Magnus to Mass., with Jamestown Jaunt, Day 24

 Friday, August 29

Anticipating the time change to CDT, we left late on purpose. We’d be gaining an hour, so why not? There were turkey on the railroad tracks on the way out. Only wildlife sighting for a while. Sigh.

It turned out to be an okay drive, ending at Floating Mill Park, a COE campground in Tennessee near Cookeville--about halfway between Knoxville and Nashville. Traffic was heavy and there were several slowdowns due to congestion or is that due to construction congestion?  I don’t recall, but there was a lot of it.

The trucker app got us there easily and we ended up arriving about an hour before check-in at 3:30. I’d not been able to find a check-in time on the website, but I saw this on the printed rules sheet they handed us. But there was no problem with us checking in early.

Getting into the campsite was horrid, as described in the review. My population of gray hairs increased by a quarter in the ten minutes of abject fear I experienced watching Ed edge the Magnus RV around a tree and hearing the Thor emblem drag on the pavement as he climbed the wickedly angled pavement connections.

View from our site 

There appeared to be a few other OK RV sites for small trailers but the the bulk of the RV sites were hideously cramped together in a snarl. Even if it wasn’t a holiday weekend it would be horrid.

But after we were set, it seemed a very nice spot. At an okay campground.  But a very bad day to be there—Friday, Labor Day weekend, at a COE park by a lake. That part was hideous.

Molly and I took a walk and after zig-zagging back and forth to avoid other people’s campsites and other people’s dogs, we ended up on the Lost Springs trail. It was built a long time ago and showed it, but the trail was still pretty easy to follow. It went up, up and more up the very large hill right behind the campground.  We got to the top after about a 20 minute walk and could almost see the lake through the trees. I’m not sure if we were at the “scenic view” on the map or not.

To remember this place, here are a couple of notes. Picture a really big hill, aka a small mountain. Down at the bottom of the hill is a reservoir. At the edge of the reservoir is a swimming area/beach.  At the end toward the gate a bunch of campsites and a boat ramp are all squeezed up together. Up a level from the beach is a road with some RVs along it. Up another level is another road leading to the playground. Up another level is our driveway and campsite. Up another level is the bathroom and another road. Up another level, across the road, is a little camping loop and an amphitheater. And up from that, the “mountain” rises. So there’s a lot of stuff stacked on the side of a mountain.

If there were no other people, it would be a really nice place to be.

 

REVIEW: Floating Mills Park COE  $15

Headline: Dragged coming in and will probably drag going out

We were in site 52 which was pull-thru; asphalt surface; 50-amp electricity and water; and only a little slanted back to front, with the back higher, front lower.  It is halfway up a hill with one site below it and past that, the kid’s swimming area. It has a nice view of the lake.  There’s some shade in the mornings and afternoons, but the site is mostly in full sun which makes satellite easy. It’s right by the bathroom, if that matters to you, but downhill from it so no one walks through your site. (The hill is pretty steep)

But the problem with this site is the access to it—the connection of the driveway with the street going out has a really sharp slant—any way we took it, we’d scrape bottom.  And the driveway coming in has a really, really sharp turn with a tree on the right and a steep slant of the asphalt. It took us three back/forth adjustments to get into the site and still we dragged the decorative symbol by our left front tire on the asphalt. We have a 35’ class A and an experienced driver, and it was very hard to get in.

So even though the site is plenty long, a longer RV could not do it at all. A 30’ RV or a trailer might be okay; possibly an experienced driver of a fifth wheel could back into the space.  The guy at the gate warned us to take a look before attempting it, and said that some people preferred to back in. That would not have helped us but it might someone with a more flexible rig. 

There are other RV sites along the roads at the west end of the park that are okay. Mostly for smaller RVs. And there is a little loop containing about eight sites up on the hill. Two of those even have sewer; they seem pretty long. But the sites at the east end, between the guard station and the lake, are really close together and hideously cramped in an ant farm-like snarl.  I would not recommend them unless you’re really into togetherness with strangers.

There are a lot of very nice tent sites down at the west end, including some walk-in sites right by the water.

The bathrooms are old but clean. There is only one shower on each side men/women. There are washer/dryers at both the RV bathroom and tent camper’s bathroom.

Other than the site issues, it seems a very nice little park by a very pretty lake.  The swimming area is clean and has a roped off section for the kiddies. It’s remarkably tidy for a COE park.  We unfortunately chose to stay there on a Labor Day weekend, and it was crowded and very noisy (dogs barking, kids playing, boats on the lake) but on a week day at other times of the year it might be very pleasant.

There is one trail called the Lost Springs trail. It’s a little overgrown and old, but it climbs up the big hill behind the park. It took me and my dog about 40 minutes to walk to the top and back. You can also take the trail that starts at the “amphitheater" and connect to it that way.