Narrows of the Harpeth

This afternoon, after a morning of chores, we went for a little leg stretcher to Narrows of the Harpeth State Park.  We don’t go there often.  In fact, it’s probably been 10 years since we were there last.  All together there is about a mile of hiking trail over there, but it always has some of the nicest displays of wildflowers anywhere around.  I’ll include a few of the many photos I took today, but Narrows of the Harpeth didn’t get to be included in the State Park system because of the wildflowers.  The narrows have played an important part in local history.

Bluebells

Perfoliate Bellwort

We got home later than planned and I was busy fixing dinner so I asked Gene to write up the history of the Narrows.  Here’s his take on the whole thing.

View from the bluff overlook high above the Harpeth River

Prof Curp here to tell you of the history of the narrows of the Harpeth River.

The river isn’t narrow.  But the land at the neck of a loop in the river is very narrow.  Let me guess 30 yards.

My favorite for today--shooting star.

Montgomery Bell, originally of Pennsylvania apprenticed to a tanner as a boy.  As a teenager he apprenticed to a hat maker and liked that pretty well.  He moved to Lexington Kentucky and took to hat making something fierce.  And, he was also making money something fierce.  Remember, this was about 1800 AD and men in these parts all wore hats whenever they were awake.  Montgomery thought middle Tennessee had lots of potential due to the many rivers available for power.  (Energy sources have always been important.)

Montgomery saved up $16,000 which is astounding for that time. Especially for a hat maker, in my opinion.   He bought the Cumberland Furnace village and iron works in middle TN near the Harpeth River (currently Dickson County) about 1810 for that princely sum. [ I say about cause I don’t remember what the sign said.]  See, in 1793 James Robertson (a founder of Nashville and a Methodist who lost his “ticket” to meetings due to persistent backsliding as a drinker) and a partner established the iron works (hematite was the ore available).

Montgomery went on to be the biggest iron producer in the South prior to the War of Northern Aggression.  Bell had a reputation of never paying a debt without being sued.
That didn’t stop him from buying slaves to run the furnaces, dig the ore pits and do other backbreaking work for nothing.  He owned at several points in his life up to 400 slaves.  It’s easier to make money when you pay the workers nothing.  His reputation also included forcing his intentions on some of his female slaves (I am not making this up).
But his biggest reputation was as the Iron Master of Tennessee.  He even made cannon shot for Gen. Andrew Jackson to use at New Orleans in the War of 1812.  In fact, it was the profits of that gouge of the Government of the USA that provided the capital to allow him to become Iron Master of Tennessee and a Big Time Industrialist.  (Reading between the lines here).

I always think of this as the entrance to the tunnel.

The river comes in here

Remember the Narrows.  Bell, being all into water power, and flush with war money and having a bunch of slaves, had them dig a tunnel through the limestone bluff 15 to 20 feet wide and 8 feet tall between 1818 and 1820.  Hand tools.  Wow. The power harnessed from the river ran the iron forge.

And flows out here

With that little history lesson, we’re gonna call it a day.  More pictures of the wildflowers to come in later posts.  Thanks for tagging along.

A Me Day

Well, I guess I need to catch up with what’s happening with us.  For this visit in Nashville we are staying at Montgomery Bell State Park.  As you might suspect, since we rolled into town we have been very busy with family.  Saturday morning we spent with Jack, Ansley, and Kayley.  Sunday afternoon and evening we were over at my parents’ home.  In between times, we were rushing to get laundry done and groceries bought.  After a busy traveling and hiking week last week and family over the weekend, I needed a day to myself.

False Rue Anemone

I had a very enjoyable day.  It was a gorgeous spring day and I sat outside with my coffee and a book for much of the morning.  Gene had invited one of our hiking buddies to join him for a hike here in the park.  I bugged out of that adventure so had most of the morning and early afternoon to myself.

Saxifrage

One of the things I enjoy doing, but don’t do very often is go out with my camera.  A couple years ago I purchased a small point and shoot camera to take on the trail.  I love that little camera and it’s the one I usually grab every morning whether we’re hiking or not.  The abundant wildflowers around our campsite piqued my interest in taking my SLR on a trail today.  All the photos in this post are from my short walk along the Bailey Nature Trail, a three-quarter mile loop behind the Visitor Center.

Lots of trillium almost ready to bloom.

Montgomery Bell State Park has a nice campground.  Several years ago they upgraded to accommodate larger RVs.  They now have many sites with full hook-ups. Most are back-ins, but there are a few pull-thrus.  We are parked in a large level site right by the creek.  This is spring break season and schools in several nearby counties were on vacation last week.  The campground was nearly full over the weekend, but nearly empty today.  If you don’t like the smell of woodsmoke, this was not the place to be this weekend or any weekend for that matter.

But I only saw these three that were in bloom.

White trillium

The down side to staying here is the two-week limit.  Since we only expect to be here a couple weeks this time, it’ll work out fine.  However, in the fall when we come to town and plan to stay for a couple months, it’s just not worth the hassle of moving all the time.

Can't find this in our book.  Still trying to figure out what it is.

The up side to staying here is the hiking.  There are 20 miles of trail within the park and we can jump on an access trail right in the campground and not have to drive to a trailhead.

I just love the spring beauty.

Now that we’re all settled in and enjoying life creekside, tomorrow we get to move.  Remember that slide out that wouldn’t come in when we were in Perry?  We have a service appointment to have that repaired on Wednesday morning, 8 AM, on the other side of downtown Nashville.  In order to avoid the morning rush hour, we’re gonna move ourselves up to Music Valley Drive almost next door to our dealership.  After the repair, we’ll come back here.

I think that about wraps up the day.  Thanks for tagging along.

Spring in Tennessee

I’m lovin’ spring in Tennessee.  These are the wildflowers around our campsite.

Cut-leaved Toothwort

Spring Beauty

Spring Beauty

Trout lily

Common blue violet

 That's it for today.  Enjoy.  Thanks for tagging along.

Hiking with Clarksville Chapter TTA

Tennessee Trails Association is a state wide hiking club with chapters in various location across the state.  Gene and I belong to the Nashville chapter, but enjoy hiking with other chapters.  Today the Clarksville chapter had a hike scheduled at Meriwether Lewis.  We called to register with the hike leader and met the group this morning at the trailhead parking lot.

The group was spread out along the trail like a week's worth of wash.

Counting us there were thirteen in the group.  We got started about 9:30 on the 4-mile loop trail which begins behind the Grinder House.  The trail is much like Devil’s Backbone which we did yesterday in that it starts on the ridge and drops down to the creek.  At the creek we passed through a large picnic area with picnic tables and a restroom.  It was the perfect place for our lunch break.

After food and lots of socializing we continued on our walk.  Again, like yesterday’s hike we climbed away from the creek back to the ridge top, but unlike yesterday’s hike we dropped back down again and had to come back up.  Those hill climbs provided a good workout and I think the entire group was glad to see the ridge top following the final ascent.

The trail is well maintained and well marked, but there were several blow downs during the storms last week that haven’t been cleared.  There was nothing we couldn’t get over easily.

It's never a good sign when a group gathers to consult the map.
That's my man in the orange cap, and Paul, our leader, in the red shirt.

We enjoyed hiking with the group.  We know several people in the Clarksville chapter and now we know a few more.  The hike was led by Paul, the Clarksville chapter chair, and he did an excellent job.  We were never lost, although there was lots of map consulting, and all hikers were accounted for at the end of the hike.  It’s always a plus when the leader gets back to the car with as many as he left with.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing.  Tomorrow, we head back to Nashville and will be staying at the campground in Joelton.

That’s all for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Devil's Backbone

I think winter rolled in overnight.  We woke up to a very chilly 28 degrees.  They were predicting 24 and I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t get there.  We had the furnace turned down to about 60, but it ran most of the night anyway.  We were snug as bugs under our down comforter.  Peanut split his time between the floor in front of the heat duct in the bathroom and under the comforter.  Cat life is good.

A little nip in the air didn’t deter us from our hike at Devil’s Backbone State Natural Area located about 10 miles north on the Parkway.  With a name like “Devil’s Backbone” you might think it is a tough trail to hike, but not so.  It’s a pretty easy walk in the woods.  According to the signage, the entire trail is 3 miles in length. There is a half mile connector from the parking lot to a 2-mile loop.  The trail starts on the Highland Rim and follows the ridge line for about a mile before dropping down a couple hundred feet to a small creek, then climbs back up to the ridge.  The trail is in good condition, but all those beautiful leaves that were on the trees last week are now on the trail covering a multitude of rocks, roots, and ruts.  We took it slow and easy.

This was the only blowdown we couldn't just step over so we used it for a break spot.

We followed the creek for a short distance.

Hot chocolate tasted good on a cold morning.

On our way back to Meriwether Lewis, we stopped at Fall Hollow pull-out.  There is a short trail which leads to Fall Hollow Falls.  Actually, there are two different falls and the trail passes both.  There was quite a bit of water for this time of year.  Maybe the rains this week had something to do with it.  Even though it was about noon when we were there, there was still some ice around the falls.  We had debated whether to stop on the way to Devil’s Backbone.  If we had, the falls might have been a real winter wonderland.   The wet spots on the trail would have been icy, too.  That wouldn’t have been so good.

Judy of Travel’s with Emma fame, asked if the sites here at Meriwether Lewis are large enough to accommodate big rigs.  They are indeed.  Of course, some are larger than others.  There are two different type sites here.  There are back-ins and there are the half-moon or semi-circular type pull-thrus.  We are in the semi-circular type and it is maybe 60 ft long.  Most of the back-ins are 40-50 feet.  Of course, this is a wooded area and the trees may be a problem with slides.  However, we have neighbors on either side of us in 35-40 foot 5ers with opposing slides and there’s plenty of room.  There is also plenty of room for their trucks on the site, also.  This is the hills of Tennessee and there are varying degrees of level, but most are pretty good.

I mentioned yesterday that the interior roads have been repaved.  On the main road just before the turn into the campground, they have added a pull-out.  I don’t know what their intended purpose was, but it looks like the perfect place to disconnect your towed (or is that “toad”).

There are 2 other free campgrounds on the Parkway.  We have stayed at both of them and they are very similar to Meriwether Lewis.  All will accommodate big rigs.

One of the things on our “to do” list is to drive the Trace exploring its nooks and crannies, hiking its trails, and learning its history.  I expect it would take between one and two weeks to do it well.  There is even a guidebook, I think.

Another thing Judy wanted to know was if I use the generator to keep my computer charged.  I have an Apple computer and its battery will stay charged much longer than Gene’s PC.  I can get almost 3 hours of time on the computer before the battery has to be recharged.  Whenever we run the generator, which is usually once a day for about a hour, I make sure the computer and air card are plugged in.

That’s all for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Montgomery Bell Trail

For our hike today we went back to Montgomery Bell State Park to do the other half of the 12-mile figure eight Montgomery Bell Trail.  We had done half of this loop several weeks ago.  Today, Herb went with us and we had a great hike.

From our campground on the north side of town, Montgomery Bell is about 50 miles away.  We stopped in Bellevue, about halfway, to pick up Herb.  I know this may come as a surprise, but these guys started talking “gear” before they even said “Hello”.  It was like show and tell right in the parking lot at Staples.

The first piece was an antique Primus stove Herb dug out of his gear closet which dates back to his hiking days when he was in collage.  Gene is obsessed with camping stoves, so he was like a little kid in a candy store.  Even I’ll have to admit the stove had a certain amount of appeal.  The stove, including the can, weighs 19 oz, far too heavy for today’s lightweight backpackers.  It uses white gas or Coleman fuel and will burn about 50 minutes on a “tank” full of fuel.  That might be enough for a weekend trip, but for a longer hike, more fuel would be needed.  The rubber gaskets are probably all dried up and it’s probably dirty on the inside, but from the outside it looked great.  Okay, that was fun.

The next show and tell item was Herb’s new day pack.  He was sporting the latest and greatest lightweight pack from REI--Flash 18.  This little sac has a capacity of 18 L (1100 cu in) and only weighs 10 oz.  It’s tiny, but where do you put all your stuff.  Herb says I carry too much stuff, anyway.

We finally got on our way and were hiking by 9 AM.  We started our hike near the front entrance to the park and hiked in a clockwise direction.  The first section is along an old roadbed and is my least favorite part of the trail.  It’s wide, but very rocky with lots of ruts.  With the leaves covering the trail, it was very difficult to see the rocks and roots in this area.  Past this half mile section, we were on the more comfortable dirt trail.

The first half of our hike had several creek crossings.  Today, they were no problem; easy crossings usually on exposed rocks.  However, I have been on this trail in the spring after a heavy rain and these small creeks can present a real challenge getting to the other side.

We followed the trail across the streams and through the woods for a couple miles before coming to another long stretch where the trail follows an old road bed.  This section is about a mile in length with the park boundary and train track on one side and the park golf course on the other.

It was along this stretch that we stopped for a “coffee break”.

Although the temperatures were warm today, Gene had brought along his stove (a pepsi can alcohol stove with the Trangia pot support and pot, and an aluminum foil windscreen) so he could fix us a hot beverage.  I had hot chocolate, he had coffee, and Herb chose to drink cold water.  That may have been the better choice on this warm day.

Herb just loves his new baby

The trail which creates the figure eight is the Creech Hollow Trail which follows along the bank of Creech Hollow Lake.  The park road is very close to this lake and we often see fishermen on the bank, but not today.

Just before the end of our loop, the trail drops down by way of steps into what appears to be a sink hole.   It’s a hole, but one created by the mining of iron ore during the early 1800s when this was a major iron furnace owned by Montgomery Bell.  It is said that some of Andrew Jackson’s cannon balls were made from iron ore mined at this furnace.  There are several ore pits in the park as well as cemeteries containing the graves of many of the iron workers.

It was a beautiful day to be outside and we especially enjoyed sharing it with our friend Herb.  Glad he brought his old stove for show and tell and I’ve got that little pack on my mind.  I might could do without some of my stuff, after all.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Volunteer Trail

Today, we were back at Long Hunter State Park; this time to hike the Volunteer Trail. This trail is 5.5 miles one way out to a backcountry campsite.  However, off the Volunteer Trail is a 4-mile loop--that’s the one for us.

We don’t often do this trail.  The forest here is not very scenic and the section of trail along the lake is littered with plastic and Styrofoam trash thrown out by boaters and fishermen.  During the warm months, it often smells of dead fish which is plenty reason not to hike this trail.

We thought we’d give it a try today and were pleasantly surprised.  The leaves have turned so the trail was bathed in a beautiful golden glow as the sun shown through the yellows and oranges.  With a cool, crisp temperature this morning in the low 40s, there was no fishy smell at all.

This is a relatively flat trail with very slight ups and downs.  About half of the distance is along the bank of Priest Lake where we had some remarkable views.  The day started out very foggy, but by the time we reached the lake the last of the fog was lifting.

We wanted to do a little more than 4 miles, so we hiked the 1-mile nature trail from the Visitor Center parking lot.  This trails makes a loop through cedar glade so wasn’t nearly as colorful at the Volunteer trail. In fact, it was so strikingly different that you wouldn’t imagine it being at the same place on the same morning.

We got home in time for a late lunch and after showers we gave up the rest of the afternoon to chores in preparation for friends coming tomorrow.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for tagging along.