Radnor Lake State Natural Area

One of the real gems in our city is Radnor Lake State Natural Area. Located on the south side of town among the bustling areas of Brentwood, Oak Hills, and Green Hills, this 750 acre park is Tennessee’s first State Natural Area.

The lake was impounded in 1914 by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad to provide a source of water for its steam engines.  Radnor Yards was located in the area as well at that time and the lake was to provide water for the livestock.  The railroad executives also saw it as a private hunting and fishing preserve.  What no one planned on were the birds that looked down from their migratory paths and saw a lake.  In less than ten years, the area was off limits to hunters and fishermen and became a wildlife sanctuary.

The area remained virtually untouched and unnoticed until the early 1960s when the land was purchased for a housing development.  That idea was quickly shot down by concerned local citizens.  In the early 1970s funds were raised to purchase the property and the state’s first natural area was born.

Today, Radnor is used primarily by hikers, birders, photographers, and naturalists.  Being a natural area, there are no bikes, pets, or jogging allowed on the trails.  There’s also no picnicking allowed nor off trail hiking.  That’s not to say it’s a wilderness area.  Certainly not.  There are plenty of wooden steps, bridges, and benches along the trails to make hiking and walking a pleasant experience.

Up until about 15 years ago, Otter Creek Road ran through the park.  The shoulders of the road were badly deteriorated and the road was closed to motorized traffic.  Although the road is only about a mile and a half long, it’s still a favorite place for bicyclists, dog walkers, and young mothers with strollers.  Joggers are often seen running the road, as well.

There are several options for hikes here.  For our hike today we chose to park at the East parking lot and walked the access trail to the Lake Trail.  By walking a short distance along the road we were then able to connect to the South Lake trail.  After about a mile on the South Lake Trail we did another short section of road, crossed the gravel walkway across the dam which put us back on the other end of the Lake Trail.  Because a bathroom break is always a good choice, we took the Spillway trail to the Nature Center.

The Nature Center

Unfortunately for us, the restrooms were out of order.  Fortunately for us, it was just outside the Nature Center were we saw the beautiful barred owl.  I’d heard there was an owl living here, but I’d never been lucky enough to see him.  Today he perched on the limb and posed for photos until I was tired and walked away.  Then he posed for the next photographer.  Wow, what a treat.

Since the restrooms were closed, we had to hurry right along back to the East parking lot.  For the return trip we walked along the Lake Trail then took the Ganier Ridge trail up and over the hill back to the access trail and the parking lot for a 4.6 mile loop hike.  Thankfully, those restrooms were open.

View of the lake from South Lake Trail

Gene had some birthday money burning a hole in his pocket, so after our hike we stopped in at REI.  We have friends who work at REI and we got to see two of them today.  It was fun talking to Missing Link.  He has just completed a section hike of the Appalachian Trail.  He was out for a few weeks doing the Whites in New Hampshire and the entire length of the trail in Maine.  Also had a good conversation with my friend, Sue.  Like me, she’s trying to hike all the trails in the Smokies.  It was fun catching up on what she’s done and how much we each are still lacking.

That’s been our day.  Hope yours was as much fun.

Thanks for tagging along.

Exploring the Unknown

Well, this should be a real adventure.  I feel like I’ve set off into uncharted waters.  Even though I’ve been following many blogs at Blogspot, and I’ve been practicing for several days, this is all pretty new and different.  I’m still working on the page so don’t be surprised to see changes.

Thanks again to everyone who made comments or suggestions.  Those comments were all encouraging.  Rick (Rick & Paulette’s RV Journal) was immensely helpful and he didn’t even know it.  His extensive knowledge of everything technology and his specific posts and articles regarding Blogger were invaluable.  I regularly read several blogs posted on Blogger.  I’ve studied every detail of every one of those blogs.  You have all been a great help.  Thanks a million.

To get me away from the computer, we went for our morning stroll.  Today found us back on the Two Rivers section of the Nashville Greenway.  We parked at Wave Country where we’ve been parking to walk the Shelby Bottoms section.  Today, however, we went the other direction, over the hill, down by McGavock High School and up to Two Rivers Middle School.  That’s where we left the Greenway to explore the unknown.  We turned down a paved road just before the Middle School property.  That lead to the small Two Rivers Lake.  Beyond the lake was Two Rivers Golf Course.  The road came to a dead end so we backtracked to the Greenway.

At the Two Rivers Park Trailhead there is a dirt trail which leads off the Greenway--McGavock Spring House Trail.  Whenever we walk this section, we pass that sign, but have never taken the leap and turned down the trail.  Today we did.  That was more uncharted territory.

Except for the sign by the greenway, the trail is unmarked.  It’s definitely a trail and easy to follow.  However, it hasn’t been maintained recently.  Once we were away from the trailhead, the dirt path became narrow and nearly overgrown.  There were two blowdowns which had to be climbed over.  The trial drops quickly and is really too steep for the tennis shoes we were wearing.  Needed boots for this one and maybe even a trekking pole.

At the bottom of the hill we came to a rickety old bridge.  I let Gene cross first.  It’s our guess that this was the location of the spring house.  Of course, there’s no sign of it now; it’s long gone.  The trail continued on until it came to the lake and the road we’d been on.  We opted to take the road back to avoid crawling over the blowdowns and the steep hill.

The McGavock Spring was the water source for Two Rivers Mansion which is just up the hill.  The mansion was built in the late 1850s by David McGavock and three generations of McGavocks lived in this splendid old house until the mid 1960s.

The junction of the Stones River and the Cumberland River is just a short distance away which probably accounts for the name--Two Rivers Mansion.  Today, the mansion and the property surrounding it are owned by Metro Parks.  The mansion is used for special park events and can also be rented for weddings and such.

That’s about all the unknown I want to explore for one day.

Thanks for tagging along.

Another Round at Beaman Park

Thanks, everyone, for you comments on the blog layout on Blogger.  The comments were all positive and very helpful.  As you might expect, Gene had a few comments of his own.  They were positive, as well.  Bless his heart, he’s had to endure my thinking out loud throughout this process.  I’m still fiddling around with it, but unless I have a major shift in thinking, I expect I’ll be moving to Blogger.  By the way, I’ve posted this story to the Blue Roads to Hiking Trails page also.

We were looking for a short hike somewhere nearby for this morning.  We chose Beaman Park again.  We parked at the lower parking lot and did the Creekside Trail loop.  Off of the loop along the banks of Henry Creek is a 0.6 mile side trail which leads to the Nature/Visitor Center.  We went over there hoping to see some nice fall colors from the boardwalk.  The leaves are definitely changing, but we’re not there yet.

We back tracked to return to the Creekside trail and then continued our loop.  When we got to the Ridgetop trail we were feeling pretty good and it wasn’t even eleven o’clock yet so we added another short 1-mile loop.  That gave us a total of 4.2 miles for today with two hills to climb--just what we needed.

I had pulled something in my knee on Friday at Mammoth Cave as I stepped up on a rock.  That’s been giving me fits all weekend, but I was very pleased today that whatever I did seems to have healed itself.  My knee felt good today as long as I didn’t try to make a crazy step.

The asters and goldenrod are still hanging on, but there’s not much else out there in the line of wildflowers.  The only other thing we saw was hearts-a-bursting which is very common around here and turtlehead which is not so common.  We keep a rough log in the flower book of what we see.  The last time we saw turtlehead was in 2006 on the trail to Zealand Hut in the White Mountains.

We saw one snake, but he was small enough to have been a worm.  Definitely a snake, though.  I thought he was dead since he was on his back with an orange belly to the sun, but when I started to move the leaves around, his tail swished around.  I still think he was all but dead.  What self-respecting snake lies on its back?

Gene is happy to report that the motor home and the car are both waxed.  I’m here to say they look mighty fine.  He’ll be cleaning his basement storage compartments next.  I think I’m done inside.  Gene really helped me out on Saturday by taking all the light fixture covers off and washing them.

I think that’s all I know for today.  Thanks for tagging along.

Hiking at Mammoth Cave National Park

Usually when people think about Mammoth Cave National Park they think about the underground caverns.  And rightly so since Mammoth Cave is the most extensive cave system on earth.  However, there is a lot above ground as well.  The 53,000 surface acres offer a place for camping, canoeing, kayaking, bicycling, hiking, horseback riding, and auto touring.  We, of course, are interested in the trails and we went there today for a hike.

With about 60 miles of trail in the park, we had many to choose from.  There are horse trails, bike trails, and hiking trails.  Since hikers are allowed on all the trails, we selected Good Spring Loop trail which is actually a horse trail.  The loop is about 7.5 miles over gently rolling hills through primarily hardwood forest which gave us a good workout.

We haven’t been to Mammoth Cave in several years, probably about 10.  We didn’t have a trail map and couldn’t remember many details about the park, so our first stop was at the Visitor Center.  We were surprised to see a new Visitor Center under construction.  Only one wing is left to be completed; the main building was open.  It’s very nice.  The old building, as I recall, was way past it’s prime.  We picked up a trail map and were on our way.

Parking for our trail was at Good Spring Church.  To get there we had to first catch the ferry across the Green River.  At the end of the paved road we had about a mile of gravel road before getting to the church parking area.

Good Spring Baptist Church is still in use today with worship services, homecomings, and other special events.  It was reminiscent of the pioneer churches within Smoky Mountain National Park, especially in the Cade’s Cove area.  These churches were here long before the parks were parks and many of them like Good Spring Church still serve the descendants of those original members.

We finally got on the trail about 10 AM.  Being a horse trail, we had to be careful where we put our feet and like most horse trails, it was pretty beat up in places.  Because there hasn’t been any rain for several days, the trail was dry even in these spots that would normally be a mud pit.  Even the creeks were nearly dry.

We walked the first mile and a half without seeing another soul.  We stopped for a break and the late starters caught up with us.  But they weren’t hikers--they were horseback riders.  Altogether today we saw about 30 horses.  We were shocked that so many people were out.  Of course, it was a beautiful day.  Still, we had no idea the trails here had become so popular.

We were glad we went.  It was 97 miles from our campsite to the trailhead.  That’s a long way to drive for a 7 mile hike, especially on a horse trail.  But the drive was fast along I-65, the traffic was light, and it was some place different to go.  The scenery and terrain were not that different from what we have right here in Nashville at Warner Parks, but it seemed more like a real outing because we got out of town.  We had a great day.

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

What Went Wrong

Well, if you’re an RVer, or even if you aren’t, you know things don’t always go as planned when you’re off on a trip.  We had a few things go wrong; thankfully nothing that couldn’t be fixed and, thankfully, nothing that caused any bodily harm.

I guess the most traumatic incident was that trip I made to the ER in Colorado Springs.  As we were driving over to the hospital, I was making a plan on how we were going to get back to Nashville after my open heart surgery.  That scare turned out to be altitude sickness so I didn’t need surgery after all.  However, that little trip to the ER and subsequent visit to the cardiologist hit the pocketbook to the tune of over $2000.  That almost caused a heart attack for sure.

This is a close runner up to the most traumatic incident--having the motor home towed from Trinidad to Colorado Springs.  That was when the oil light came on and we thought the engine was shot.  That almost caused a heart attack, too.  Turned out to be just a malfunction in the dash lights and Ford covered all expenses including the tow, labor, and hotel room while our motor home was in the shop.

I guess the next would have to be the flat tire along the Dempster Highway.  It wasn’t anything that was unexpected and we were prepared for it, but a flat tire anywhere anytime is a big deal.  At least it was on the car and not the motor home.  Once again, a great big thinks to the RCMP and the road service crew on the Dempster for being right there and taking care of us.

The water heater is finally fixed after months without hot water.  The particular incident which occurred on this trip was the mother board went out.  That probably would have happened whether we were traveling or not.  The good folks at the repair center in Wasilla took good care of us on that one.  They also looked for a leak in the shower, but couldn’t find one.  Didn’t even charge us for looking.  How great is that?  However, we did have a leak and Gene finally found it.  He applied a little extra caulking to the inside of the shower and so far so good.

Speaking of water, we still have that water leak somewhere around the bedroom slide.  Haven’t nailed that one down yet, but plan to have the rig pressurized when we get back to Nashville to find that leak.  It’s major and something we need to have fixed.  Until then, if there is rain in the forecast, we park just a little off level with the bedroom slide on the down side.  Keeps the water from running in.  We called the factory in Elkhart, Indiana, but they’re booked until November.  Forget that.  They recommended our own dealer in Nashville.  That was good to hear.

Then there was the time the furnace quit running.  That was all related to the thermostat which controls the AC and furnace.  That problem actually started in Florida last winter.  The folks in Edmonton put in a new thermostat and all is well now.  I’ve very glad, too since we’ve been using the AC everyday for a week now.

We finally broke down and bought a new car battery. We’ve had a dead battery twice. When we tow for 2 or 3 days in a row without driving the car, the battery runs down.  The Even Brake controller just drains too much of the battery.  We need to be more diligent about letting the car run at the end of a towing day for a longer period of time.

During our week in Winnipeg, Gene spent some of everyday rubbing on the motor home and car.  I am happy to report that he did not find any significant damage.  When we first got to the Yukon we got a rock chip on the windshield of the motor home which we had repaired.  We always drove with the Protect-a-Tow attached and other than a couple minor scratches on the car there is no damage.  We’ve decided to continue to use the Protect-a-Tow anytime we have the car attached.

What’s not working today--the awning doesn’t want to release on one side for some reason and the toilet bowl won’t hold water.  When we say it’s always something it really and truly is always something.

So, on a trip like this, the damage report is not so bad and in the scheme of things could have been a whole lot worse.  RV owners know that something always needs to be fixed.  That’s just the nature of the beast as frustrating as it is at times.  You can’t drive down America’s highways (or Canada’s) at 60 miles an hour and not have something come loose, fall off, or break.  After Wednesday’s drive down Manitoba route 75, I’m kinda surprised anything works at all.

That being said, it is still a bit discouraging to find the maintenance budget ($142 per month) over for the year by $1616. and this is only August.  Yikes.

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

A Look at the Canada Numbers

Today is Gene’s happy birthday.  Boy, is he ever old now!  We celebrated by driving 91 miles from Wal-mart in Crookston to Royal Oaks RV Park in Bemidji, MN. I did the driving, so he got the day off.  He’s been pampered along the way.  I fixed one of his favorite breakfasts--pancakes and bacon and for dinner he chose steak, french fries, and a salad.  No cake for this birthday boy.  He selected Key Lime Pie from the freezer section at Wal-Mart.  He’s VERY picky about his stuff so I take the easy way out and hand over a little cash which he uses to purchase a prize of his choice.  He ordered a pair of New Balance tennis shoes the other day from LL Bean and with the money I gave him I think he’s going to get a new watch.  So even though it was a travel day, he had a good birthday.

At the beginning of this trip in March, we figured we’d be worn out and homesick to see family and would thus make a mad dash to Tennessee once we crossed back into the United States.  We are worn out, however the week off in Winnipeg has really boosted our energy level and we’re homesick, but we’ve made a slight change in our homeward plan.

We’re now thinking to stay on US Route 2 and take it across the corner of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, get on I-75 and head south toward Columbus, Ohio.  We’ll probably make a quick stop to see friends in Toledo then scoot over to Columbus to visit with Gene’s brother and sister-in-law before continuing our drive to Nashville.

This will add a few extra miles to the trip, but not many.  After all, we’re over 10,000 now; what’s a few more?  We can do this and still be in Nashville by the first of October.  Can’t get too far south too soon because it’s still HOT down there.

We enjoyed our drive across Canada.  We spent more time in Canada than we did in Alaska.  Banff and Jasper National Parks are just wonderful and we’ll visit again if the opportunity presents itself. I’d really like to see Lake Louise when it isn’t frozen.  We love the northern wilderness fell of the Yukon.  We weren’t so taken with Edmonton, but really like Winnipeg.  That’s good since Winnipeg is much easier to get to than Edmonton.

We really like Canada and plan to go back, probably more than once.  We have the Canadian Maritimes on our short list as well as Montreal and Quebec City.  We’ve been to Victoria for a very brief visit, but definitely want to return and spend some time on Vancouver Island.  We really liked Winnipeg and want to visit again just to see the Human Rights Museum which is currently under construction.  Like the US, Canada has so many wonderful places to visit--too many to get them all done.

As much as we like Canada, I’ll have to say, it is very expensive.  Gas is expensive, food is expensive, campgrounds are expensive.  I’m also glad not to be making those metric conversion any more.

For the record, here are the numbers to the Canadian Border.

Total miles from Nashville--9967
Total miles Canadian Border to Canadian Border--7284
Total miles in Alaska--1927

Total days from Nashville--155
Total days Canadian Border to Canadian Border--105
Total days in Alaska--46
Total days in Canada--58

Total gallons of gas from Nashville--1329
Total gallons of gas Canadian Border to Canadian border--906
Average price per gallon--$4.87
Highest price--$6.93
Lowest price--$3.35
Total dollars--$5843.74

Total campgrounds from Nashville--50
Total campgrounds Canadian Border to Canadian Border--36
Total campgrounds in Alaska--14
Average price per campground--$26
Total spent on campground fees--$2846.
Highest--$47
Lowest--$7.
Total free nights--36

We still have about a thousand miles to go and expect to be back in Nashville by October 1.

We’ve set up our camp at Royal Oaks RV Park in Bemidji near the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  It has been very tempting to go home by way of the Great River Road, but have decided that to do that drive justice it would take more time and energy than we have right now.  It will remain on our short list of things to do someday.

We plan to be here three nights before moving further east.  I haven’t had much time to investigate the campground, but it has excellent ratings.  We have a lovely back-in wooded site with grass on either side of the gravel parking pad.  This is a Good Sam park and with the discount the site is only $26 per night for full hook-ups, cable and wifi.  The Bemidji Lake is nearby as well as Bemidji Lake State Park where we’ll be doing some hiking.

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

Back in the USA

We are once again back in the USA.  We really like Canada and plan to make many more trips there to visit, but there’s no place like home.  We’re glad to be back in the United States.

We were prepared for the border crossing.  We had our passports handy and we took off our sunglasses so they could see the whites of our eyes.  Gene even pulled his side mirror in against the truck so he could get up close to the window.  Didn’t want to make the guard come out of his little space. We knew how long we’d been in Canada, what we’d bought, where our car registration was, and we had pretty much cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer.  We would have had any citrus confiscated and probably any fresh meat.  The border guard asked about wild fish and we told him about our salmon in the freezer.  Thankfully, it had come from Alaska.

All was well, but they wanted to search anyway and directed us to the search lane.  As Gene was pulling forward away from the guard’s window he pushed out his side mirror.  That little bit of bending to the left caused him to turn the steering wheel to the left and he accidentally drove up onto the curb with one back tire.  We had to unhitch the car before we could move out of the lane.  Everybody was watching; even the guards came out to help.

After that, the rest of our trip was uneventful.  The 70 miles from Winnipeg to the border (Manitoba 75) was awful.  First, we had 12 miles of construction then the rest was desperately in need of construction.  I-29 south of the border was very nice as was US 2 from Grand Forks to Crookston.

GAS REPORT: Our last fill up in Canada was in Portage la Prairie and we paid $4.43 for a gallon of gasoline.  Today, we filled up in Grand Forks, North Dakota and only paid $3.64 (diesel was 3.79).  “God Bless America, land that I love”.

Here is a border crossing story for you.  We have heard some pretty fantastic tales, but I think this one takes the cake.  One of our neighbors we spoke with while parked at Traveler’s RV Resort in Winnipeg related his border crossing story to us.  He and his wife are from California and had traveled across the US this summer.  They had had significant problems with their motor home so finally just got fed up and bought a new one in Minnesota.

When this gentleman tried to cross into Canada, the border guard immediately notice there was no license plate on this obviously new, and, I might add, pretty expensive motor home.  One of the standard questions everyone gets asked is “do you have any fire arms or weapons”.  The gentleman had to say “yes” because he had a hand gun and a rifle.  He was promptly asked to move his motor home into the inspection lane.  The gentleman told the inspectors what kind of weapons he had and where to find them.  According to the gentleman, they searched everything, everywhere even taking the covers off the decorative pillows.  Then they informed him that he could not bring weapons of any kind into Canada.  He had a couple choices.  He could leave and not come back or he could go back across the border to a gunsmith and have the gunsmith mail his guns to another gunsmith in his home town in California.  The gentleman opted to have his guns mailed home so the border guard supplied him with the name and address of a nearby US gunsmith.

Our gentleman friend turns his motor home around and heads south to the US border patrol station.  Of course, he gets the same question and again the answer has to be “yes, I have guns” and he explains to the border guard what had just happened at the Canadian border.  When the border guard heard he had guns and had been turned away at the Canadian border, he invites him to move his motor home into the inspection lane.  Once again his motor home is gone through with a fine-toothed comb.

After the second inspection, he makes his way to the gunsmith and fills out all the paperwork and hands over the money to have his guns mailed to California.  With his receipt in hand, he proceeds to the Canadian border.  The border guard recognizes him from his earlier visit and since he had guns the first time he tried to get into Canada, he is invited to move his motor home into the inspection lane.  This time, however, since he had been denied entry into Canada once, he had to file for a visa.  It all worked out alright because we were talking to him in Winnipeg, but, boy, what an experience.

We’re at the Wal-Mart in Crookston, Minnesota tonight.  We’ve already done our shopping and replenished our food stores.  It’s fun having food again.

Thanks for tagging along.