The Great Tennessee Hike

Will Hike for Donuts / Two women's journey to hike every TN state park in a year

[greattnhike]

17: Beldsoe Creek State Park

Date Hiked: 04/19/2015

Location: Gallatin, TN

In Attendance: May, Devin, Chris, Josh

Miles walked: 1 maybe?

After the ankle sprain I endured at Fall Creek Falls, I wasn't feeling up for a particularly strenuous hike. Devin and Chris has planned to go out backpacking at Stone Door, but the weather was not on our side, with tornadoes in the forecast. So we decided to keep things relatively local and head over to Bledsoe Creek State Park.

This, incidentally, is the site where Devin and Chris got married!  (As aside bar, I have fond memories of driving up the steep hill to their wedding in my car, which had broken down around the corner and just barely chugged up that sucker. I have less fond memories of being the jerk who had to call a tow truck truck to a wedding.)

Devin didn't have high hopes for Bledsoe - the lake trail is mostly paved, and she didn't remember there being much of a trail. But honestly, I was not up for doing much of a trail.

It turned out that we had a lovely time, despite the lack of hiking. The wildlife was out in full force, and I charmed the whole team with my reaction to baby turtles sitting on logs. Baby turtles! Sitting on logs!

We also saw a mysterious bird - we debated if it was a turkey, a bird of prey, or water fowl, before we saw it lift it's leg and show us some decidedly webbed feet. Josh googled this mysterious bird for us later, and it turned out to be a muscovy duck.  Tell me this duck wouldn't also make you stop to debate its origins.

After wandering around the lake a bit, we came back to head the other direction to wander along the natural lake trail. Less paved, but no less easy an amble than the paved course. Except the water levels were so high that day, the trail was washed out in several sections. We got around it for the most part - and Chris, who apparently has no concerns about getting his socks wet, just trudged right through. I guess the waterproofing on his boots is a little bit better than mine.

After this, we gave up and went to have some delicious Chicago style Italian beef at  Campione's in Gallatin. There aren't a lot of places that serve this, and it was my secret agenda to pick a state park in near proximity to this Chicago delight. Except that it was not particularly secret, since I announced by beefy intentions while convincing Devin that we should go there. It's also a pretty bad idea to eat without exercising a little bit beforehand (although the amount of exercise we got at this park was truly negligible.

I'm giving the park itself a rating of 3 because it was pretty lame, even though I was delighted by the wildlife. It was ideal for my bum ankle, but it would have been nice to have a real hike (and, caveat, they do have a ridge trail, which is apparently rated difficult, so I wasn't up for it, and I am sure that trail has more to offer someone looking for actual hiking).

[greattnhike]

16: Fall Creek Falls State Park

Date Hiked: 04/11/2015

Location: Spencer, TN

Miles hiked: 3.5?

In Attendance, Mary, Devin, Chris, Josh, Ally, Jo, June

Weather: Beautiful. I don't remember, but it was perfect.

*note: most of the photos in this post were taken by Devin or Chris. My photos are the ones that have been Instgrammed.

I am not sure how to describe Fall Creek Falls, exactly. Somehow, in the 6ish years that I have lived in Nashville, I've never made it out to this place. Oh sure, I've hear people bandy about phrases like, "tallest waterfall East of the Mississippi," but I've always been a little bit hipster about it. I hate going places where a lot of people go - it's not original, it's not cutting edge. It all just seemed like such an ordinary idea.

But I was missing out. Truly missing out.

We started by checking out the main falls, which were, as advertised, very, very tall. Thus, the climb to the base of the falls was very, very steep. The group seemed anxious to get down to business and were swift as they clambered over the rocks and the weird footing. 

I was no such centaur, and my legs were so shaky by the time were were in spitting distance, I decided not to climb all the way to the bottom. I may not have ventured into the heart of the thing like some of the brave ones, but I hope that the view from where I sat was just as good.

In the fashion of true regret, what you climb down usually involves climbing back up. And oh, my body was not a fan of this. But slow and steady and a few inhaler puffs later, I made it to the top. And as hard as it felt - as much as my legs did not forgive me - I don't regret it. Because the things we saw at the base of the falls, the feeling of being so near this powerful thing - so close to the heart of the river - are the kind of things that will stay with us. Some day, I really won't be able to climb that, so I am glad to have done it while I could, despite my lack of grace in execution.

We hiked out about a mile from the main falls to visit a second waterfall, Cane Creek Falls. This was more of a viewing point, so we stopped to take a few quick group photos and enjoy the view before heading back over to the cascades.

The Cascades is where we really got our money's worth on his hike. We started by walking across this terrifying swing bridge: 

View from the middle of the bridge: 

And then we walked down some step to hang at the top of the cascade:

 Devin, June, and Ally all ventured down more steps to the bottom of the cascades, where they got to see this:

I know I wasn't recovered enough from my shaky legs to make it back up the rest of steps, but I do feel like I missed something really special. There is always next time, of course, and there will definitely be a next time with a view like that.

Josh and I, instead, slowly walked to the top of the hill and ate some sandwiches. You win some, you lose some. The sandwiches were good, at least.

We had only a mile to hike back to the car, and all was going well - the day was practically perfect, even - until I stepped wrong and sprained my ankle. What is perhaps amusing about this is that I wasn't actually doing anything difficult. The trail was level and relatively flat - I had just stepped over a root and landed wrong, rolled under my old bad foot. I've sprained this thing so many times that I've lost count, and I have had much worse sprains to date, but it wasn't the best to walk half a mile of trail on a bad leg. Jo saved the day with his first aid preparedness, since he had a portable ice pack available for me to use on the way home, and Josh let me sit with my foot in his lap the whole ride home so I could elevate. It could have been worse. And at lest it will always be memorable.

I give 4.75 stars to our trip to Fall Creek Falls. It only loses that .25 point because it was crowded, and it was a bit painful.

[greattnhike]

15: Natchez Trace State Park

Date Hiked: 03/28/2015

Miles Hiked: maybe 2

In Attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Josh

Location: Wildersville, TN

Weather: 40s

The first thing we noticed about Natchez Trace State Park was that it is very difficult to navigate. The second thing we noticed was that all the bathrooms were closed.

We did, however, find this cool abandoned gas station by the camp store, which had exterior restrooms that had the audacity to be closed. What kind of person locks exterior access bathrooms at a state park?  The worst kind of person.

Long story short, I peed behind a random building. When I looked inside, it looked like a charming little wedding reception was set up - complete with daisy and mason jar center-pieces. So it seemed like a good venue.

I'm not sure what the name of the trail we used was, but it was actually a pretty neat trail. We started out by a lackluster lake - but I like bin near any body of water, lackluster or not, and then ventured into some muddy marshlands. This trail was really muddy. We weren't sure if it was just because of the recent weather or if it's just always muddy. It's a marshy enough area that it seemed like it might be.

At one point, we found this mysterious clearing/hill.

I kind of love this photo because Chris looks a little bit like a zombie traveling through a dystopian landscape to get us.

We didn't have a ton of time at this park, which is too bad because we all agreed that the trail we were on was pretty awesome. As we circled back, we ventured along a short, self-guided nature tour. The nature tour was, ah, lack-luster…

Plants. I was a bit behind everyone else, so they got to this one and laughed, but wouldn't tell me what it said. I had to see it for myself, they said.  Might I point out the lack of plants in the background?

One of the posts said "tornado damage," and I am guessing that is the explanation for the weird zombie-dystopian hillside.

Another hit from this part of the trail was a post that pointed out a rotten log. I am not sure what the deal is with pointing out the obvious, but the curator of TN State Park self-guided nature tours must really, really love rotten logs. Avid readers of this blog may remember the "decaying tree" sign at Tims Ford State Park.

The greatest adventure of all was leaving the park. After instructing Josh to turn onto what looked like a normal road via Google Maps, we found ourselves on a one lane gravel access roads. There were a few moments where the rocks and brush whacked up into the underage of his car, and I was a teensy bit worried we would find ourselves broken down in this weird kudzu wasteland:

Because if you want to know what a dystopia will look like, I truly believe that kudzu will inherent the earth.

[greattnhike]

14: Mousetail Landing State Park

Date Hiked: 03/28/2015

Miles Hiked: 2

In Attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Josh

Location: Linden, TN

Weather: 40s

The Tale of the Hill

As we embarked upon a mission to traverse the scenic day loop trail, we met with the most majestic of obstacles: nesting bald eagles. Alas, our trail was closed.

We moaned and bemoaned. We checked the map. We re-planned our plan.

A kind park ranger, rough around the edges, drove up to our reconvening adventure and warned us. He tried to send us back the way we came. But we were sure it would be fine. We had the spirit of the beautiful day in us. We could not be stopped. We resolved to take on any challenge.

And then we saw the sign. The foreboding sign. Not for the faint of hear.

We laughed at the sign. We photographed the sign. We didn’t believe the sign.

And we met our folly.

Josh and Chris took off. They feared no hill. They would not be delayed, deterred, or detoured. They steadily made their way up, always trudging forward.

Devin’s approach was to run. She was all about momentum. But she realized her mistake after mere moments, stopped for a breath, and then wait for me.

For I, I am not a friend to any hill. I was crushed by the hill. The hill was made of quicksand. My feet were made of cement. With the help of my encouraging friend, we switched back, we stopped, we switched back again, our spirits slowly, ever so slowly, crawling up that god forsaken hill.

At the top of the hill, we all stopped. We drank half our water. I poofed all of three puffs on my inhaler. But we did it. We beat the hill. Did I mention that this was a paved road and not a hiking trail?

Our journey aside, this was a pretty nice park. Devin and Chris had initially planned to backpack overnight, but the weather was not cooperating, and we had a strange freezing bout that weekend. So we stuck with the day trail. It was interesting primarily because it was mossy. The rest of the woods were still barren, only bearing the faintest sign of spring. But this green trail was alive under our feet. It was like walking across a weird shag carpet from the 70s. I was delighted by it with every step. I also got the Yellow Brick Road stuck in my head for the remainder of the hike.

We also saw some cool trees that woodpeckers had gotten the best of. I saw a woodpecker later, and decided that either woodpecker fly weirdly, or that particular woodpecker is as bad at flying as I am at walking up steep, paved roads.

After finishing the portion of the loop that got us back to our cars, we decided that we had enough time to hit another nearby park, Natchez Trace State Park. More on that in my next installment!

[greattnhike]

13: Paris Landing State Park and Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area

Date Hiked: 03/21/2015

Miles Hiked: 5.5ish

In Attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Josh, Becca

Location: Buchanan, TN

Weather: 40 ish maybe

Our trip to Paris Landing State Park covered many conversational topics: the trials of our lives, whether of not our parents kept the teeth they’d been gathering under the guise of the “Tooth Fairy,” and the civilization that we would create if we got lost in the woods. 

The thing about that is, at Paris Landing State Park, sometimes it felt like we would never leave. And not for any of the good reasons. The trail was poorly marked and a little bit depressing. 

This unhelpful sign kind of helped, but it was difficult even locating the trail head. We wandered around for a while and found a weird overgrown field with a weird ugly pond, We we got onto the trail, it almost immediately opened up into a field, and then right back to the road.

He we are, crossing the road and feeling super confused by this trail: 

The trail probably wasn’t the worst one we’ve been on (nothing holds a candle to the fun we had at Port Royal State Park), but it was pretty lame and littered with random trash:

It’s hard to read in this photo, but the sign back there asks that you we please do not litter. 

Not loving how poorly maintained and boring this park was, we bailed on it and got back in the car. Because only 5 minutes down the road was Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. 

And this park was great!  Sure, it isn’t a state park, and we barely chipped the iceberg of its offerings, but the day loop trail that we found was pretty spectacular. It started out with almost no trailhead - we probably would not have found it without a map. And the trail that led into the loop trail was somewhat overgrown - it felt like no one had been there in years, as evidenced by this tree growing right into the trail: 

Yea, that isn’t a field. That’s the trail. We were super excited to be there (or at least Becca and I were filled with childlike wonder). 

When we hit the main loop, Devin realized that she needed to check into a flight with Southwest so she could get a good boarding number (and thus secure a window seat), so we stopped for a while to find enough phone service to check her in. If you had been to all the other state parks we’ve gone out to (with the exception of Henry Horton State Park, which is equipped with wifi), you would know that this is a near impossible task. But we succeeded!  Somewhere in the world there is a photo of me, Becca, and Devin standing around with our iPhones at weird angles, trying to get Southwest’s website to load. Unfortunately, I don’t have this photo in my possession. 

But here is a nice view of the tree line that we enjoyed while announcing how many data G’s we could get in any given location:

While we were ambling along the trail, we found this lake (probably the one that the land is in between), where Becca and I were completed delighted by gathering shells from the beach and definitely not taking them anywhere and absolutely not removing them from the park: 

Not pictured: sand fleas. They are pretty itchy. 

At a certain point, the rest of the group had to hike away to get us to leave this mollusk wonderland. It was tempting just to stay behind and live there forever. But, well. Sand fleas. And honestly, my bed is a lot more comfortable to sleep on than sand.

Then we came upon a random, delightful “field” of flowers:  

I’m like 95% sure this is a daffodil, but we called them 1) daisies 2) dandelions and 3) tulips respectively. We need to work on our plant identification skills if we are going to make it the whole year without contracting poison oak. 

We also saw this gentleman on a boat, who I believe was the only other living soul we encountered at this park: 

We were a bit confused as the trail looped back around, and for a while it seemed like we were on an access road. And for a while my legs were so tired that I wanted nothing more than to not be hiking anymore, except I none of us knew how long this loop was or when it would end. 

Eventually we found our way back to our car and then immediately found our way to the nearest Sonic. This has become a recent theme, in additional to our continual quest for great regional donuts.

To sum out: Paris Landing State Park is not really worth a visit, but Land Between the Lakes is pretty great, and it’s a park I’d definitely like to see more of next year. Also, I wanted to go to sleep at like 5pm, but Josh made me stay awake until a reasonable time. And then I slept like a rock. That’s usually a sign of a pretty successful hike in my book. 

[greattnhike]

12: Standing Stone State Park

Date Hiked: 03/08/2015

Miles Hiked: 4ish

In Attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Josh

Location: Hilham, TN

Weather: 50 something degrees

I am doing a poor job of keeping on top of this blog, but since we’re hiking again tomorrow, I really need to tell you about Standing Stone State Park. It was so long ago (and so much has happened since then), I can barely remember, but hopefully the pictures will jog my memory. 

We began our day by stopping in Cookeville for donuts at the Big O. We’ve stopped here a few times, and they are a pretty solid choice (thought there aren’t many choices in that area).  When we stopped around the holidays. they had like 75 Christmas trees set up (along with 75 signs asking that we do not touch the decorations), but they appear to only do things up big for Christmas because it has been decidedly undecorated since then. 

As we drove through the winding back roads to get to the park, we had to stop to move a fallen tree out of the road. I didn’t think to get any pictures of these because I was trying to move the tree, but it was pretty exciting. A gentleman on his motorcycle also stopped to help (trees are heavy), and we were pretty giddy until we met with this: 

So it turned out we didn’t need to move that tree because we couldn’t get into the parking area from this direction anyway. We had to drive for about half an hour to get to the park office that is literally a 3 minutes walk from this bridge. Alas. But at least we cleared the road.

Here is that same closed road from another angle - looking a lot less like an irritating obstacle: 

We’d been to Standing Stone before in the Fall, and this hike was pretty similar, but due to some weird weather recently, a few of the trails had some some on them still:

Which led to some slippy and muddy areas, but that was to be expected. At one point, the trail loops around a lake, and some of the trails in that area don’t have a lot of room between you and a 30 foot drop, so it was a bit nerve-wracking to be o the narrow trails while they were so slippery.  I am not a brave human, so it felt like a real challenge to get through some parts, but I feel like a better person for getting through it and facing danger head on. 

There were also a few parts of the trail where there was a weird wire hanging down or coiled randomly on the ground. Before we had started, the park ranger had greeted us, asked us about maps (we were kind of cavalier about having been there before, and he looked worried, but then Devin walked up holding a map). He had asked us to let him known if we saw anything down on the trail because he hadn’t been out since the ice had thawed, but I think that weird cable had been there a lot longer. 

Here is a generic photo of my companions hiking on one of the dryer parts of the trail:

Here is a picture of the lake, which I share primary because the water was the weirdest shade of green. It seems like it could be a trick of the photo, but no...  This is what the water actually looked like: 

Probably don’t want to go swimming in that any time soon...

Here is a sweet log that Devin and Josh decided to go across (Chris and I decided to use the rocks in the creek bed - seemed safer, though less exciting): 

All in all, we had a pretty great day, and I think Standing Stone is definitely a park worth more visits. Aside from the initial hill (where I had to use my inhaler 3 times to recover), it’s a pretty moderate challenge - a good mixture of small hills and obstacles to climb over, with enough flatter parts of the trail to meander through. I think the narrowness of the trail is great from developing better balance, although sometimes the trail was a bit washed over by erosion, so it could feel precarious. 

Hopefully I won’t go so long before writing the next post, so I remember a bit more of it and give you, my small reading audience, something that is actually interesting to read. 

[greattnhike]

11: Tims Ford State Park

Date Hiked: 02/28/2015

Miles Hiked: 6ish

In Attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Josh

Location: Winchester, TN

Weather:40ish degrees

This park was a little bit of a dud, and I don't think we will go out of our way to return (what with so many other amazing parks in our area).  Luckily we didn't drive too far to get there (but far enough), clocking in around 1.5 hours one way. In the heart of Jack Daniels country, our time might have been better spent on a whiskey tour (which, BTW, is a great tour), but this is a state park/hiking blog and a not a whiskey tour blog, so hiking was our primary goal. 

We started the morning by walking along the Lost Creek Overlook Trail, which wasn't so bad, except it turned out to be a paved trail. I think we might have mistakenly ventured onto the non-lost creek trail, which was simply called the Overlook Trail. Later in the year, my guess is that this trail gets really crowded because it's actually pretty nice - A pleasant stroll around a large lake, with several opportunities to walk down to the water.  Except it was paved, so we were ambling more than hiking. Also, we did not find the Lost Creek. Here are some things we saw, anyway. 

This cool stump: 

And this blue feather: 

We did locate the Wildflower Trail, which was a natural trail, and while there were no wildflowers to see, we got to view this lovely decaying tree:

If I weren't already in love with a specific person, I'd fall in love with whatever park ranger was bored enough to state the obvious.

At the bridge, we discovered this adorable snowman that an enterprising visitor set up: 

After this trail ended, we popped onto the Spann House Trail, which started out okay...  We saw this monster tree where six trees got together to form a super tree, like a television hero: 

But after that, the trail turned out to be mostly drab and disappointing. The trees were really thin in the woods, so we didn't have much to look at, and it was really close to the road, so we could see the road occasionally and hear cars coming back. We didn't make it to whatever the Spann House was, but it would have to have been really awesome to merit a trip the whole way down this trail. We decided to turn around and then cut back by a really weird ranger facility/trash pile to get back to the paved trail we came in on. I found a sweet marble on the ground and saw this sweet boat, the "Nun Yet." She's a prime sea-faring vessel, as you can see:

As we made our way back along the Overlook Trail, we learned that our snowy friend was slowly dying in the harsh 40 degree weather, his whole body melting in the sweltering heat: 

The best part of this park was something that everyone but me noticed before we started, but I was a little late on the uptake. The visitor center had some large bird pens where an owl, a black vulture, and a hawk were all recovering/living due to woodland injuries. The hawk was especially majestic, but I wasn't able to turn any photos because my phone wouldn't focus on anything but the fence of the pen. This was probably good, since I didn't want to have to get those birds to sign away the rights to use their photos in my very important blog project/obvious impending publication. The owl might have been on board, but that hawk was too fucking majestic to let me capture his soul in a photograph.

We also saw some majestic hawks (or some other kind of bird - ornithologists we are not) circling overheard, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on some easy, slow-moving targets. Luckily, we had a car to outrun them, and drive ourselves right into the welcome bosom of the milkshakes and not-Blizzards-but-might-as-well-be-s at Sonic. Ice cream after a hike is a recipe for a nap, and a great consolation prize for less than stellar hike (although the company was good, the weather was perfect, the hawks were majestic, and we got more miles in that we've been averaging in this off-season).

If you look closely, you can maybe even see a hawk. Maybe that's a hawk: 

[greattnhike]

10: Pickett State Park

Date Hiked: 02/15/2015

Miles Hiked: 3.5

In Attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Josh, Terrie, Eric, Becca

Location: Jamestown, TN

Weather: 16 degrees

Oh the cold places you'll go. 

Continuing on from Sgt. Alvin C. York Park, we ventured to the nearby Pickett State Park, which is connected to (or at least appears to be, based on the google maps, Big South Fork National Park). I spent most of this hike being charmed by nature.

Becca and I were both amazed that, despite the weather, the trail was surrounded by shrubs with big, beautiful, waxy green leaves, most of which were curled up and awkwardly hanging - I imagine they were especially sad shrubs due to the weather. It felt like we were in a completely different landscape - somewhere very temperate and jungle-like. We both stopped to take several pictures, but of course Chris made fun of us for doing this, and of course all of mine were blurry. So here is a terrible photo of some leaves that will never do the moment justice: 

I fell a little bit in love with the ice formations in the mud and loved the crunch they made under my feet. Chris immediately commented on how we spent about 8 years taking pictures of some leaves but didn't stop to take pictures of the weird mud ice. So later, when no one was paying attention, I took a picture of that, too: 

I told you it was cold...

At one point we all came to a stop to try to look out at a natural bridge/rock formation (we were looking for a specific natural bridge, which that did not turn out to be), and we couldn't find Devin. Someone said, "Oh, she took a side trail over there. She'll be back..." One of my favorite things about hiking with Devin is her sense of adventure. She will take every opportunity to get to a scenic overlook, even if the the brush looks too dense. So I followed the same path and found this scene at the decidedly not-natural damn: 

Chris snapped this photo as he followed us in, which I think gets a much better look at the scene: 

I found another small path that seemed to lead to the base of that dam, and was really impressed by the view. A shallow stream bed wound its way back along the cliff faced, which were covered in icicles: 

Devin and I both made it pretty far back, a bit off the beaten path (in that were was no actual path to follow), and it was well worth it. I forgot about being cold for a while and just took in how immense and impressive nature is when it just does what it does. 

We popped back up to the main trail and got a little bit lost, so it was pretty great foresight that Devin had a printed trail map with her. She is a lot better at preparedness than I am (I'm really likely to send us further into the woods to our deaths).  We eventually found our way back to where we were heading so we could locate the scenic natural bridge we were trying to find.

That bridge did not look very solid from the bottom, and it was terrifying to walk across, but my legs were much more shaky than the rock. It is definitely not going anywhere anytime soon. 

When finished up the hike, and I think we all agreed that this was an extremely cool state park that we'd love to visit again (or check out the nearby national park to see what other wonders it holds).

After our drive back to town, we decided to settle an argument that both Terrie and I have had with Chris on two separate hikes: The grocery store generic foods are the same as name brand foods. Note that this debate has gotten surprisingly spirited and contencious in the past. The name brand taste test put the following items through the gauntlet of our sophisticated post-hike pallets: Cheez-Its, Chex Mix, Fig Newtons, Reese's Cereal, Pretzels, Potato Chips, Ravioli, and Dr. Pepper.

The results were pretty mixed - I still maintain that Chex Mix and Kroger brand knock-off Chex Mix are identical, but both Becca and Terrie knew the difference immediately. Everyone could tell with the Cheez-Its and Reese's cereal, most of us thought the Kroger brand Fig Newtons were better than the name brand, and while we could all tell the difference between the Dr. Pepper and Dr. Thunder, it was kind of down the middle on which one we liked better (and my own answer on that question surprised me more than anything, since I grew up loving Dr. Pepper and nothing else). Nobody could really tell the difference on the potato chips, and the pretzels were negligible. Kroger ravioli is much better than Chef Boyardi - I'm actually pretty sure there were even more actual raviolis in the Kroger can. 

While this has very little to do with state parks or hiking, it settled that debate and I conceded that store brands and name brands really aren't the same (though I maintain that for general ingredients like canned beans and flour, they really are), although they were close (and in some cases better).  But I've been eating that Chex Mix all week, which I previously thought I didn't like, so I think we all know who the real winner is here. "Chex Mix, number one food snack in the land. The cereal taste that you eat with your hand."

[greattnhike]

8: Sgt. Alvin York State Park

Date Hiked: 02/15/2015

Miles Hiked: 0.5 ish

In Attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Josh, Terrie, Eric, Becca

Location: Pall Mall, TN

Weather: 16 degrees

This state park is pretty weird and, as Devin described it to me, is basically a 1/2 mile walk to a grave. The grave belongs to Sgt. Alvin York, a WWI hero about whom you can read some things here. He weren't sure who he was before visiting his grave, and I have to say I was pretty relieved when he didn't turn out to be terrible. I was expecting some southern confederate lunacy, but Sgt. York really had his act together. His park, however, was in the middle on nowhere.  

Here is a very posh restaurant in Pall Mall, across the street from the park entrance, which illustrates much of the small town charm we saw on the road:  

About that drive - if you ever drive around the more rural highways of TN, you will see a slew of these weird "Top Secret" signs. Some of them have arrows on them, and some of them just don't point to anywhere. We've seen these before on hikes in 2014, but now that I have looked up what the heck these are, I am terribly disappointed that nothing top or secret is happening. It's all just a big tourism thing (which Devin did tell me). Though reading that description, there is definitely some interesting stuff to see (a different blog for a different year, perhaps). 

Some other signs that we saw on the road included "Manure U Haul" and "Possum Trot Variety." There was also one point where we were driving along the TN and KY state line and we saw a drive-through bar with a giant cartoon bear painted on the side. Classy.

Once we got out of the car, we realized that 3 hour drive to this park might have been foolhardy because it was cold. It was so cold. We walking a bit around the old mill, and I had an asthma attack about 5 minutes in because the air was so cold. Seriously, I used to live in the north and probably walked home from school in negative degree weather - I have even stood shivering on train platforms in near-blizzards, but this, this was so cold.  Terrie said it was the coldest she has ever been (which I believed). 

Anyway, here is the old grist mill, looking deceptively picturesque and not at all freezing: 

Don't be fooled by how charming that looks. It was cold. It also overlooked this lovely waterfall dam, which it was much to cold to really look at and appreciate for longer than about 4 seconds: 

And it looks out at this nice bridge. Again, too cold, didn't read:

We scraped the idea of hiking to the grave and opted to drive to the grave. We also didn't see the .5 mile trail anywhere and it was too frigid to search - cars are so much warmer than searching. Once we arrived at the cemetery a few men who also braved the morning weather asked me if we were "on the tour." I told them, "Sort of." We are, after all, on a tour of sorts, but probably not the tour they meant (I think they were either on the sanctioned tour of the grounds by the state park or the Top Secret tour). 

Here are some interesting cemetery sights...

A weeping angel:  

A strategically placed cherub: 

A hand-carved headstone: 

After wandering around the cemetery for a while - feeling slightly less cold after prolonged exposure - we finally located that .5 mile trail, which advertised a swing bridge. We made it as far as the swing bridge and then turned around promptly so we wouldn't get frostbite before our second park visit of the day. 

After this park, we visited Pickett State Park for a more substantial hike - more on that later!

I leave you now with the some cool street names we saw in Pall Mall: 

1) Rotten Fork

2) Squirrel Flat (Josh jokes that they names it after the first thing they ran over)

[greattnhike]

7: Radnor Lake State Park

Location: Nashville, TN

Date Visited: 03/08/2015

Distance Hiked: 4 miles

Weather: 40-50 degrees

In attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Ally, Jo, Terrie, Eric, Becca, and Leighton

Located within metro Nashville, I've visited Radnor Lake State Park a few times, so it was hard to get up the energy to write a blog post about it. Been there, done that, etc.  But we still had a pretty nice visit to this one, with a pretty big group. Unfortunately, I waited a bit too long to post, so I can't remember the finer points of conversation or our weekly history lesson. 

We started on the Lake Trail but switched to the significantly more difficult ridge trail to give ourselves a challenge. Both trails were very well maintained, but the Lake Trail is a sightly less rugged surface, and it's mostly covered in wood chips. This time of year, they seemed to be using recycled pine trees, so the trail was both springy and had a fresh pine scent. 

Here, Devin is up to her old tricks doing some bridge acrobatics:

The ridge trail was rated strenuous, which I believe it do to a rather steep and large hill. When they say ridge, they mean it. It was pretty, but there wasn't a lot to look out at once we got to the top. Luckily it was just one hill and not a trail that went up and down several times. We did see some deer at the top of the ridge, one of which had lost an antler. 

Thus, the elusive unicorn: 

Some of our group was a little bit faster at getting back down to the base of the hill: 

The ridge trail led back into the lake trail, so it was a fairly quick jaunt out of the woods. Here is a really cool tree we found back at the lake trail: 

Eventually, the trail connected to the main road, where we saw the impressive work of a group of beavers. There were several downed trees along the path, but this was my favorite: 

I'm sure that beaver was just on his lunch break, but he has definitely made some real progress on this initiative. 

Radnor is a great trail if you are afraid of dogs, since they aren't allowed in this park, but it isn't a great place to take a picnic, since food isn't allowed either. It also isn't a great place to go in the afternoon on a nice day - We've tried that before, and the park is both popular due to its central location and lacking in adequate parking. A few years ago, the first time I tried to go with Terrie and Eric, we couldn't even get to the parking lot due to the line of cars ahead of us who weren't able to park. Luckily, we were meeting up pretty early in the morning, so that wasn't an issue, but we left by around 10:30am, in the off-season, no less, and the lot was completely full.

All that said, for a state park, Radnor has immaculate bathrooms. 

[greattnhike]

6: Bicentennial Mall State Park

Date Hiked: 02/07/2015

Miles Hiked: 0.5 ish

In Attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Josh, Terrie, Eric

Location: Nashville, TN

Weather: 50 to 60ish degrees

Located in downtown Nashville, we didn't realize this was a state park, but we figured it would be a pretty easy one to knock out based on proximity. 

Last Saturday was the most beautiful possible day, and we started it out right by meeting up with a big group of friends for the annual Ice Cream for Breakfast Day event at the Pied Piper Creamery in East Nashville. This is pretty much the best day of the year, and my third time in attendance (we missed one year due to a freak morning snow storm). I enjoyed a scoop of pistacho on a sugar cone and wandered to Bongo Java East across the street for some hot cider. I think this is the only coffee shop that had hot cider all year rounds, for which I am eternally grateful. 

To round out a serious Nashville morning, we headed downtown and stopped at the food court of the farmers market (adjacent to the park) for a bite of normal food. Unfortunately, most of the stands weren't open yet when we arrived, so our choices were burritos, candles, the Indian market, and one lone deli that happened to have surprisingly great biscuit and egg sandwiches.

Bicentennial Mall, which I have walked through several times and never really looked at, is a pretty small park for a state park, but it was nice for a downtown park.  The outer walk is lined with an outline of the history of TN engraved into a marble wall. We all noted the heavy handed, but also sort of elegant gesture that the park designers made when it came to the civil war, and the marble wall was intentionally broken in several places. 

There is a small WWII memorial to respectfully stroll through, which included a rather beautiful marble globe (at least I think it was marble): 

Those large plaques you see are lining the memorial, and they really punctuated the mood of the day: 

Next, we stumbled around a memorial for what appeared to be musicians who were either native to or residents of Nashville. If I am not mistaken, these pillars might be mini bell towers: 

We also saw a picturesque ampatheatre, some random "weathered" columns whose meaning we couldn't quite ascertain, and a cool sun dial. 

I think my favorite thing about this park was the adorable way that this tree was labeled.  While I am sure that this is not the only tree with a label, I didn't see any others, and I like the idea of a rogue dendrologist who carries these tiny signs around to every city, just looking for good trees to label: 

But in all seriousness, the highlight of this park for me was a large map of Tennessee which was engraved into the ground, looking out at the state capitol building. 

Here is the view: 

Here I point to where I live on the map. I'm pretty far off, so nobody should bother to come looking for me: 

Here are some funny town names we found: 

And finally, here are some shadows:

This was not really a hiking park, so we didn't get many miles in, but there were a lot of things to read, and I was glad I actually stopped to read some of them for once. It's sad how we can take for granted some of the wonderful things in the cities where we live, but I will definitely be going back to spend more time with that concrete map. 

After the park, we rounded out a Nashville day when a few of us visited the Belcourt theatre to watch the animated Oscar shorts. I was particularly taken with "The Single Life," though I am convinced that "The Dam Keeper" is going to win (partly because it made me weep). 

I wish I had more commentary, but honestly, it was such a lovely day that I was a bit lost in feeling alive and was not really taking notes. 

[greattnhike]

5: Henry Horton State Park

Date Hiked: 01/25/2015

Miles Hiked: 4.5 ish

In Attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Terrie, Ally, Jo, Grace

Location: Chapel Hill, TN

Weather: 40 to 50 degrees

A beautiful day, this park was about an hour drive from my house in Nashville. My dear friend Grace was visiting from Chicago, and we had a pleasant ride down, listening to music and not talking too much because I was still mostly asleep (even though we left the house at 10am).

We met up with the group at a building called “The Interpretation Center,” which was near the trail-head to both the River trail and the Hickory Ridge Loop. This building was a bit hard to find, and the while the signage to get to the park was good off the highway, I had to pull up a park map on my phone because we couldn't find one while I was driving around.

Once we found the interpretation center, the first thing I noticed was that this state park has wifi, which I found endlessly amusing. The second thing I noticed was that this center was locked, thus the bathroom was locked, and I couldn't determine the building’s actual purpose. There was a building with showers nearby, where the bathrooms were apparently also locked. Devin took this as an opportunity to drive to a find a civilized bathroom that was not locked. I took it as an opportunity to pee behind the building.

We started out by hiking down the river trail, which was especially pleasant. I love walking along water, but this water had a few little river splits and islands that made for some interesting scenery.

About a mile in, we found an adorable lookout point that looked out onto an amber wave of grain. I was so happy to find this clearing, and Terrie said she wanted nothing more than to run through it, but was worried about ticks. The lookout was a bit of a shaky structure – I was firm in my requests that the boys stop trying to shake it. Ally asked that we refrain from discussing the beams/construction of this haphazard stairway to nowhere until we were back at the bottom of it. I think that is probably a wise precaution.

Here is that lovely wave of amber grain, in all her splendor. I think this was my favorite part of the trail (and it made me a little homesick for the flat farmland of central IL).

It had rained a bit during the week, so the trail was pretty slick under the leaves, but not too bad until we started to loop back inward. There were a couple of areas that were a muddy slog, and a few of our group chose to go off trail so they didn't ruin their shoes. 

We found this adorable and vaguely mysterious trail marker. I couldn't find the meaning of this symbol after after 3 minutes of interested googling, so I am just going to assume it is probably occult and call it a day.

We also found a few trees with some mysterious bark growth. I don't know enough about trees to know what would cause this, but it wasn't something most of us had every seen before. Probably a result of whatever occult rituals were happening with that aforementioned weird sign.

As for history, we discussed tobacco bellows, which are a fascinating chapter of medical history, and the Winchester Mystery House in California, which I am adding to my list of weird places to visit. Terrie also regaled me with some stories of haunted houses in San Diego.

The rest of the trail was pretty interesting to look at – it had a couple of small caves and rock formations that were very similar to what we saw over at Cedars of Lebanon.

At the end of the trail, I noticed this amusing sign, noting both the start and end of the trail.

After the trail, we hung around the Interpretation Center for a bit, and Ally and Terrie got some delighted swinging in at the local swing set.

Grace and I stopped on our way home at a small restaurant called “Stan’s” that was attached to a gift store and a gas station. I got a club sandwich that turned out to have both ham and American cheese on it. Southern dining at its finest. The drive back was fairly stormy, and we counted our blessings that the rain hit after we had gotten into the car.

I think we all agreed that it was a pretty nice trail, and it was a very easy path with almost no incline – definitely a good place for a group with different fitness levels. I would definitely go back there if I were feeling too lazy to climb a hill.

[greattnhike]

4: Montgomery Bell State Park

Date: 01/18/2015

Location: Burns, TN

In attendance: Devin, Mary, Josh, Terrie, Eric, and June

Weather: 48 degrees, clear skies (Perfect hiking weather)

Miles Hiked: 2.5

  As we got up to face the day, and running a bit early, I realized that I would actually, for once, have time to eat before a hike (I usually have time to roll out of bed and lace my boots), so I stopped on the way at my local Dunkin Donuts. I cheated on the established donut reward system because I got an everything bagel. But seriously, I love bagels with everything on them, and what better way to start the day than with garlic breath?

  The drive down to Montgomery Bell State Park was really pleasant. We popped off the interstate and travel through small towns like Pegram and White Bluff (Kingston Springs on the way home), with all of the amusing sights that small towns have to offer. We saw a legit looking BBQ shack in an actual shack (and definitely need to go back to check it out some more). One thing I like about small, rural towns is that no matter where you are, they are all kind of ubiquitous. These towns reminded me of the smattering of rural farm villages in IL that I used to travel through every time I drove home from school in college. They  made me feel nostalgic for living in a place I've never lived. 

  The hiking group met up at the main park office right off highway 70. Apparently for some of the folks who came from the south entrance to the park, and it was a bit difficult to find the park office, but my car had no trouble. We began the hike by attempting to hike the Montgomery Bell trail (which we wanted to take to the lake), but as we ambled along the creek, we realized quickly that we had lost the trail.

The hike was pretty, and it was a little fun to blaze our own trail, but we were all pretty confused and annoyed by the park’s lack of maintenance and poor marking system. We couldn’t find any trail markers, though we were on what seemed to definitely be a trail, albeit overgrown and leafy. We scrambled up the hill, through some occasionally spiky bushes and brambles, and found what we thought might be the trail, a couple of annoyed looking deer, and a lot of downed trees. We eventually turned around to look for a different trail with better markers before we got infinitely lost in the woods.

Here, June shows off what some good trail markers look like: 

  After bailing on trying to find the Montgomery Bell trail, we ambled around on the Jim Bailey Nature Loop at .75 miles, and then hiked a bit of the Wildcat Trail before turning around due to time constraints. These trails were maintained and marked much better, and we had a nice little trip around. 

Here are some examples of good signage, which the Montgomery Bell trail kind of lacked:

  We had some fun screwing around on the bridge, but all the anxious parts of my heart flared when Devin managed this feat of acrobatics.

Terrifying.  Here is some of our group hanging out on the bridge, doing nothing dangerous at all: 

Overall, we didn’t get in as many miles as we had been anticipating, but it was still more miles than we’d have gotten in if we’d slept in. Devin and I both agreed that we might go back to this park for a picnic and to check out the lakes sometime. I was not a huge fan of what seemed to be the main trail system being so poorly marked, but Devin was curious to know how good the trail would have been if we had started at a different access point. It’s close enough to the city, that someday it definitely might be worth a second trip.

[greattnhike]

3: Cedars of Lebanon State Park

Location: Lebanon, TN

Date Visited: 01/11/2015

In Attendance: Mary, Devin, Chris, Ally, Jo, Becca, Ann Marie, Chuck

Miles hiked: 2

Weather: Cold but not too cold & a touch of light rain

  It was a bleary eyed morning for me. We were all coming off the rush of a late night game night and too little sleep as we drove out to Cedars of Lebanon. We kept it close to Nashville this week, but I took a less than obvious route to the park thanks to apple maps and drove through some rustic looking farmland. One of the things I love about Nashville is that once you are out of the city (and sometimes while you are still in it), it begins to feel rural very quickly. I come from the urban sprawl of suburbs between Chicago and Milwaukee – an almost continuous spread of strip malls, auto dealers, and chain restaurants – so I find it refreshing to be able to take a break from the city and get to farmland so quickly.

  We decided to walk the Cedar Forest trail, an easy 2 miles loop.

After we got our hiking legs on, we found another of what I will be herein out calling a “warlock circle” (as opposed to a fairy ring). Devin and Becca both climbed down to the center to see about getting into the cave, but they stopped shy because they couldn’t see the bottom. It’s a shame because this blog would be much more exciting with mystery spelunking, but I do like both of those ladies a lot and would be sad to come home without one of them.

     Since we were already gathered in the warlock circle (or, in this case, I suppose it would be more of a hole than a circle), Devin regaled us with a story about war and buttons, which was featured on RadioLab’s podcast. You should listen to it if only to be in the on the secret mysteries of elevator buttons.

We later found another small cave, which was definitely too narrow for any of us to wiggle into. Our spelunking luck on these hikes has so far been in favor of the caves.

The hike eventually evened out into a sea of rock formations, which looked like big frosted Irish soda cakes – the hard, gnarly kind that I inevitably mess up because I can’t find a good recipe. It was the kind of wood where you can imagine mythical creatures popping up to give you an adventure. Those are usually my favorite kinds of woods.

     At one point, we found a pleasant formation on a trees, which Jo decided to poke at with a stick. No, there were no bees in there, but it was still made for a good photo.

    We all agreed that it was a pretty nice trail. Easy going, with few obstacles, though the winter path was littered over with a lot of autumn leaves and stick fragments. But there were several points of interest to keep our attention, and it is a good length and distance for a beginner or someone who doesn’t want to spend all day in the woods. I’d have liked to check out a few of the smaller trails (Cedar Glade, Dixon Marritt, and Limestone Sinks – that last one HAS to be interesting), but unfortunately the morning rain and the call of donuts had us on our merry way after our quick loop.

  Despite the rapidly souring weather, we did linger long enough for Chris to take a group photo of us at the end of the trail to mark the occasion.

   We sat in the drizzle a little longer to pick out a local donut stop. And so we found The Royal Palace in Lebanon, which is one of the more legit shops I have seen in this area. A great selection, with some old favorites and so notable creative pieces. I tried a red velvet donut with cream cheese frosting, and maple frosted cake donut topped with walnuts. Both were superb, but the red velvet was hand over foot above the grade delicious.

  All in all, I would definitely go back to this park. I think it would be a nice trail to visit with my mom. I’d also like to go back to check out the Hidden Springs Trail, which appears to be a 4.2 mile trail. Reviews online say it is overgrown, but I honestly prefer that because it usually means fewer runners. Also, I think it’s really funny that people on the internet give poor ratings to trails based on whether they are muddy. As if that is an inherent feature of the trail and not a direct result of weather. If it rains…  of course there will be mud.

[greattnhike]

2: Port Royal State Park

Date Visited: 01/04/2015

In attendance: Mary, Devin, and Chris

Miles hiked: 1ish (if you could call that hiking)

Weather: Brisk, Overcast

This park was extremely confusing. I found it kind of charming, but very poorly marked. We started by reading the informational map in the parking lot, but I couldn’t orient myself in relation to the river, and my navigation skills were promptly questioned and then rejected. That is probably wise, actually. 

We set off first to a small picnic area, which looked over a bridge that the town just couldn’t keep standing. So many times they rebuilt that bridge, but it just kept falling down again. The water-level of river was low, but it was calming, and a large amusing assortment of trees were gathered in the middle of it like a dam built by giant beavers. Your guess is as good as mine on how they came to reside there (both the pile of trees and the giant beavers). 

We started hiking on what we thought might be the marked river trail, which was basically a flat loop in some ragged looking woods. It had some interesting landmarks: there was the tire, the rusty scrap metal, and the storm drain waterfall.

But there was also a strange circle of dark green ivy in the middle of the wood, and I determined it was most likely the kind of place that a warlock would come to summon a demon. It had a magical vibe.

After a lot of wandering, double-checking the map, and then getting in the car to drive to another parking lot, we finally found the main trail. The trail head was awkwardly in the middle of a large field next to a gravel parking lot:

This park turned out to be a landmark site of the Trail of Tears. I had some pretty conflicted feelings walking on this space – despite it being less than a quarter of a mile, because of the history of the site. I think that is part of the reason I put off writing about this park for over a week. It's a hard topic to broach in a hiking blog, and a sharp reminder that I live in the south now.

We didn’t talk too much about it, but walking in that place put my own privilege into perspective. I am not a religious woman, and I don’t subscribe to mysticism – but I did feel an eerie emptiness in those woods. Like the residual feeling that the suffering and systematic relocation and persecution of a race of people had sucked the spirit out of the place. I think that feeling was reflected in how run down and sad this state park felt to me. It wasn’t cohesive - just a few random patches of woods, separated by the main road, and a run-down looking historic general store building that served as the park office. Not much to do, but at least the river was kind of pretty:

As was the historic bridge, which was built (possibly) in 1896 (I may have the year wrong): 

Devin’s review: “The parking was ample; There was even an overflow lot.” But we were the only visitors.

[greattnhike]

Dunbar Cave State Park

Location: Clarksville, TN

Date Visited: 01/04/2015

In attendance: Mary, Devin, and Chris

Miles hiked: 3ish

Weather: Brisk and Cloudy

The first thing we noticed about Dunbar Cave State Park is that it closes at 4:47. 

The second thing we noticed was the lake. As we parked and looked at the a muddy banks, Devin said, “If that is the lake, I am going to laugh because we are hiking the lake trail.” And very quickly we realized that it was, in fact, the lake. Which made us laugh. But I kind of loved that lake – we weren’t sure if they drained it due to a recent flood warnings, but it was so low that it seemed like the only actual lake activity one might participate in there would be a mud fight. A weirdly beautiful, brown, wet muck. The fallen trees were being swallowed by the mud. It was almost magical.

We wanted to venture into the cave, but the cave was closed. The rusty gate didn’t really seem to be locked – just a chain wrapped around one length of steel and locked to itself. But it didn’t really need to be locked, it turned out, because nothing budged anyway. I know because I tried (albeit half-heartedly) to break in. I figured that if he cave was inhabited as early as 8000 BCE, so if the cavemen could do it, so could we. But the cave men didn't have rusty steel to deal with. 

We had glanced at a map of the extensive Dunbar Cave system in the information center, but this would not be our day to visit the underground landmarks of Rodent’s Cavern and Hidden Cove. I'm sure they are fascinating, though I am loath to see how Rodent's Cavern got its name. Some quick research indicates that the cave has closed indefinitely to curb the spread of white nose disease. It’s probably just as well we couldn't go it, since we didn’t have any lighting aside from the sad flashlights on our phones.

The hike itself was actually pretty nice, though shorter than we normally undertake. It was a fairly tame incline on a 2-ish loop trail. We hiked the recovery trail, and I noted a lot of young trees in the woods. There was also a shortcut loop, which was being utilized by a few trail runners, but it wasn't overcrowded.

Because we started the loop heading uphill, I complained a bit about being in bad hiking shape after our 2 week hiatus. Chris informed me that it was not physically possible to fall out of "hiking shape" so quickly, but I reminded him that I’ve never actually been in good "hill shape." But the hill itself wasn’t particularly bad despite my whining. I just like to whine. And once the hill evened out, it was an easy meander through the woods.

Because Sunday morning hikes became “history hikes” in 2014 due to the influence of our friend Jo, we have been showing up prepared with some facts we learned during the week. This week I regaled everyone with the history of the Teddy Bear, which I learned from the 99% Invisible podcast. We also got into the complex mythology of bird mailboxes (how birds get their mail – a mythology I invented on the spot).

Dunbar Cave State Park turns out to have a pretty interesting history, and was once owned by Nashville legend Roy Acuff. You can read all about it in this fine Wikipedia entry. It was also, it turned out, a 6 minute drive to the nearest donut shop. We opted, however, to drive a full 12 minutes to what looked more promising than a Shipley’s chain (not that there is anything wrong with Shipley’s), Whistle Stop Donuts in Clarksville.

This place has the best cake donut covered in peanuts that has ever had the fortune to pass through my lips. I could write you a sonnet on the virtues of this donut. The strawberry sprinkle donut was also excellent, though they definitely skimped on the sprinkles. Devin’s review of the Apple Fritter: “There are big chunks of apples in this, so it is a win in my book.”  We were all pretty satisfied by the finest local donuts that Clarksville had to offer before venturing to our second state park of the day. I will regale you with the tale in my next post. 

Edit: I forgot to mention two things. 1) This park smelled great. Like flowers. No one believes me, and there weren't flowers in bloom, but it smelled like a lily garden in springtime. 2) There was some Christmas tree recycling here, if you find yourself in Clarksville with a spare Christmas tree you need to unload.

[greattnhike]

The Project

Post written by: Mary

Let me start by saying that I have never been particularly woodsy. Two years ago, if you asked me to go on an 8 mile hike, I probably would have laughed in your face. But when I turned 30, I got serious about making the most out of my life and letting go of the things that make me unhappy. You know, YOLO, or whatever.

In the past year, I gave up caffeine, and I gave up worrying about whether I live in the right city or have the right job. I stopped worrying that I am wasting my talents and started working on my projects and myself. And somewhere in there, I started hiking. 

Don't get me wrong, I really love being inside. The sun gives me a rash and reading a book in bed has so much to offer. But there is no feeling like climbing down muddy, mossy rocks to the base of a waterfall, or jumping into a pool of water and screaming because it is so, so cold. Being sore for days is vastly underrated. I have done a lot of things in the past year that I never thought I would be strong enough to do.

So my friend Devin (and her husband, by virtue of proximity, though he claims he wants nothing to do with this blog) and I devised the project: hike at every state park in TN in 2015. 

It turns out that there were 55 state parks in Tennessee, and not all of them actually have hiking trails, but the challenge is on. Luckily for me, Devin is much better at sticking to a goal than I am, so we are in it together. We hope to bring our friends along, and if we are lucky, we will also get a chance to reward ourselves with the finest local donuts that TN has to offer.

So I am here to document our adventure: the verdant landscapes, the resplendent views, and every chance encounter we have with a snake. I can already tell it will be a good year.