Agile Trekker: Millennium Loop Trail, Edgar Evins State Park, Tennessee

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/1/2023	2.5 miles	1 hour 44 minutes	368'	2.0 mph	148.4

Parking:

Edgar Evins State Park Road

Map:

Edgar_Evins_web.png (3300×2550) (tnstateparks.com)

Directions:

Follow Millennium Loop Trail from the parking lot.

On Friday afternoon we headed out on our high pointing vacation. Our first stop was Cookeville, TN. I had never heard of this town before, but it's actually a fun college town with lots of restaurants. We had dinner at an India Palace. We ate outside, and I tried sketching some of our food. The owner came outside to talk to us and told me she used to be an art teacher. We would consider spending more time in this town and visiting state parks in the area.

Our trip was going to involve a lot of driving, so we decided to add in short hikes (all I can do right now) to help break up the drive. On Saturday we stopped by Edgar Evins State Park. The terrain for this hike wasn't particularly nice (loose rocks) but the trail made up for it with a large number of wildflowers.

After our hike we drove into busy Nashville. We ate lunch at Copper Branch, a vegetarian restaurant downtown. Driving downtown was challenging. We saw many people riding around on rented scooters. That seems like more fun than driving. Anyways, we ate our lunch at a park across from the restaurant. Krummholz, although shy with strangers, charmed the folks sitting near us.

We visited a replica of the Parthenon. Very cool. The park was very crowded. I also think it must have been prom night, as there were many, many young couples dressed up and having their photos taken with the Parthenon as a backdrop.

We then went to the downtown Whole Foods to pick up food for the next 2 days. We had to park in a parking garage. I think next vacation, we'll avoid driving downtown in large cities.

We continued on to Natchez Trace State Park, where we had rented a cabin for a couple of nights. We got there pretty late at night and had no idea where to get the key for our cabin. It was hard even finding the cabin in the dark. We eventually drove through a campground and found the campground host. He gave us directions on where to pick up our key. The park is moderately big, so it was a 5-mile drive to the Pin Oak lodge where we got our cabin key.

Our cabin was classified as a "rustic" cabin. It was a 1-bedroom cabin with a bathroom and a kitchen. No phone or tv (no problem for us), but it had heat and bed linens. The cabin overlooked a lake. It wasn't fancy but it was very clean and perfect for us. Quiet and in the woods.