#tn state park

[howlsmovingapartmentcomplex]

Big Cypress Tree State Park.

There has been a lot of rain and flooding in TN lately but I didn't think much of it until I hit road closures. It took eight road closures, but I somehow managed to make it there. I'm so glad I did. The visitor's center was closed but the mushrooms were popping. Not much in terms of what most people associate hiking with, since it's all smaller paved paths. And the boardwalk was, obviously, also flooded. I did not attempt to swim to it.

This is one of those parks where you have to just be happy for the journey, and I was. It was a fun time, even if I did somehow manage to get a hole in my tire. Also saw a lot of flooding and flood damage firsthand. My friends were like 'Um, go back?" But I need to do 1.3 parks a weekend and the call of nature has been singing in my blood.

[jenhikes]

Frozen Head State Park - A Tuesday Adventure

NoKey and I had a rare day off together - something that hasn't happened much lately with my marathon training schedule.  We decided that since the weather was nice and since we had a whole day we would pack up our dog and head over to Frozen Head State Park in Morgan County for a day of hiking.  Since Frozen Head is a state park, we could take our dog - which is always an issue for us when we want to hike in the Smokies.  Dogs are not allowed on trails in National Parks.  We decided to do a loop hike with the North and South Old Mac Trails, visiting a fire tower in the middle, and then afterward hiking a short out and back to a beautiful waterfall.  

When we reached the parking lot around 11:15 a.m. it was already packed. The sunny skies and nearly 70-degree temperatures brought out everyone for a day hike!  We started on the flat old road bed of the South Old Mac Trail, hiking less than a mile before running into the old CCC Dynamite Shack left from the days of this being a CCC camp.  Now our trail began the steady climb to the top!  We crossed several streams and met lots of hikers coming up and down the trail, many of them with dogs as well!  After crossing several streams and taking a few switchbacks, we came up to the old road bed at the Tub Springs Campsite.  We took a short break here for lunch, looking around the large campsite and checking out the cool spring house before taking the 0.5-mile walk up the old road to the fire tower at the top of the hill.  I stayed down with the dog while NoKey went up and took in the views!

On the way back down the trail we now took the Panther Gap Trail to the North Old Mac Trail to head back down to the car.  When we got to this shady side of the hills, we noticed there was still a beautiful dusting of snow on the hillside.  Despite several days of warmer temperatures, the shade kept it cool enough to keep it from melting!  We passed a ton of hikers and lots of kids and dogs heading up the hill on this section of the hike.  Since the hill was also in the shade, it was a bit muddier than the trail we took to the top.  I thought our dog would start to get tired or slow down on this section, but she was so full of energy her leash actually gave me a bruise as she drug me down the mountain side!  When we reached the bottom of the loop it was still relatively early so we decided to head back a little further into the park and head to the Emory Falls Trail.  

We were lucky enough to snag the last parking spot in the lot so we knew this trail would be even busier than the last.  The gentle grade and short distance make this hike popular!  We walked only half a mile before getting the view of our first waterfall - Debord Falls.  From here, it was supposed to only be half a mile up to Emory Falls, but we found it was closer to one mile.  The trail left the old road bed and went up on a rockier, eroded climb.  When we got to the top there were probably 50 or so people playing in the stream and photographing the waterfall.  It was nice to see so many people out and enjoying the day!  We had a quick and easy hike back out to the car. 

Frozen Head State Park is definitely my favorite place in East Tennessee to hike with my dog.  The trails are challenging, and there are close to 50 miles of trails, and you don't usually have to deal with the traffic and crowds of heading up to the Smokies.  There are also backpacking campsites and primitive front country campsites and they're all really cheap!  If you're looking to spend some time in the mountains with your dog or if you just want to get away from the traffic and noise in the Smokies, I definitely recommend Frozen Head State Park.  

[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]

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]

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]

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.