A Rewarding Challenge: Edgar Evins State Park’s Clayborn Millennium/Merrit Ridge Trail

Spent Sunday afternoon hiking the Jack Clayborn Millennium/Merritt Ridge Trail at Edgar Evins State Park  in DeKalb County. One of the longer trails in the area,  it combines two trail loops for a rigorous 8 mile there-and-back hike. If you’ve only got a couple hours, take the 2-1/2 mille Millennium Trail loop. (You can download a trail map here)

Echoes of another time

From the trail head parking area, the hike begins as easy amble of a quarter mile or so down to the lake. There you’ll find hints of a once thriving homestead. All that remains are large limestone front and back steps, cut chimney rock, stone pillars which define the shape of the house, and the foundation of a spring house or root cellar nearby. When the lake is down a more modest pile of chimney stones suggests a log cabin once stood about 500 feet away. On a previous trip, one of my sons found an Indian game stone there.

From there, the Millennium loop leads deeper into the woods and gradually up and around the the hillside, below outcrops of cherty bluffs with towering oaks and beeches. Deep in the woods you’ll suddenly come upon the collapsed chimney and rusted reminders of another home, long abandoned. You can't help but pause and wonder what life must have been, totally self sufficient and tucked away in in such a remote pocket.

Ridgetop view of Center Hill Lake

It's a pretty easy walk most of the way around the Clayborn Millennium Loop. If you take the full hike, including the connector trail and Merrit Ridge loop hike you’ll face some moderately challenging up-and-down runs. You’ll be rewarded for the effort, though, as you climb through climax stands of beech and oak for some some great ridgetop views of the lake. 

The connector trail climbs a steep hill, then runs with the ridge before it drops off  past some gargantuan stacked stones. At bottom, it connects with the Merrit Loop, tracing a peninsula as it juts out into Center Hill Lake. The hike climbs and falls along tracks old wagon roads, through cedar thickets and stands of hardwood down to the lake before winding back. At about the halfway mark for the entire hike you can get take a break for a rest or swim at the lake’s edge. At one point, as you approach or depart from the water, there’s 70 foot drop off one side of the trail so be extra careful.

A short run of huge stacked rocks

Overall, both trails are well marked and maintained but this is a hike probably best enjoyed in cooler months. In a few areas it narrowly winds through what can be some lush underbrush and grasses, in season. Ticks could be a problem, unseen snakes, too. And, those great views of the lake from the ridge will be missed when the leaves are on the trees. Late fall, winter through early spring though, you’ll enjoy all this hike offers, and if you like a challenge, you’ll be pleased with the experience whenever you go.

Start Sending Your The Invitations Out Now For Tennessee’s Big Summer Solar Event

        Friends and family been promising to visit you here in The Volunteer State?

This summer brings one of the best excuses to make that journey and discover all Tennessee offers.

Monday, August 21 a good swath of the state will be directly in the path of one of the most anticipated of all celestial events: a total eclipse of the sun! 

        For almost three minutes early that afternoon the sun will be transformed into a black sphere, surrounded by its dramatic, blazing corona. For young and old, observer and photographer, it’s an opportunity to experience what is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event, right here at home

The path of the total eclipse through Tennessee

Total solar eclipses are so rare in any part of the world that people plan and communities promote vacations and tours around them. Nashville, the largest American city in the path of full totality, has already taken that lead, billing itself as the Music City Total Eclipse  on its tourism website, complete with a countdown clock. Tennessee’s celebrated state parks are also talking it up, with a page devoted to the eclipse, including duration for observers in each park. 

Wherever you live, you can also find out when and how long the eclipse will be visible in your area on sites like The Great American Eclipse  and  Eclipse2017.or

        

        So here’s your opportunity: Get those invitations out now.

        And, start praying for blue skies next August 21.

Stones River Remembered As A Turning Point In Tennessee's Rich Civil War History

Confederate re-enactors fire a volley
 at Stones River National Battlefield in Murfreesboro.

As the old year wound down, history buffs gathered at Stones River National Battlefield to commemorate the start of one of the Civil War’s bloodiest encounters, in Murfreesboro along the old Nashville Pike. December 31, 1862 through January 2 ,1863 an estimated 81,000 soldiers of the Union and Confederacy valiantly fought there for control of Middle Tennessee.The Battle of Stones River, one of the war’s bloodiest, was ultimately decided as a much-needed victory for the North just as the Emancipation Proclamation became the law of the land.

Each year the rangers at Stones River, and volunteer re-enactors, present days of events timed to the battle, as it unfolded. Ours focused on its bloody beginnings at locations appropriately memorialized as “The Slaughter Pen” and “Hell’s Half Acre.”

The programs provide insight into the terror, confusion, determination  and sacrifices of all engaged. Re-enactors in uniforms of both armies fire authentic rifles and artillery, as eyewitness accounts of the battles are read. 

Anyone interested in state and national history, and Tennessee’s vital importance to both armies, will gain much from a visit to Stones River, or any of the state’s five other nationally protected Civil War sites: Shiloh National Military Park,  Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Cumberland Gap National Historic Park, Fort Donelson National Battlefield and the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.

The “War Between The States” touched all corners of Tennessee in one way or another. To learn more, download or pick up a copy of Tennessee’s Civil War Trail map, compiled to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the conflict (available on the Civil War Traveler website), or Tennessee Tourism's guide to the war, as lived throughout the state.