Out of Our Rut Blog Welcome Page

Welcome to the Out of Our Rut blog landing page.

Who we are:

We are a couple of former engineers that lived and worked in the Rochester New York area for over 30 years. When we were laid off from two different companies, one day apart, we took that as a sign to change things up. We had built a beautiful home on 50 acres and loved the place, but with plenty of time on our hands, we began to travel more and realized that when we were on the road for weeks on end, we didn't really miss all the “stuff” we had back home. Plus the work involved with maintaining our home and property seemed to be the only reason we would head back home. That prompted us to get out of our rut and sell 95% of our possessions and our home and move into our 38 foot motorhome and travel the country full time starting in June of 2016.

Chris and Jack Hiking in Washington State

At Pullout Along Rugged Oregon Coast

Our mission:

To explore the country with a strong bias towards outdoor activities. Our passions are hiking and geocaching with some mountain biking on the side. I am an avid photographer. I guess working at Eastman Kodak for 32 years had an influence in that. And while we live in a motorhome and stay in many campgrounds, we really are not campers. We seldom have campfires and don't have a corn hole game. We rarely stay at a campground for its amenities. We pick a place that is near where we want to explore. We think of it more like our home happens to have wheels and can move around. Our desire in these travels is to slow the pace. We didn't want to see if we could get to all the National Parks as quickly as possible. We like to keep a travel day to less than 200 miles and if the place warrants, stay for a week or more.

At Geocaching Headquarters in Seattle for #10,000

The blog:

For friends and family (as well as us) to keep track of what we have been up to, we have created this blog. It chronicles where we've been and what we've done as we wander around the country. Each stop along the way will, at minimum, get mentioned in the blog. Some longer stops in areas we enjoyed may get multiple blog posts in order to give that stop it's due. Generally the blog has lots of photographs as I find it difficult to eliminate photos I like. The blog will talk about the campground to some extent, but it shouldn't be considered a campground review. We seldom seem to exhaust the things we want to explore before we exhaust ourselves and need to move on. That means we may completely skip some activities or places in an area that others may consider essential. We look at that as a reason to come back in the future.

Pretty Sunset in Quartzite Arizona

At the Window in Big Bend National Park

This landing page:

The problem with just about any blog is that fact it is chronological. This is fine since that is how the events occurred in real life. But since our blog is so much about a given location, it can be difficult for somebody to find a specific blog post for a given location. I even find it a challenge to remember when we happened to be at a given location if I wanted to look something up. For instance, if someone asked about Twin Falls Idaho. I know we stayed there but it might take me awhile to figure out that we were there in June of 2017 to get them to the right post. If I could only look at a map of all the places we have stayed and have an easy way to get to the relevant blog post.

Since I already use Google My Maps to keep track of our locations, I have created a special map that has all of our stops since going full time. None of the routes are included in the map since that just seems to clutter it up and don't really add value. By clicking the link below the map, an interactive map with all of our stops will open in another window. It is then possible to move around the map and zoom in an area of interest. Clicking on any pin on the map will pop up the name of the location along with a link to the blog post(s) associated with that stop. Since I am nearly always 2 to 4 weeks behind in the blog, some of the most recent map points may not have a link to a blog, but they will in time. The GREEN pins are locations that happen to include one of our annual or yearly reviews.

So if you want to see what we found to explore in a given area, this should provide a much easier way to find the blog post.

Click HERE to open interactive Google map

2025 Year End Review

With 2025 coming to an end, we are celebrating nine and a half years of living on the road full time in our 38 foot motorhome. We began and finished the year at our RV lot in Titusville Florida at The Great Outdoors (TGO). We purchased the lot almost 2 years ago. It’s a fairly basic lot with a nice flat concrete driveway and the standard full hook up utilities but it does have a 10 foot by 12 foot shed which is very convenient for working on projects over the months we will be stationary here. The resort has a lot of nice amenities but we don’t take advantage of most of them. I must admit that I do miss the occasional winter spent out in southern California and Arizona where the hiking and views are a lot nicer.

We started out 2025 wrapping up some of our doctors appointments in an attempt to get our old bodies in shape for another six months of travel. Our plans for the year were to explore some of the upper Midwest. As we looked into what we wanted to see and do in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, we picked out a few events that were both location and date specific. These types of stops have a much firmer window that form the rough outline and timing of our journey.

The first event was to take part in a Habitat for Humanity build in Marquette Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. The two week window for the RV-Care-A-Vanner program was from mid to late June. The second planned event was to attend the Oshkosh Air Show in Wisconsin. This weeklong show runs in late July. With those two points on our map we have quite a bit of distance and time to fill in before, between and after these events.

It is definitely a time consuming task to map out a route, plan our camping stops and figure out how long we want to stay in areas along the way. We spent a few weeks over last winter researching things to see and do in various cities along the route. Where is the good hiking or points of interest?  I use a Google Map and a website called Furkot to piece together a plan. As we get a better handle on our route and timing, we can start to make reservations at various campgrounds and by the end of April we had a 70% of the nights reserved out through Labor Day. We have found that after then, we can be much more serendipitous about our planning for the route back to Florida.

Below is a map of our route for the year. By starting and returning to the same place, the map is a bit confusing. I have a link below the map that will open the actual Google Map which allows others to zoom and pan around to get a better view of the route. Clicking on any of the pins for a travel stop will pop up a window with the name of the stop as well as the blog post related to that stop.

Click HERE to open the Google Map

We left Titusville in late April with just over 7 weeks to make our way to Marquette. While getting the rig serviced in South Carolina, we needed to make a quick drive up to Ohio for a death in the family. It was nice to see so many relatives and friends even if it was at a sad time. We continued our journey with 2 weeks in a few state parks in the southern Appalachians.  In Cincinnati, we got a chance to get together with family and have some Skyline Chili and Graeters Ice Cream. We managed to sneak in a stop at a National Park and get our motorhome windshield replaced in northern Indiana. Then we worked our way up north through Michigan stopping at a few Elks Lodges before crossing over the Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsula. The time spent working with the Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Marquette was quite rewarding and we learned a few construction tricks.

We had about 3 weeks before the Oshkosh Air Show and we got to explore the western side of the UP at a few different campgrounds before working our way south into Wisconsin. We really enjoyed the air show and you’ll read more about that later in this post. Then we continued west into Minnesota where we spent the next 37 nights at various county and state parks. I was able to talk my wife into a side trip into eastern North Dakota to experience what others have called the Disneyland of geocaching - more on that later as well.

It was about this time that we “called an audible”. We had previously planned to head back to Marquette and help out again on the Habitat build and see how it had progressed since our stop in June. But after we had talked with some fellow campers while in Minnesota, we decided to return to Minnesota to check out the north shore area along Lake Superior. This gave us the opportunity to even meet up with my nephew and his wife from Cincinnati while they were in town for her high school reunion. By then it was late September and we figured we better start making our way south to avoid the cold and snow that is inevitable for this area.

We stopped in the Apostle Islands in northern Wisconsin for several days where we got a chance to explore some of the unique landscape along the shoreline. As we headed south, we got to experience a cranberry harvest up close and personal and visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin both in Wisconsin. We continued through parts of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana with Chris making a return to her college town of Peoria after 40 years!

Coming through Tennessee, we got to spend a week back in the mountains to see the fall colors before timing our drive through Atlanta on a Sunday morning to minimize the traffic. A few days in a state park in Georgia and a couple of overnight stops at Elks Lodges and we made it back to Florida. It felt good when we returned to TGO after being gone for 190 nights. Things have definitely slowed down over the last two months as we get back to doing some work on the motorhome, our lot and getting in doctors appointments.

Here are a few more maps to help show where we spent our time. These “heat maps” are shaded to reflect the number of nights spent in each state - dark red is more nights, pale red is fewer nights. The first one is just for 2025. We camped in 13 different states this year with Florida, Minnesota and Michigan coming in the top 3 spots. The second map is similar but includes all 9.5 years we’ve been fulltime. The final map is the full 9.5 years but divided down to the county level to get a better understanding of where we were in each state.

Our 2025 Camping Map

Our 9.5 Year Camping Map

9.5 Years at County Level

Lots of people ask “how much does this lifestyle cost?”  Well the table below should help answer that. It doesn’t include items that would be spent if we were living in a sticks and bricks home like groceries, dining out, health care, clothing. But it does include camping costs as well as fuel for both the motorhome and the car as well as the miles driven. We did put on more miles on the rig this year but not significantly more.  Nothing else was all that surprising. Since the actual table has so many years now, I only include the past six years.  One other aspect is that the cost per night here at TGO is initially an educated estimate but I won’t have our last rental income check for the year until mid February at which point I will update the spreadsheet and this table.

Just the Stats for the Past 6 Years

The table does breakdown the type of places we have camped into four categories: boondocking, state parks, private campgrounds and Elks Lodges. While we tend to like state, county or city parks over private campgrounds, location is our most important consideration when picking a campground as well as availability and do we fit in the site. This year we did bump up our state park number a little bit compared the past couple of years. Our overall cost per night worked out to be just over $32 - a bit higher than many years but again not significantly higher.

Like we have done in past year end reviews, we have looked over the 49 stops from this year and tried to identify our favorites. After the votes were tallied, we came up with 8 clear winners. Don't look at this list as the best campgrounds we stayed at during the year. I will provide the name of the campground we stayed at but these winning stops are based purely on its location or what we found to see and do in the area. I will also warn readers that one place on the list might be a mediocre location if you’re not an avid geocacher but we found it to be quite entertaining.

For each winning stop, there is a short description of what we liked about it, a link to the first blog post for that location which will provide much more information about the stop and some of our favorite pictures from the stop. Since I am behind on my blog writing, there are some of the stops without the link to the post but this will be updated as they are written. In chronological order, here are the top 8 stops for 2025.

• Cloudland Canyon State Park, Trenton Georgia - We had done a day trip to this park back in 2021 and fell in love with the park and it’s wonderful hikes and views. We managed to get a spot for 5 nights and found it to be a rather roomy site. The final 8 miles into the parking lot is up a rather steep and curving road. It is doable in a rig our size but not necessarily fun. We repeated one of our favorite hikes the West Rim Loop. By staying in the park for multiple days, we were able to hike Sitton’s Gulch Trail which follows the base of the valley along a creek. This park is not too far from Chattanooga so we spent one day exploring some of the sights in that town including the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Cloudland Canyon is a nice relaxing place to visit in northern Georgia.

Cloudland Canyon Blog Post

Cloudland Canyon View

Large Overhanging Rock

• Union River Big Bear Campground, Silver City Michigan - Situated in the far western part of the Upper Peninsula, this private campground is pretty much surrounded by the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. We stayed here for a week after completing our Habitat build in Marquette. It is a remote location that didn’t have any cell coverage for our devices but there was reasonable WiFi that worked in our rig. There are many hiking trails within the park and we take advantage of many of them. The main feature of this area are the numerous waterfalls - more of them than can be seen in the time we were here. We had found a decent guide that rated the falls on beauty and ease of getting to the viewing location and we managed to hit a great number of the better ones. The only real problem with this stop was coming in early July - the bugs were pretty bad at times. If you can time your visit for the fall colors, I bet the views would be spectacular and the bugs would be less of an issue.

First Porcupine Mountains Blog Post

Lake of the Clouds

Beautiful Bond Falls

• Hancock Recreation Area Campground, Hancock Michigan - This stop isn’t all that far from the Porcupine Mountains but there is so much to see and do in this area that it would be a challenge to attempt both areas from one campground. Situated on the Keweenaw Peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior, this part of the UP was formerly a big copper mining area. Several of the old mines and facilities have been taken over by the National Park Service and offer a wide range of interesting tours. We did head up to Copper Harbor to explore an old lighthouse and fort. This area is known for some excellent mountain biking be we didn’t get a chance to try any bike trails and only got In minimal hiking since there were so many other things to see and do and we only had 5 nights in Hancock.

First Keweenaw Peninsula Blog Post

Shaft-Rock House at Quincy Mine

Eagle Harbor Light House

Incredible Stone Building in Calumet

• Camp Scholler Air Show, Oshkosh Wisconsin - Usually I don’t try to rank our tops picks for any given year, but this stop was so much fun that it was easily our favorite place of 2025 and rates up with the Albuquerque Balloon Festival and the Lake Havasu Pyrotechnics Show as bucket list destinations. Similar to these other two, Oshkosh is only on the list because of the event that takes place every July - the EAA Airventure Show. There are around 12,000 mostly primitive camping sites in a 400 acre field so you’re not here for the camping experience. But for a full week, you can join in with roughly 100,000 other visitors each day and partake in everything aviation related. We are not at all into airplanes or flying but we still had a great time. There are 4 hour long airshows each afternoon and two nights during the week are nighttime airshows with planes, fireworks, laser lights and drones which were some of the most incredible events to behold. My blog post listed below will provide all the details about attending and what you’ll see while at Oshkosh. Add it to your bucket list!

Oshkosh Air Show Blog Post

Large Group of Warbirds During Air Show

Colorful Aerobatic Biplane

Nighttime Air Show Begins

• Bear Paw Campground Itasca State Park, Shelvin Minnesota - In mid August, we spent 9 nights camping inside Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota. The park’s claim to fame is being the headwaters of the Mississippi River. It’s one of the few places along this 2300 mile long river where visitors are encouraged to walk across from one side to the other. It’s only about 15 feet and ankle deep so it isn’t all that impressive of a feat. There are many miles of hiking trails to enjoy. The 11 mile paved bike path right out of the campground can be linked with a gravel one way wilderness drive for a great 17 mile loop around the lake.

Being there for an extended time, we were able to venture out of the park to see some other sights. The Heartland Trail a little southeast of camp was a wonderful bike ride out of the town of Walker. Possibly the highlight of the stop was a day trip to the town of Detroit Lakes to see the trolls. These 6 art installations are scattered all around the area and we found it is a full day to get them all in since most of them are not right at a parking area but require a bit of a walk. But the effort was worth it.

 First Itasca State Park Blog Post

Calm Waters of Lake Itasca Near Sunset

The First Few Feet of the Mighty Mississippi River

Chris Mimics Ronny Funny Face Troll

• Turtle River State Park, Arvilla North Dakota - Located 25 miles outside of Grand Forks is the small town of Gilby North Dakota. Small is an understatement - population ~240 people! The nearest campground was this state park about 10 miles away. Why did we want to go to this blip on the map in the middle of farm fields and not much else? That’s easy - geocaching. We had heard about Gilby on a geocaching podcast we routinely listen to and it sounded quite intriguing. When we put together our travel plans for Minnesota, I realized that we were only going to be 150 miles from Gilby and talked Chris into heading there. This place is known as the Disneyland of geocaching mainly because of one very creative cache hider named Trycacheus.

We spend 3 full days driving all over the backroads of Gilby in search of some of the most creative caches we’ve done over our 15+ years of geocaching. Most of the hides involved some sort of puzzle that must be solved in order to open the final cache container and each puzzle was very unique. Some were complicated and required a fair amount of thought while others were simply cute and fun to solve. Brainpower was used for most of them but a few required strength or throwing accuracy. In our 6 nights there, we found 71 caches with 50 of them having over 100 favorite points. We were there a couple weeks before some big geocaching event but that probably worked out in our favor so we could enjoy the time spent solving them in solitude. There were a few other things to see in the area but not many. So if you are a geocacher, this is a must do stop, otherwise you will likely skip this part of North Dakota.

 

 Blog Post from Gilby

Giant Anvil Weathervane is a Geocache

ET Phone Home Bike Cache

Geocaching Swiss Army Knife Cache

• Black Beach Campground, Silver Bay Minnesota - This stop wasn’t planned until a couple weeks before staying there. We only decided to consider checking out this part of Minnesota known as the “North Shore” after several people talked about how beautiful it is and a tour of the state should include seeing it. It’s an area that extends about 150 miles northeast of Duluth to the Canadian border near Grand Portage all along the northern shore of Lake Superior. We worked 4 nights into our schedule to check it out. There are a fair number of campgrounds along the route and some of the state parks looked nice but didn’t have availability during our timeframe. We picked Silver Bay because it was roughly halfway along the North Shore so we could easily explore in either direction.

There are numerous places to see with lots of waterfalls and other attractions. Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse were two of our favorites. One day was spent exploring all the way up to Grand Portage just before the border crossing. We did a beautiful hike there and found lots of places to stop at on our drive back. If you do make it to the area, you should really check out Betty’s Pies in Two Harbors. Had we only known to include the North Shore as we were planning our tour of Minnesota, we would have allotted more time to explore.

 Blog Post from Silver Bay

Split Rock Lighthouse Reflection

Gooseberry Falls State Park

Black Beach

Finally Saw the Northern Lights

• Top of the World Campground, Tellico Plains Tennessee - This was our last long stop before heading back to Florida for the winter. We really enjoy spending time in the Appalachian Mountains and doing so in the fall is even better. Having spent most of our time in these mountains on the North Carolina side near Asheville, we picked this out of the way campground to spend a week exploring. We found some quirky things to see in the area including tours of Mayfield Dairy and Sweetwater Valley farms where we saw robotic cow milking equipment in action.

There are many nice hikes to do in this area but it might be most famous for Cherohala Skyway - a 43 mile stretch of road from Tellico Plain TN to Robbinsville NC. It’s a very scenic drive through the mountains and we had (accidentally) timed our visit to be near peak autumn colors. This road ties into another drive called the Tail of the Dragon and many car enthusiasts come here from far away to drive these roads. The day we drove a section of it, there was an Aston Martin car club enjoying the drive - a total of 38 from vintage ones like James Bond drove to brand new models. They would have been much more fun to drive than the Jeep!

 Blog Post Not Written Yet

View from Our Campsite at Top of the World

River View Along Cherohala Skyway

Indian Boundary Lake TN

Below is a map showing all 435 places we have camped in the past eight and a half years. For additional information on any of them, click on the link below the map which will open the actual Google Map I use. Pan and zoom on the map and by clicking on any pin, a window will pop up with the name of the location and a link to the blog post(s) for that place. Those interested in hiking, mountain biking, geocaching or nature photography, may find some of the posts useful if you plan to visit an area we have explored. Our blog posts are more about the interesting locations we discovered during our stops and less about campground reviews so don't expect to find much information about what campground is the best in a specific area.

Click HERE to Open Interactive Google Map

We still haven’t made any plans for where 2026 will take us but I’m sure we will come up with something in the next couple months.

Touring Tennessee

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

With just over 2 weeks before returning to Titusville Florida, we leave southern Indiana, drive through Kentucky and stop just north of Nashville at the Madison Elks Lodge. The 173 mile drive is uneventful and we pull into the lodge to find several of the RV spaces available. They actually have several full hookup spots but they aren’t particularly level. We plan to spend 2 nights here before going into the mountains further southeast in the state. We head into the bar to register and pay. We talk to some of the locals about must see sights in the Nashville area since it’s less than 10 miles to downtown. We’ve camped in the area back in the spring of 2019 so we have already visited some of the suggestions but there were a few other suggestions that sounded interesting so we came up with a plan for our one full day in town.

We picked three places to see all within a few miles of one another on the southwest side of town. We start out at the Parthenon. This is a full-scale replica of the ancient Greek temple. Originally built in 1897 for Tennessee’s Centennial Exposition, the first building was intended to only be temporary so it was built of plaster and wood. It became such a tourist attraction in the early 1900’s that when the plaster began to deteriorate, the city commissioned a more permanent replacement which was completed in 1931.

The Parthenon in Nashville

We arrive to find the place very busy on a Friday morning. We wander around the outside before heading in to tour the interior. Tickets were $10 per person with senior discount. There are two floors and many galleries to explore. One of the newer features is the Athena statue on the second level. This was created by a Nashville artist and completed in 1990. It’s an impressive sight. Standing at almost 42 feet tall and covered with 8 pounds of gold leaf, it is one of the more popular attractions. We waited for the group of schoolchildren to move out before we could see it up close.

Athena

Closeup Detail

The other room on level 2 is the Treasury. This holds plaster casts of the original figures seen in Greece. These casts were taken well after a lot of deterioration - like missing heads, arms and legs. A smaller version of the figures was sculpted to show what they probably looked like.

Plaster Casts of Figures from Greece

The first level has a large number of galleries. Some explain the history of this building in Nashville as well as the creation of the Athena statue. Others have a large number of paintings, gifted by a wealthy benefactor. We probably spent an hour touring the museum.

One of Dozens of Paintings

The Parthenon is in the very large Centennial Park. We have an Adventure Lab that tours us around the park to see some of its monuments. They were getting setup for some sort of event at one end of the park and had temporary fencing installed that kept us out of some of it. It was definitely a pretty day for a walk.

Pond in Centennial Park

John W. Thomas Monument

As we leave the park, we across the street onto the Vanderbilt University campus. This is definitely a big place. We limited our walking to some of the sights highlighted in another Adventure Lab. They were preparing for a home football game tomorrow against LSU so there was a lot of activity near the stadium.

SAE House on Vanderbilt Campus

"Flying Torso"

Mechanical Engineering Building

Our next goal was to find a place for lunch before heading to Music Row. There were almost too many options being so close to campus but we finally settle on Torchy’s Tacos just off campus and had a good lunch. From here it was just a few blocks to the beginning of the Music Row.

Music Row Plaque

"Musica" Statue

Owen Bradley - Music Producer

A third Adventure Lab helped us tour the various studios. Chris had also found a walking tour that was more comprehensive at describing the many recording studios in the area. We walked 1.5 miles just seeing famous studios. Many of them have ads for their top stars out front but I’ll admit, most of them were artists we were completely unfamiliar with. For all we know, we walked by some famous musician and didn’t even know it.

RCA Studio

Curb Word Recording Company

Guitar Sculptures

It was close to 3 PM when we finished our musical tour of Nashville studios. We headed back across the Vanderbilt campus taking a slightly different route to see other parts of it.

"Zerogee"

Zeppos Dormitory 

Intricate Stone and Brickwork

Centennial Park seemed to be even more crowded but that might not be surprising since it was a nice Friday afternoon. We had a fun but short stop in Nashville.

Colorful Planting Bed along Centennial Park Walkway

Our drive to our next stop on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains near Tellico Plains Tennessee was a bit of a long one - coming in at 212 miles. Most of it was on interstate highways so not too bad but the last 30 miles up into the foothills was a narrow winding road for the majority of it. We had reserved a site at the Top of the World RV Park mostly in the middle of nowhere for a week. It is a smaller place with less than 20 campsites but the view from our spot was pretty incredible.

View from Campsite at Top of the World

We had a rather rainy the day after we arrived. We head to the small town of Coker Creek where there is a welcome center - it’s less than 5 miles southwest of camp. There weren’t many visitors and I think the volunteer may have been a bit lonely so she talked quite some time about what we needed to do to do since we have the remainder of a week to explore this part of Tennessee. She ends up giving us quite a few options, probably more things than we will have time for.

The skies cleared the next day and was looking to be glorious fall weather. We begin by heading north into the town of Tellico Plains. Our mission it to drive some of the Cherohala Skyway. This 43 mile road goes between this town in Tennessee to Robbinsville North Carolina. There is a nice visitor center with all sorts of information about the drive, things to see along the way and lots of shirts, hats and other souvenirs for those coming to complete the drive. It’s definitely a very popular destination for motorcyclists and owners of sports cars. In fact, just after parking, three Aston Martins came rumbling into the lot. I was a bit surprised to see such high end cars on the road together. Before I got to the visitor center, several more pulled in as well. Some of the, were fairly new models but some looked to be quite old. I’m not sure if any of them were modified to have some of the features that were in the Aston Martin that James Bond drove. As some of the owners entered the visitor center, I asked about their group and he told me that the other half of the cars were still 15 minutes away but there were 33 of them traveling together with plans to drive the skyway today. It looked like their rides would be much more fun than our Grand Cherokee!

We mange to get on the road before they have all arrived and start their drive, but I suspect we will see them again since we will be stopping at many of the overlooks and pullouts along the way. Sure enough at the Oosterneck Overlook, I hear several of them coming our way and zip by us quickly.

Pretty Stop Along the Cherohala Skyway

Aston Martin Cruises By

I would love to be able to say that through careful planning of our trip this fall, we had hit near peak colors in this part of Tennessee. But the reality was we simply lucked into experiencing great fall colors.

Another Nice View

Our first lengthy stop was at Indian Boundary Lake. This was one of the suggested hikes we received the other day at the welcome center. It’s about 1.5 miles north of the skyway. I was expecting it to be a dirt road to the recreation area but was pleased to find a nice paved road. Listed as a 3.2 mile loop around the lake with little elevation change, there doesn’t seem to be a preferred direction. There are several parking areas around the lake but we pick the closest one on the way in at the boat ramp and head clockwise.

View on Hike

Indian Boundary Lake

It was a very nice hike with good views of the lake and mountains. The northern edge of the lake has a walkway over the dam that helps create this body of water and even a nice looking beach area that was pretty deserted today.

Bridge Over Dam

Beach on Lake

After the hike, we drive back to the skyway and continue to the east. There are many pullouts with nice views. We stop at many of them to take in the beauty of the region. We wanted to do one last hike along the way. Fall Branch Falls Trail had been recommended plus we discovered there is a geocache hidden near the falls, giving us added incentive to complete this hike. There is a fairly large pullout and parking area for the trailhead a couple miles before crossing into North Carolina. There are two trails that start from this lot so pick the proper one. Our intended hike is on the western edge of the lot. This trail is an out and back hike of 2.5 miles total with just over 500 feet of elevation change with it being downhill to the falls.

Fungus on Fallen Tree

Washed Out Area of Trail

We ran into a couple of other hikers on their way back up and they were wishing they had hiking poles for this trail because there are some steep and muddy sections to contend with. We made it to the falls which were pretty even though at this time of year the water wasn’t flowing very fast. We found the geocache after a brief search and was happy nobody else was in the area when we were looking for it. The trail section with ropes tied to trees to help get up and down the steep hills was appreciated. It was a nice hike.

Getting Near the Falls

Fall Branch Falls

Rope Helps with Steep Climb

We could have continued driving east but decided it was late enough in the afternoon that we should just head back to camp since it is a fairly long drive from the trailhead. A few more stops on the drive home will help us remember this beautiful drive.

One Last View from Cherohala Skyway

One of the other suggestions we had gotten for a day trip was a tour of Mayfield Dairy. It’s about a 40 minute drive west to the town of Athens Tennessee. They only offer tours certain days of the week so we plan our visit accordingly. You receive a ticket for a free ice cream with each tour so the $9 per person tour price is pretty good.

Mayfield Dairy Visitor Center

They do not permit photography so I have nothing to show from inside the factory. We start out with a video that explains the history of Mayfield Dairy which dates back to 1910 when T.B. Mayfield Jr starts selling milk from his 45 Jersey cows to local residents. We head into the factory and see all the lines packaging milk in all sorts of different form factors from gallon jugs down to the cardboard containers sold at many local schools. We also saw ice cream being packaged in a wide variety of sizes depending on the end user. It was quite enjoyable to see how a large dairy factory works. During the tour, our guide also mentions how one of the local farms offers tours of their milking operations. It was too late to get a tour today but we put a trip on our itinerary for the rest of our stay.

Cow Art

Ready for a Parade?

The town of Athens wasn’t in a new Tennessee county but we only needed to drive another 5 miles or so drive into the town of Decatur and wandered around the town square for 10 minutes while we solved a multi-cache and made the find on our drive back to camp.

The next day we set off for another hike. Bald River Falls is a very popular destination in the area. It is accessed from the Cherohala Skyway about 5 miles from Tellico Plains on River Road. From the turn, it’s another 6 miles to the falls and the trailhead. While the road was paved and in decent shape, it is fairly narrow and winding so there was the fear some large vehicle would come from the other direction and make passing difficult. Fortunately we didn’t experience that problem. The parking area may have room for a couple dozen cars and it was nearly full when we arrived. At first I figured the trail was going to be quite busy until I realized that the main falls are visible from the road near the parking spots and most of the people are simply here to walk the few hundred feet from their car to the falls, take a few pictures and move on.

Bald River Falls Before Our Hike

We knew there is a viewpoint of the upper portion of the falls that’s only a tenth of a mile up the trail. We expected that at least a few people would venture that far to see them from a different perspective but we were the only people heading this way.

Start of the Trail

Walkway

Upper Falls Area

The trail is nice and generally follows the side of the Bald River - sometimes well above the water and other points fairly close.

Trail Along River

Another Section of Falls

This trail continues for a little over 4.5 miles before ending at another road through the forest. If we had another vehicle we could have made this a nice hike without any backtracking. But we were going to be forced to turn around at some point. There aren’t any geocaches along this trail so we didn’t have that as an incentive to go to a certain point.

American Strawberry Bush

Rock Outcropping on Trail

Even More Cascades

We had seen a side trail at the 1.5 mile mark and knew it would take us back to the main road where our car is parked but over a mile east of the car. We decide to turn around about 2 miles out and start to head back taking the side trail (#173)

Mushrooms on Bottom of Fallen Log

It turns out that this side trail has much more elevation change than the main trail. We start with a fairly decent climb for the first quarter mile. After cresting the hill, it’s all downhill to the road dropping 450 feet in the half mile or so. There were some challenging sections and since this is a minor trail, it wasn’t in as nice of shape but still manageable. Once at the road, we head west. It follows the Tellico River and we see decent views of it now and then. This section of road is also fairly narrow and there isn’t much of a shoulder so we did need to be careful when the occasional car comes along.

Cascades on Tellico River

About a third of a mile from the car, we discover there is a much larger pullout with vault toilets and picnic tables. The Baby Falls Day Use area would have been an alternative parking spot for the main falls if you’re willing to walk along the road for the short distance. There are some falls at this spot and it worked well for a snack stop on what turned out to be a 4.25 mile hike. The main falls was still quite busy when we returned and new visitors we happy to see us pull out so they could get a spot. All in all, a very nice hike.

Baby Falls

Bald River Falls After Our Hike

The next day, we took it easy and headed south into Georgia. We knew we would be traveling through the state on our way to Florida but there are a couple of northern counties we still haven’t found geocaches in and our current location would be our best option. It was a pretty drive on the twisty mountain roads as we head to the towns of Blue Ridge and Ellijay Georgia. It’s around a 60 mile drive each way. We found the desired caches but didn’t do a whole lot of sightseeing along the way. As we head back to camp around 5 PM, we decide to turn off to see a place named Buck Bald. There is an EarthCache located there for us to even realize the place exists.

It turns out that the road up to Buck Bald starts out paved but that doesn’t last long. It’s 2.5 miles and rises a little over 800 feet. The last 3/4 mile is on a road that just barely qualifies as one. There are large ruts and even in the Jeep, it’s a slow drive that jostles my body nearly more than I can take. But when we make it to the top, we are greeted with an amazing 360 degree view. While we are relaxing up top and not looking forward to the drive back down, we hear vehicles coming up. As they got closer, it sounded like several motorcycles. There was a group of six guys that we started talking with and offer to take a group photo for them. They explained that they were on a long journey, mainly traveling on lesser roads and camping along the way.

Atop Buck Bald

The next day was Friday and Sweetwater Valley Farms is open for tours so we plan a day trip to tour the dairy farm. It’s a bit north of where we toured Mayfield Dairy. It would be convenient if we could have done both tours on the same day but it isn’t that far from camp.

Entrance to Sweetwater Valley Farm

We pulled in and there was a large tour bus in the parking lot. Fortunately the group had gotten their own tour ahead of the one we planned on taking. We arrived early enough that we could check out the large barn where the tours start from but there is also a cafe and lots of souvenirs. Another building nearby houses the cheese shop which has a nice selection of cheeses.

Main Visitor Barn

Impressive Roof Framing

Cheese Store

Our tour included 18 or so other visitors and the farmer giving the tour. This is a family run business and has been in the family since the late 1980’s. They have roughly 1500 cows. The facility they show on the tour is the robotic milking building. It’s a very large building - approximately 500 feet by 125 feet and covering 1.25 acres.

Robotic Milking Facility

Inside is where the magic takes place. Each of the several hundred cows in this building wear a high tech necklace. It first of all identifies each cow to the robotic equipment as well as keeps tabs on some of its health information. These cows never leave the barn to graze in fields. Instead, they have their food and bedding and can walk over to the robotic milking machine whenever they want and be milked.

Owner Explains How Cow Collar Works with Robot

There are large windows at each of the milking stations. When a cow enters, it is identified and the robot first uses water and brushes to clean its udders, then the suction system attaches and the cow is milked. While this is taking place, the cow is presented with some treats which incentivizes them to come into the milking stations. Apparently some of the cows abuse the system just to get treats so the software recognizes these offenders and doesn’t always provide the treats. If an unhealthy cow is on some sort of drugs for an ailment, the system knows this and will still milk the cow but will not send it along to the main holding tank and is discarded. This was a very fascinating thing to watch and hear about.

Robotic Milker Does Its Thing

Inner Workings of a Milker

Another window looks over the main living area. It looks quite crowded compared to what we typically see with a huge field of cows out grazing on the land. It sounds like from a production standpoint, this system produces more milk per cow than typical dairy farming. It is weird since we saw no human intervention except for a service guy checking out one of the robotic milkers.

Cows Inside Facility

We had found a few other things to see in this part of Tennessee and headed next to the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. We had stopped here to wander the grounds with the help of an Adventure Lab explaining some of the outdoor exhibits.

Sequoyah Birthplace Museum

Blacksmith Shop

Cherokee and British Soldier

It is dedicated to a Cherokee member who lived in the late 1700’s to mid 1800’s and is credited with producing the written Cherokee language. We didn’t feel the need to head into the museum.

Inside Log Cabin

Main Museum Building

Just a couple miles from this stop on the same island is the Fort Loudoun State Historic Park. This place explains the history of this fort built by the British way back in 1756. There is a large visitor center and the reconstructed fort on the tip of the island overlooking the Little Tennessee River.

Entrance to Fort Loudoun State Historic Park

There were school buses in the parking lot when we first arrived and we could hear the children from a distance as we approached the visitor center. It looked like they were just getting ready to leave so we sat on a bench overlooking the river and enjoyed the view while the children left. Inside the now quiet museum were lots of displays and a couple of workers that looked like they had just experienced a whirlwind.

Inside Museum Building

We exit the back of the visitor center and walk the path towards the fort. A wooden fence circles the perimeter of the large fort.

Approaching Fort

Most of the dozen or so buildings are open and have various displays depending on what its function was during the fort’s operation.

Row of Buildings Inside Fort

Storage Room

We enjoyed wandering around and learning about how the soldiers lived back in pre-Revolutionary War times. We were happy that our timing was such that the place wasn’t overrun by dozens of schoolchildren.

Quiet at Fort Loudoun Today

Our nine nights in Tennessee were coming to an end. We’ve spent a great deal of times in the Appalachian Mountains over the years but most of the time on the North Carolina side. We could see coming back to this region again for more hiking and exploration since a week wasn’t enough time to see it all. But now we need to head south into Georgia.