Mixed Reviews, Great Adventures Ahead!

I've seen more than highway on my drive to Knoxville.  I made sure to swing in to Indian Mountain State Park just over the state line and give it a look-see.  Built in the 1960's, the park was developed as a reclamation project in which abandoned strip mining pits were converted to recreational use. 

The ponds are stocked with a number of fish species including bluegill, large-mouth bass, crappie and catfish.

There are 49 sites with paved pads to serve both tent and RV campers. The park is only 5 minutes from the interstate but far enough away that I didn't hear any highway noise, and the road through the town of Jellico and into the park is pretty manageable for larger camping units.  There were a few sites that looked like they would easily fit a 37 foot fifth wheel, but I wouldn't say larger than that would be realistic.  Sites are fairly close together, but it looks like a good spot for a night or two on the way to somewhere else.

view from one of the paved sites - open year round!

I also stopped at Cove Lake a bit farther down the road and have to say I was not impressed.  Also close to the highway the campground is very small, the turns are tight and quite a few of the sites backed up to a chain link fence with residential buildings right on the other side.  Maybe for one night in an emergency.

Norris Dam State Park was beautiful but definitely not a place I would want to tow anything over 25 feet long.  The road going up the mountain into the park is steep and twisty, but the view of the dam was worth it as long as you're not towing anything.  A Visitor Center run by the Tennessee Valley Authority with restrooms is available at the dam itself, and the East side campground is over in that area as well.

From the state park's website: Construction of Norris Dam began in 1933 as the first project by the Tennessee Valley Authority, a Great Depression-era entity created by the federal government to control flooding and bring electricity and economic development to the Tennessee Valley. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees were sent to build the park. Many of the facilities at the park were constructed by the CCC and are still in use. 

The road in to the east campground was crazy, barely wide enough for my car and also very curvy.  The road to the west campground was a little newer and wider, but I still wouldn't tow anything bigger than a pop-up if it were me.

share the road with the wildlife

The sites on the inner loop were small but standard rv fare, but the ones on the outer loop where I tent camped were perplexing.  Where would you set up a tent?

Thick with trees and roots, sharply sloped, I had to settle for site 25 where it was still sloped enough that I woke up a few times in the night to scootch back up onto my sleeping pad.  Right next to my spot was a hiking trailhead, promising to take me down into Hootin Hollow but hard as I looked I did not see or hear any owls.

Fall color is definitely done at Norris Dam, but it did afford some partial views through the trees down into the gaps and even to the water at one point.

I had to watch where I was going since the spiders seemed to love it there for some reason.  I kept my hiking pole moving in front of me but a couple of times when I knocked down unseen webs the spiders ended up sticking to my pole and scurrying toward me, once even landing on my camera around my neck!

Not knowing anything about spider identification I couldn't tell what this is, but I knocked the same kind down in a few spots so I'm hoping it was something common and harmless.  Nonetheless I showered thoroughly when I got back from my hike to avoid spending the night with a spider inside my jammies.

In the morning I woke to fog, but it felt pretty comfortable all night long even though the temps got down to 40F.

When I woke up I saw that I had visitors.  Can you see the deer hiding behind the trees?

Speaking of visitors, I packed up my tent and went visiting my hiking buddy Sharon in Knoxville!  We had a great lunch at First Watch and then drove to set me up at South Lake RV.

Probably the sketchiest park I've ever stayed at, with decrepit campers that looked more permanent than not.  If you RV you know what kind of place I'm talking about.  But, it was fine for the night because of its location, really the only park closer than half an hour from Knoxville where I wanted to do some shopping at Dillard's and not have to worry about country roads after dark.

Which brings us up to the present, finally landing in Townsend.  I've made my stop at The Chocolate Bar and stocked up ($72.00 worth, and hopefully I'll exercise some self-control and make it last) and now I'm at the Artistic Bean by Ace Hardware while I wait for a load of laundry to dry next door.  I'm going to stay at the Cades Cove campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which will be the first time I've actually stayed overnight in the park itself.  No wifi or even reliable cell signal over there so I'm incommunicado today, and tomorrow morning I'll be meeting Sharon for a hike at the Schoolhouse Gap trailhead.  Great adventures just ahead!

Kentucky State Capitol

On Monday I got a late start and just pulled in to Prophetstown State Park in Indiana to sleep for a four hours and then hit the road again hours before dawn to make up some time.  When I started getting sleepy around Louisville I knew a stop was in order.

back of building

I don't know what it is about Frankfort, but I love stopping in that little capital town!  I still hadn't visited the new Capitol building so that is what I did.  And even though fall color is mostly over in Kentucky there were a few colorful spots left.

There was some construction going on out in front of the building, but I got close enough to get a shot of  .  The exterior is constructed of Indiana limestone and Vermont granite in the Beaux Arts style which was a bit of a surprise in a building built after the turn of the century.

pediment sculpture

Completed in 1910 it replaced the Old Capitol which I stopped to see on a previous visit but it was closed.  The sculptured pediment of the classical front portico was designed by Charles Henry Niehaus and carved by Australian sculptor Peter Rossack.  Allegorical figures represent Kentucky, the central female figure, with Progress, History, Plenty, Law, Art and Labor as her attendants.

great doorknob at the entrance

There was a tour available, but I knew it would involve a lot of talking and standing and I wanted to get my blood moving to my brain so I just wandered around with my camera and let the space speak to me.

statue of Lincoln in the Rotunda

The interior space surrounding the rotunda is largely white Georgia marble and gray Tennessee marble.  On axis with the rotunda, the grand corridors feature 36 imposing columns of Vermont granite and delicate art glass skylights.

Decorative lunettes above each staircase highlight the entrances to the House and Senate chambers.  Painted in oils by T. Gilbert White, both depict frontier scenes with Daniel Boone.  The east mural portrays Boone and his party catching their first glimpse of the Bluegrass region atop Pilot Knob in 1769.  The west mural depicts the negotiations for the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals, which lead to the purchase of Cherokee land that would eventually become Kentucky.

The State Reception Room was nice, I especially enjoyed the ceiling fixtures.

State Reception Room

But of course it was the murals in the pendentives that really caught my eye.  I didn't even notice the bas-relief under each one that represents early Native American aspects of the same ideals until I looked at my images.

"The Bounty of the Land" - racing, livestock farming, and tobacco featured
Native American women preparing corn in bas-relief

When the Capitol was constructed the space was provided for the murals, but they were actually not completed until 2010 as part of celebrating the Capitol's Centennial.

"The Light of Progress" - Athena's torch symbolizes enlightenment and hope
Native American men hunting buffalo on the Buffalo Trace

"The Strength of Commerce"
Native Americans using fire

The Culture mural features two places I've visited: Henry Clay's estate on the lower right and Natural Bridge on the upper right.

"The Fruits of Knowledge" 

While not as ornate as Wisconsin's state Capitol, it was a beautiful building with many special details.

 I also loved the streetlights lining the road leading up to the Capitol.

And the yellow leaves made a great backdrop for one of the many iron fences in the area.

Looks like a Ginkgo leaf to me?  Can anyone confirm?

Bitten by the Travel Bug

Leaving today for Tennessee, and have been contemplating again what makes me want to wander.  Is it something that is genetic, inborn, something I would want to do regardless of my experiences growing up?  I think so, after all lots of folks probably travel and move frequently when young and then crave stability.

Lion Country Safari, I'm the California-sun bleached-blondie at the back

Since my father was in the U.S. Navy we've been around the country a bit.  Born in Newfoundland we drove to Minnesota when I was only 13 months old.  From there it was a few years in Washington state and then a few in California.  Lots of places visited there, including trips across the border to Mexico and local attractions from Disneyland to Lion Country Safari which closed in 1984.  Here's an infamous news story from 1978:

On a February night in 1978, Bubbles, a hippopotamus, managed to burrow under her fence, squeeze past a barricade and lumber away from her pen. She found a marshy drainage pit in the hills behind the safari and settled in for a standoff with park rangers, rarely showing much more than her nostrils above the water line. Crowds gathered. Television cameras arrived. Soon, even Johnny Carson was having a laugh at the wayward hippo in Orange County.

Bubbles emerged from her watery hideout a few days into her escape, and was greeted with a tranquilizer dart. She crumpled to the ground. Three rangers approached, and one tapped her with a wooden pole."Bubbles roused with a mighty snort," the Orange County Register newspaper reported, "and promptly treed two rangers and sent the third scampering." Bubbles flicked her tail and rumbled back into the pond."

For 19 days, Bubbles wallowed in her pond as news helicopters clattered overhead and highway patrol officers directed traffic on nearby roads. She refused to budge even when rangers baited a huge net with her favorite food, alfalfa. And then, as night fell on her 19th day of freedom, Bubbles pulled herself out of the shallows and wandered up a nearby hill. A ranger approached her in the dark and shot her with two tranquilizer darts. She staggered for a few more steps before her knees gave out and she collapsed.

A veterinarian arrived and gave her a dose of a potent calming drug. The cheering and backslapping of her capture soon turned to disbelief and then tears as the park rangers realized that Bubbles had stopped breathing. One of the rangers reached down and tried to close her eyes, then covered her body with a blanket. The official story from Lion Country Safari has always been that Bubbles fell in an awkward position on the hill, and her heavy internal organs pressed against her lungs, suffocating her. But the lead ranger that night, Steve Clark, has long maintained that it was the veterinarian's drug - administered needlessly and carelessly, he says - that killed Bubbles. A heavy-duty earthmover carried Bubbles back to Lion Country Safari, where an necropsy found she had been pregnant with her second calf.

The Grand Canyon 1976, check out those shades my mom was wearing!

 But it was the big move from California to Illinois that I remember the most with stops at impressive destinations like the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.  We stayed at Circus Circus where I won prizes at the kiddie games and my mom let me sneakily pull the handle on a slot machine.  It was where I also almost drowned in the hotel swimming pool.  I was a good swimmer, but exhaustion took hold and I was too tired to even shout as I went under, but someone noticed and dived in to get me.

Las Vegas 1976

Of course there were plane trips to Newfoundland, but my travel memories center around those car trips: lying in the back seat and sneaking off the seat belt that I wasn't used to wearing, collecting souvenirs like giant pencils and beaded bags, seeing natural wonders that made me want to know what else was out there and learning so much about people and how it's okay to be different.

Me and Mom, Niagra Falls 1979 - no sun there!

And my love of photography?  Maybe that sprouted from those early travels as well, where we documented where we went and the fun we had.  I got my first camera for an 8th grade graduation present, I think it was a Kodak Instamatic 110 with those little flashcubes.  Not very many of those pictures were anything worth keeping, but I remember the excitement while opening the package after they were developed and flipping through them, not knowing what I was going to see and what memory would suddenly be mine to relive.

My dad, Columbia River

Kames Konquered - Tackling Holy Hill

After my adventure in stealth camping last Saturday night I packed up my gear and headed to the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians at Holy Hill, I swear I am not kidding you about the name!   Home to the Holy, it's also home to a section of the Ice Age Trail, and a sweet erratic at the top of one of the kames.

24 ton granite erratic that hitched a ride on the glacier

Kames are what it's all about here, with slopes throughout the site ranging from 2% to 30% grades.

Kames might make for strenuous hiking, but the views are great, especially with all the leaves falling.

I missed the color show by a good week here, but this time of year is really good for showing off the glacial landscape, and those cone shaped kames popped up all over from small to the 1335 foot kame the Basilica itself sits upon.

At 8:30 in the morning I had the woods to myself, and was even serenaded by church bells!

The present church was completed and consecrated in 1931, and since it was Sunday there were a lot of visitors to the Basilica and to the Stations of the Cross at the bottom of the large moulin kame that I passed on a spur trail.

I didn't go past the entrance, I'll go back and visit another time when mass isn't in session.  Besides, the trail was calling...

The leaves are off the trees and covering the ground, but a few fungi were still visible.

And there was even a quiet little pond where I startled up an early morning wader.

Kames and more kames lined the trail, some boasting views of the Basilica as a reward at the top.

The scenic tower is open to the public and stretches 192 feet from its base to the tip of its spire. By climbing 178 stairs, you can reach nearly to the top to view a panorama of the Kettle Moraine area.  I'll have to make a point to come on a weekday during peak color next fall when it's less crowded with churchgoers.

One of the things I like about the Waukesha chapter of the IAT is their signage.  Not only a topographic map posted at the trailhead on Donegal Road, but distances between landmarks too.  This is the only county I've seen this in so far in my explorations.  Thanks to their map I know I traveled about 3.4 miles from where I parked at the Erratic Spur to Donegal Road and then back to my car by way of Carmel Road.

Of course I lost yet another lens cap.  I bought a clip that attaches to your camera strap to hold the cap, but the way I bang around I knocked it out of that, and they always fall out of my pockets so what is a girl to do?  I've bought at least 4 of the 52mm ones alone this year so far! I'm getting smarter though and just went ahead and bought a spare along with the replacement this time.

Few Wants and Stealth Camping for the First Time

I've been catching up on some blog reading this morning, and have run across quite a few quotes.  But this one really struck a chord so I'll shamelessly steal it from Mark's September post:
   "Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants."    (Epictetus)

While I agree with this wholeheartedly, I'm having a bad week since my contractor for the bathroom stopped by on Sunday and casually announced that those details I asked for regarding the bill did uncover an inaccurate accounting of the bill...but in his favor, not mine.  That brings the total for labor for our small project up to $7,000.  I told Wayne never again are we undertaking a project using someone he knows without an estimate first.  I'm broke, and it's not feeling too great.  But this too shall pass.

I've felt rich wandering the trails in southern Wisconsin these last few weeks with what I need on my back or in the back of my Vibe when I reach the car. The maples were just as glorious as the oaks last week, but of course this week the trees are mostly bare.

I saved $18 last weekend by trying my hand at some "stealth camping".  I actually parked near a legitimate shelter in Kettle Moraine State Forest, hoping it was unoccupied for the night.  But, as I approached the awesome looking site I spotted a fire so turned around and headed back down the hill for a clearing nearby that I had spotted. It was getting close to dark and I really didn't want to head over to Ottawa Lake and pay to set up in the dark while the dogs at the nearby kennel barked incessantly until midnight.

Far enough away that I doubted my "neighbor" knew I was there yet close enough that another human was within shouting distance if there was trouble, it actually ended up being a good result.  It was a only a five minute walk from my car which was a good thing because that pack ended up being surprisingly heavy with the tent and sleeping bag included.  I didn't bring any food or a stove or anything like that, so can only imagine how much extra weight I could have had.  I settled in my little spot in the woods and read my Kindle until bedtime, only hearing some coyotes in the distance once but no other wildlife at all.

Home Sweet Free Home

I'm going to pack up my Vibe and head south toward Tennessee on Monday night after work unless a change in the forecast occurs.  Overnight temps in the 40's have worked out okay for me here, can't see what it would hurt to experience cozying up in my sleeping bag in the Smokies instead of in Wisconsin.  My wants are few for the next two weeks, just to get to Tennessee without mechanical mishap and to hopefully stay dry and above freezing when I get there.

And to hike with my buddy Sharon a time or two, of course!

Waterville Segment - That Old Oak Feeling

Last weekend I checked out the Waterville segment of the Ice Age trail which is just past the Ottawa Lake campground.  Unlike some of the other trailheads this one was easy to find, just take Cty Hwy C from Hwy 67 then a left on Cty Hwy D and you can't miss it.  I parked on the side of the road, something that is allowed in most Wisconsin rural areas unless posted otherwise.

The trail winds through private land here, and the topography is a little less severe than it is in the Kettle Moraine State Forest.  It started out mostly flat, with views of oaks just hitting peak color.

Once into the woods watch your footing, especially in fall as there was a lot of chunks of dolomite protruding from the ground and the leaf litter obscured the hazards.

It was hard to keep my eyes on the obstacles at my feet with the late afternoon light pouring down through the oak leaves overhead.

Because I had my eyes up above a caught sight of a couple of bluejays darting from tree to tree, and I spotted a woodpecker fleeing my intrusion too.

One of the great things about oak leaves is the color variety that can happen all on the same leaf.

I know an oak when I see one, hard to miss that pile of acorns on the ground, but there are quite a variety of types in the Midwest including common red oak, pin oak and burr oak.  The red oak family will have point lobes like the ones above, white oak family will have rounded lobes like the one below which was probably from a burr oak.

When the trail entered the woods it climbed up and down some hills, not as steep as what can be found in other areas of the trail and it was a very nice walk with just enough difficulty and variety to keep things interesting.  The guidebook puts it at 3.8 miles but I'm going to disagree and say it can't be more than 3.4 as I completed the whole thing in just a little over an hour and of course those hills slow you down.

Well, they slow me down, but they don't seem to slow the squirrels down any.