a program in Florida called Outward Bound Discovery. The program basically consisted of taking at-risk youth on canoeing trips that lasted about three weeks. We tried to teach the kids life management skills, expose them to nature and make them miss air conditioning. Before I started work I carefully read my job description and noticed that I would be required to complete an 8 mile run, something I knew would be difficult in my physical state. I had about three months before I was scheduled to start work so I started training. It turned out that I only had to run eight miles once during the year I spent working for them, but the somewhat consistent training runs I had done in preparation had become something of a habit.

After I left Outward Bound I left the flatlands of Florida I'd known all my life and moved to Reno, Nevada. Right before I left Florida I did a really nice 10 mile run I can still remember. It was the farthest I'd run at the time and after I finished I was surprised how good I felt. My first run I Nevada at 5000 ft. left me gasping for air and coughing my lungs out after three miles. Hills and altitude were not something I was prepared for. I got a little intimidated and slowed down my training. Until I found some nice trails and I was hooked once again. I had two main trails I'd run near Reno. The most frequent trail I'd use was at Rancho San Rafael Park. My roommate at the time was a former marathoner and took me there one day to show me a spot to run. I can pretty much still run that trail in my head step for step. It was about a 7 mile loop I believe. It started out in typical park area with people feeding ducks and playing frisbee and climbed a decent little hill through a garden. Pretty soon you crossed under the road through a tunnel and into little river gorge. There were a fair amount of bike riders on the single track trails but hardly any runners. It was a decent trail with some nice hills for a Florida boy and it definitely got me running regularly for a good chunk of time.

While the runs in the park were convenient when I had the Time I'd make the drive up to Stampede Reservoir near Tahoe. The Emigrant Trail there was amazing. It was isolated. There was beautiful high Sierra scenery and it was a tough run for me. The first few runs I did there were pretty miserable. It was hot and dry I was not ready for it. I got my first pair of trail shoes, quit running in 3/4 dress shoe socks and buzzed my head. I decided to do my first organized run, a half trail marathon at Big Sur, in California, somewhere along the way. My longest run at Stampede was about 16 miles.

When the time came for the run at Big Sur I thought I was prepared. I was not. I could have run 13 miles no problem on the hills I was accustomed to around Reno. I got excited and went out a little too hard. Then I tried to keep up a decent pace through the first big hill. The hill however refused to stop before I did. I almost threw up. I walked a few miles and finished up eventually running fairly well.

After the run I quit running for a while. I guess I got a little burnt out and felt like I deserved a break since I'd reached a goal. It took me about six months to get running regularly again. Soon after that I got a new job and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. For the first year or so I lived here my running suffered in exchange for time spent wading in creeks for small mouth bass. I don't really regret that break from running. Around the summer of '08 I started running again and haven't stopped since.


I started out on some paved trails and short loops at the parks in my new home, Kingston Springs. Looking back I'm kind of surprised how long I was able to run 3/4 of a mile circles day after day without going nuts. At some point though I started exploring the area west of Nashville and have discovered some pretty cool spots.


I think that gets the intro out of the way.

When I started writing this I was in good health. July 5th I injured my knee pretty badly while jumping into the river. I was canoeing with my wife and got out of the boat on a steep slope. When I went to get back in I thought it would be easier to jump in the water and swim to the boat instead of getting straight into the boat.

I was wrong.


I slammed into a boulder inches below the surface and ripped my knee open. It needed five stitches. The worst part has been the swelling. I couldn't walk for five days. I've been able to limp around the last couple days but I can't bend my knee very far still. I'm really hoping to be able to run next Monday. It seems possible, but I'm really stressing out about missing two weeks. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.