Saturday March 8 2025 -Tennessee road trip day 10 - Memphis TN to Jasper IN - 1 hike, 5.1 miles, 400 feet elevation gain

Our trip out of Memphis started with a breakfast at Panera Bread near Bartlett Tennessee.  After that we drove along US-51, US-70 and US-79 through Paris TN and eventually to near Dover TN to go north on TN-49.  TN-49 leads through the southern half of the Land Between the Lakes Recreation area.  I had driven through LBL on 'the Trace' several times, once with Brian even I think.  This trip finally was more than just a scenic drive as we took time to enjoy a few sites along 'the Trace'.  Also, I'd always come into the Trace either from the North or started in the middle and gone north along the prominently marked parts of the byway.  What I suspected and we verified this trip is that the road south of US-68, which Tennessee mostly just calls TN-49, actually goes through an entire other section of the LBL area and is in fact, like the more well known northern half which is mostly in Kentucky, almost devoid of houses or businesses.  It's just a recreational road.

Our first stop was at The Homeplace living history farm.  This provided a nice break as we walked around the 15 or so buildings and grounds representing a large Southern farm in the 1850's.  There was a blacksmiths shop, house, tobacco barn and other buildings plus a flock of chickens, 2 hogs, a horse and a mule.  It wasn't super warm but it was bright and in direct sun and it felt great to be in the nearly empty farm looking around at the exhibits.

I had originally looked at 2 different hikes we could do on the trip through LBL but after talking to a staff person at the Homeplace we swung over to the Woodlands Nature Station.  The station was relatively busy and at 7 dollars a head would have meant another 14 dollars to enter, same as the Homeplace.  So we didn't go in but we did hike 'Honker Lake' which is right next to the nature station.  The trail was a peach with lots of lake views but also some hillier terrain away from the lake.  There were more people out than I expected but it was hardly crowded and it was nice seeing families and people of all ages taking advantage of the beautiful early spring day.  Honker Lake is a small man made lake formed by a dyke or wall separating it from the enormous Lake Barkley which is itself the dammed up Cumberland River.  It looks and feels like it could have been there forever but when you think about the history of the area you realize it's a mad-made lake divided off a much larger man-made lake which is interesting to me.

The rest of the drive was North on US-60, US-62, US-641, US-41 and, after Evansville Indiana, a chuck on I-69.  It was a fun travel day with a lot of interesting nature to see, including some new territory for me.