Enjoying some me time (Spring Break, part 2)

Day 6

Percy Warner

There's nothing like a 20 mile run to facilitate a good nights rest, except maybe a run longer than 20 miles of coarse. After ten solid hours of comatosity, one of my all time favorite cousins, Marilyn, met me at a local brunch joint called J. Christopher's. We enjoyed some unexpectedly great, local roasted coffee with our avocado, onion, and pepper jack cheese-laced omelettes and solved must of the world's problems there at that little table. I mentioned that I would be investigating the trail situation at the Percy Warner State Park and she assured me it would be a great place to go for it.

So, as per the recommendation of my brunch partner and a number of folks from the ultralist, I had to investigate this little park north of Franklin. The weather was pristine and I wasn't the only one taking advantage. Unlike the trails I visited yesterday, this park seems like a very popular one to say the least. I saw several other hikers, runners, and horseback riders out enjoying the day. The trails themselves weren't half bad either. Smooth, well groomed and used, there wasn't much technicality to deal with so it was a perfect time to run in my new NB Minimus again. I opted to run sockless this time just for fun. It turned out to be the longest sockless run I'd ever done.

The first 6 mile loop I did went by astoundingly quick, I guess since I was enjoying the run and the scenery so much. At one point, I was trotting down a portion of trail when I saw a fellow trail user coming in the opposite direction. He was wearing the tell-tale USMC OD green pt uniform; he had decided to walk this little ascent as I blew past. Semper fi anyway, I guess.

Six miles down and I ran back across a street I had traversed to get over to Percy Warner from the neighboring park, Edwin Warner. This park is smaller but has a 2 something mile trail that wraps around its little mountain that makes up the majority of the parks' acreage. After an additional 2 mile out 'n back I concluded the day with a little over 10 miles. There was a beautiful little stream that wasn't too far from my car and I thought it'd be a good idea to take a little bath and let my tired legs get some much needed cooling, plus my shoes needed to be washed off a bit. The creek had a slow, calming current; a crawfish swam his happy little claws right over to my side before I grabbed a stick and played around with him for a little bit.

After about 10 minutes of enjoying some natural mental and physical therapy, I got out of the creek, dropped off my shoes and water bottle at the car, and just for kicks and giggles, I went on a short barefoot hike to top off the day at the park. While I was strollin along I came upon another trail user who shared my affinity for minimal footwear. He was taking a break next to a bench wearing some well used vibram FF's when he spotted me approaching, shoeless. Without so much as a hello, we started chatting about running and trails and bare feet. And then he was off, back down the trail to finish off his run and that was that.

This was one of the better days of trail running I've had in a while. Close enough to civilization that I didn't really have to worry about contingencies, but far enough away from it to be considered secluded. I'll have to visit this place again on a later date.

Famished, I was ready for some food, and it had been a while since I've eatin Vietnamese so...

The dogs needed a break

I was craving some Vietnamese food after that run. Craving: satisfied.

Day 7

St. Elmo Trail

It's been some time since I drove in to Chattanooga and wasn't going to a race. It's been five years, easily. It's almost kinda weird not to have anything on the agenda besides: do whatever I want. Traveling down I-24 from Nashville I spotted some signs for a place called "Outpost Armory" and since I wasn't in any sort of hurry, I had to see what it was all about. Their selection brought a tear to the eye. One of the guys there allowed me to handle the pistol I've been very curious about, the Springfield XDm 3.8. It's gonna be a happy birthday for sure.

Kris and Randy Whorton, the race directors of several of the races I've participated in, not to mention several time finishers at Mountain Mist, were kind enough to let me stay at their house during my stay. I mentioned that I had yet to run today and was game to explore trails I hadn't ever been to. This was enough reason for Randy to skip a meeting he was going to attend that night and take me out to his backyard trails. Seriously, you open their back door and, Bam!, there's a trail under your feet, a trail you could follow for 80+ miles around the Lookout Mountain area. Not a bad setup at all.

Two of his dogs joined us for our 12 mile outing. Randy gave me a little history lesson as we went along. We ran along some old trails that took us along some ancient roads used as trade routes back in the day. You'd only really notice them if you knew they were there. We also went along a gravel road that used to be a trail route, decommissioned in the early 1940's. The original bridges were still there for us to use. Part of our route took us along parts of the Lookout Mountain 50 mile course that I ran about 15 months ago in December of 2009.

After climbing several good, leaf strewn hills and getting eye fulls of panoramic views of the Chattanooga area, we both decided we were getting hungry and headed back. He showed me his backyard, one of the coolest I've seen, complete with a rock wall, giant swing, a make-shift tree house, and a balancing cable. Not a bad set up, indeed.

Day 8

Raccoon Mountain

It had been a long week of runnin. I was getting tired but I had a ton of trails available for my use and I wasn't going to waste my time here. Originally I had planned on driving out to the AT today but it just seemed like too much effort at this point to go all the way out there for only a couple of miles of trail running. So Raccoon Mountain it was.

This was only my 3rd time here, my first time here by myself not running a race, so it was kinda cool that I could just relax on the trails whenever I wanted, enjoying the views. And that's pretty much what it ended up being, a sightseeing run. My legs were straight worn out. I wasn't tired; that could be remedied by 10 hours of sleep and a top notch americana from the Chattanooga Coffee Company; my muscles were just done. I stopped quite a bit to take in the views and rest.

At one point I had to bum some water off a mountain biker (there were a lot out that day) because I hadn't brought any with me. I thought I'd just run over to a place where I knew a water fountain was. Only problem was that I took a wrong turn and that trail didn't lead to any water fountains.

On the way back to the car, I stopped at several little creek crossings and splashed myself with cool water. I don't think I've ever been out here when that didn't feel really good.

After I got back to my car and changed clothes, I drove down to the NorthShore to my favorite coffee joints called the Stone Cup and had an iced tea and a chocolate chip scone. For dinner I had been wanting to try the Terminal Brewery I had been hearing so much about. They have a lot of their own brews on tap, but that would have to wait... about another month. Knowing I would be back here again at some point this year with much better company I happily settled for their house beer of the sassafras variety with my steak dinner.

Well that about does it for this little episode of my explorations. After I got back to Auburn on Sunday I went out for a 7 mile run to round out my total mileage for spring break to just over 100 miles, averaging 10 miles for 10 days. I enjoyed explorin these new trails and hope to run them with other people the next time I go out (what a concept) but now real life has to be lived again and I'll be forced to settle for a lot of road running once more. But there is no need to complain as my legs still work and my mind is still sound; a running I will go.