Road Trips and Hike Reports

Monday morning we packed up from the state park cabin and had breakfast and did laundry and had breakfast at a charming cafe in Camden TN.  The rest of the day was spent having fun and getting to Nashville in the evening.  We had a really adventurous dinner at Inchin’s Bamboo pan-Asian cafe near our hotel. Savage Gulf (or as I more often think of it, the Stone Door) is an amazing area in SE Tennessee where the elevated Cumberland Plateau gives way to a deep river valley.  With our friend from Vermont not joining us on this trip we’ve juggled our to-do list to fit our solo trip.  This hike would have otherwise probably happened the day after we left Memphis but going as a day trip from Nashville meant going when there were only a few cars in the parking lot instead of weekend crowds. The drive there took us out along US-70S, much of which is an expressway now.  I don’t remember the route I used to take but this was a different way to go and it was nice seeing t...

We joined our friend John for breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Dickson TN.  Then we headed to Montgomery Bell State Park which is very near there.  I had never entered the park from the south end before and was surprised how long the road going through the park is.  We parked kind of randomly at one of the trail crossings and headed out.  Like home, it's still winter here and there are almost no leaves on the trees. The temperature was a brisk 37 and didn't go up more than a few degrees over the course of our long walk. The trail system at Montgomery Bell has changed over the years and the parts we walked on this trip didn't seem familiar at all.  The best aspects of the hike were the water features which included a few streams and at least 2 large ponds.  At one point we ended up in a group camping area and the trail was close but at the bottom of a substantial knob.  We worked our way down the hill gradually but then realized there was a stream between...

Our day started off fairly early and very far East in TN where we overnighted yesterday.  I had a hike picked out in the Big South Fork recreation area which is a part of TN I often saw signs for and went around the edge of but had never actually explored.  Today’s hike was only 20 miles but over 40 minutes from our hotel because much of the mileage was on rough gravel roads, something I didn’t run into very often when I lived in Tennessee.  Before parking at the trailhead I followed the signs to an overlook which didn’t disappoint, looking far far down to the South Fork of the Cumberland River.  The Cumberland goes through Nashville but I’m not sure how it and this South Fork are connected because they are very far apart.  One little thing I wished I got a picture of was right by our hotel.  Coming off a side road onto US-27, mounted between the 2 traffic light heads was an official green road sign that looked very ordinary except this one said… Bikers enj...

It seemed like it had been planned for a year but it’s finally here.  Our first night started off Thursday after work around 4 pm.  We headed southwest through the Allegheny’s and, after a fun casino visit, into Pennsylvania.  We stayed in Clearfield PA at a Best Western that was especially quiet, nice and well thought out for the modest price we paid.   After a somewhat short night of sleep we began what will probably be the longest drive and longest day of the entire trip.  Brian drove us from Clearfield down to the Flight 93 Memorial site in Shanksville PA.  I had been to the memorial once before but Brian had never been.  It was a very quiet somewhat blustery visit to the memorial which added to the somber tone that place already has. On the way: At the memorial: I think the photos I’ve taken accentuate the abstract nature of some of the memorial elements.  There are much more straight forward pieces to it.  For example, the black brick ...

Our friend Jim was in town visiting from Vermont.  Despite the lousy cold weather we did make it out for a little walk along the Ontario Pathway which runs along Flint Creek.  Not much to report, it was just a nice little leg stretcher.