Magnus to Mass., with Jamestown Jaunt, Day 25

Saturday, August 30

There was a hawk on a treetop by the road; he said there preening for a very long time. Best I could guess it was a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk. The tail seemed very short and there were no markings on the face at all.

Since we were staying at the Floating Mill COE park for two nights (to break up the driving), we needed an excursion. I’d chosen to go see the waterfalls at Burgess Falls State Park. So, we tried--but the parking lot there was packed so full that it was hard to even turn around. And there were people parking down at the restaurant and walking up the hill. It was so crowded and there were so many people that we chose not to stop. Of course, it was a Saturday of Labor Day weekend at 10 o’clock in the morning. What were we thinking?

On the way back I googled us a farmer’s market in Cookeville and we stopped there. I’d hoped for cantaloupe, but there was none. Just a lot of butternut squash and peppers. I did get a tomato but, instead of letting me pay for it, the farmer just gave it to me--I felt guilty, but what the heck. Probably he thought I was a city slicker who’d never had a home grown tomato before. Or else he was just doing his pay-it-forward deed for the day.  I also bought a butternut squash on the way out.

Nice rock for a pillow

 

So it was a very discouraging day. After looking into the shower situation, I decided to hold off until the next day to get clean. Molly and I did get in a nice long walk.

First we went all the way down to the tent camping area—it was mid-afternoon and most of the people were either on the lake or inside their trailers/tents and not out and about to disturb our walk.  Then we came back and went up to the top of the hill again. This time I was able to locate the beginning of the trail down by the amphitheater and we walked even farther than the day before.  The trail was less rocky that before. At the very top of the hill we found a very old picnic bench and a newer one, at the scenic view. Not very scenic with all the trees, but you could at least see that there was a lake down there.

It was funny, though, that on that whole walk where we saw just two people, we also saw no animals, snakes, spiders, and very few birds. I think I heard a nuthatch once. What a sad place…made me think of Silent Spring. Where were all the critters gone?

View from above

The old and new benches at the overlook