Saturday Nov. 28 2015
This morning I headed west in to the town of Hohenwald to find groceries. It's a surprisingly big little town for a small dot on the map. Then I headed back east out of town back to the Parkway and zipped up it to where I left off yesterday.
First stop, the Gordon House. I'm not sure if it's open during peak tourist season but it was closed today as were later exhibits that I stopped at. Hard to believe that the house was built almost 200 years ago.
Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
Looks pretty closed up to me, I think the sign on the lawn removes any doubt though!
Next stop was a pretty little overlook where I spotted a sign that said that Jackson Falls was a short 1/3 mile walk down the trail. Needing some exercise I grabbed my hiking poles and headed for the trail. After a day and a half of rain, that trail was pretty slick and the first part of it went uphill, straight uphill. It reminded me of some trail at home that we had worked hard to reroute so it wasn't an otter slide. I turned around and eased my way on back down that trail thinking that I'd just have to skip Jackson Falls.
Ha, the next pull off was for Jackson Falls with a paved walkway complete with guardrails all the way to the falls. Nice falls and flowing really well.
The picture below is the bottom level of the falls, The one on the right is the very top. I was about 30 storeys down at the bottom of the falls for this picture.
Next was nicely preserved section of the old trace so I took a walk down it and back. The whole area would be absolutely stunning in the spring...now, not so much. I just couldn't resist doing some minor trail maintenance as I walked. I need to start carrying a trash bag when I go walking on these sections...some people are careless with wrappers and cans.
After a quick stop at the Tobacco Farm (MM 401.4) - other than the tobacco barn which was hung full of tobacco leaves, the exhibits were closed and the voice guided tour shut down, I headed the van down a 2 mile section of the old Trace that can be driven (no RVs though). About half way along a very large bird came swooping right across my windshield. Needless to say, I slammed on the brakes and grabbed for the camera.
Mr Barred Owl came to rest on a dead tree not 20 feet from my drivers' window. Oh for a better zoom lens on the camera.
I kept snapping pictures until he finally turned his face to me. I wanted one of him in flight but after about 20 minutes of waiting for him to move on, he won the battle. No flight pics today.
Since it was starting to rain again, I headed back to Meriwether Lewis Park for another night but this time via Hohenwald. It was definitely shorter than the detour route.
I'm making slow but sure progress on the way south. Not bad two days and I've managed almost 58 miles of the 442...hmmm, might take until Christmas to get to Natchez. The pioneers were doing 20 miles a day on foot and I'm driving!!!
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