Sunday, March 28, 2010

Stones River Greenway Trail of Nashville

Michelle and I took a much needed Valentine weekend to Nashville.  We are both country music fans and wanted to get to the Grand Ol Opry at least once in our lives.  This is an outdoorsy blog, so I will spare you the tourist stuff until the end.  First I will document my trail run at Stones River Greenway.

Stones River Greenway is a nice paved trail that follows the Stones River down from Percy Priest Lake.  The scenery is cool as you wind your way through the trees.  Parts of the trail get interesting when you make your way onto a canti-levered bridge system.  I had taken the wrong spur trail which lead past some nice old buildings.  This added a couple of miles to my planned 6 mile out and back.  Just past the Kohl's parking lot you cross the Stones River on an old structure bridge.  At this point two gals past me on the run.  On the return portion we came to a lengthy hill.  I could here the girls behind me saying they wanted to beat me up the hill.  Well this Colorado trail runner is not going to let a couple of Tennessee runners beat me on a hill, no matter how out of shape I feel.

Back at the trail head I spotted some guys bouldering just across the river close to I-40.  This got my desire up to try a little scrambling while I was in Nashville.  Although I have no other Nashville climbing areas to compare it to, this is a nice place to climb.

Most of my time in Nashville was spent pursuing country music.  Michelle and I seen Dierks Bentley, Montgomery Gentry, Diamond Rio and many others at the Grand Ol Opry.  The next two nights we headed downtown to the honky-tonks to listen to some hungry artists.  The atmosphere in Tootsie's Orchid Lounge was much livelier than any other bar.  The line dancing and huge stage at Wildhorse Saloon was not my style.

I hit two breweries in Nashville:  Blackstone and Big River.  I also visited my first liquor store that did not sell beer.  We visited the Belle Meade plantation.  Oh yeah and we went to Willie Nelson's museum.

Mount Falcon Trail Run

I'm training for a half-marathon in St. George in late April.  My training schedule called for a six mile tempo run, but I was tired of running the trails close to home.  I decided to see how much snow was on Mount Falcon.  My plan was to take the Parmalee loop, then out and back on the Two Dog trail.

There is still plenty of snow on Mount Falcon, but most of the paths are packed.  I did have to post hole a bit on a short section of the Meadow trail.  Other places were melted off and quite soggy.  There were some folks in snow shoes, but I found the trail running to be fun.  You do have to watch your footing a bit.

The views of Denver were cool from the Two Dog trail, but a bit hazy.  From here you also get great views of Mount Evans and Red Rocks.