The last stop on the whirlwind tour of the Nashville area took us to Gallatin. After dropping Ladonna off for her last day it was off in search of one last greenway.
The information I found on line led me to the Gallatin Civic Hall to start this last journey. After parking I
started down Union School Road, past the middle school and through a nice little wooded area. Coming out of the woods I found myself in Triple Creek Park, which was very nice, very well maintained and boasted many multi-use fields, a dog park and a pavilion. This is a pretty good loop taking you out into some fields at the northern most point before turning back and running into the Town Creek Greenway.
This section is truly the gem of this system. It started out running along the side of East Broadway before diving down and under the road, following along side of the creek bed. On the other side it continued down towards town. This was as beautiful of an area as any that I saw during this trip. The fall leaves were on the ground, the creek was bubbling along and there were many interesting sights along the way. It seemed like a perfect trail on a perfect day. At the end of Town Creek there was another short trail or spur and then it ended.
On the way back I tried to remember the map I had seen earlier and cut across East Broadway at the lower parking area then shot up Martha Ave to one last trail around Municipal Park. This one was at times more of a circuit of the parking lots more than a trail. One very curious thing that I noticed… The map showed that the trail crossed Albert Gallatin Drive and ended back in the parking lot of the Civic Center and there was a cross walk there exactly where it should be to do that. But on the fence next to that there was a sign on the park side saying no public exit and on the street side saying no entrance.
Oh well, my time was ending and my car was in sight, if the cops wanted to get me for this violation maybe when they checked my papers they would realize that I was a poor lost soul from Knoxville who most likely couldn’t read the sign… All and all the course I took was about 6. 1 miles.
I escaped without being arrested and was off to pick up my wonderful wife. I can say that each of the places that I visited on this trip had great potential in their own way. Each had it’s own draw and each was a pleasure to run. I hope that I will get the chance to go back again, explore some new places and visit the old ones to see what they have been up to.