Barfield Crescent Hike- Jane

No signed up or showed up to hike with me today, so I went alone. It was a peaceful, sunny morning, with many birds singing. I startled a heron on the Stones River, so it flew away before I could get a photo. The Columbine and Fire Pinks are still in bloom, as well as many other flowers I don’t know. The hike was a nice way to start the day.

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Barfield Park -sara

We had 9 hikers on the Barfield Park hike Saturday, July 8. We met at the Wilderness Station at 8:30 am CT. We started on the paved trail, explored the backcountry campsite and went down to the river so Chris' dog Booker could cool off. We hiked all the trails and finished around 12:30 pm. We hiked the Valley View and Rocky Path loop trails. It wasn't that hot - just very humid. Hikers were Jay Brain, Becky Brandt, Tom Davis, Wayne Drown, Karen Hernan, Michael Hernan, Chris Manzione, Sara Pollard, and Sandra Wendon.

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Barfield Wilderness Loop - Jennifer

This Saturday's hike was great.  Four others came, two from Nashville, one M'boro, one Huntsville. We did close to five miles in almost perfect weather. 

Did all three loops. gorgeous trees, flowers, and awsome  sink holes. 

Barfield Park - Mary Belle

On Sat., Feb. 22, the following local chapter members met hike leader Mary Belle Ginanni at Barfield Crescent Park at10 a.m.

Darlene Bowman, Ann Ford, Valerie Galan, King Jamison, and Nabil Wakid.  We were delighted to be joined by these 4 newcomers and hope that they will hike with us again soon: Shirley Lundy, Mark Rogers, Linda Strickland and Nancy Wagner.  In addition, there were 18 members of the Sumner Chapter, led by Shirley and David Primeau.  Though both the Primeaus and I (unbeknownst to each other) had pre-hiked the trails on Tuesday, and found the river trail to be somewhat dampish, and even though it had rained on Thursday night, we decided to take the river trail on Sat. anyway because it is a pretty walk.  After a circular introduction,  David  Primeau led out with Shirley running sweep.  We found the river trail to be quite wet, with little rivulets and muddy spots but this just added a bit of a challenge for the hikers.  The river was running quite full - a lovely sight.  We continued to the craggy and  somewhat hilly Marshall Knobs Trail, took the Valley View side loop trail and wound up back at Wilderness station after about 3.5 miles, much warmer than we had expected to be.  It was good to share a hike with another chapter and I appreciate the Primeaus suggestion that we do so.

There were a number of other hikers on the trail - a welcome sight.

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Barfield Park - Jim

Barfield Hike of Saturday, September 8, led by Ann Jacobs, reported by Jim Schroeder

I was the only hiker who ventured out on an overcast day to accompany Ann. Leaving the Wilderness Station a little after 8: am, and equipped with a hand clippers, Ann led the way out the main trail. We hadn’t proceeded 100 yards, when we encountered a small grass snake on the trail – one of the very few times I have ever met a snake of any kind in the park. I played the role of tail-end Charlie, clipping away moisture laden overhanging branches as we proceeded to the junction with the Rocky Path Trail.  Of course I took my usual one fall per hike on a moisture coated rock right near the start, but without any damage. Following the rock strewn path it became obvious that this route could use some re-blazing, and much of it could use some cut back to widen out the tread. Climbing the Marshall Knob onto  the main trail and back down to the Valley View trail, and we were soon on our way to the overlook, where we took a few minutes for a snack break. Leaving the overlook, the skies turned misty, but we were still pretty well shielded by the canopy of trees. Again intersecting the main trail we soon reached the river, which was flowing at a good rate from the recent rains.  We both remarked that it was a pleasant change for just a few short weeks ago, when the stream bed was bone dry. Just before reaching the descent to cross the wetlands to the edge of the stream, the highlight of the trek occurred. Ann spotted a big owl perched in a tree overlooking the trail. The big bird watched us closely as Ann tried her skill as a photographer, and we slowly made our way past the perch of this watchful species of the woods. Contrary to some past reports, this winged creature did not attempt to frighten the hikers by any swoop down venture! As we made our way up onto the paved path for the return to the Wilderness Station, the misty skies turned into a light drizzling rain so that by the time hike ended, I was clad with a pretty drenched shirt – no I didn’t take any rain gear – my wife had informed me the rain was over before I left home. And with the weather as warm as it was, there was no chilling discomfort from the rain. So ended a really nice hike and it gave us both a chance to know each other a little better. It is just too bad others didn’t take advantage of this opportunity to enjoy the truly delightful environment of Barfield Park.

Volunteer Trail, Long Hunter State Park - Jim

Four senior members of the Murfreesboro Chapter, namely King Jamison, Marty McCullough, Nabil Wakid and Jim Schroeder, opted to do a short leisurely hike close to home and settled on the shores of Percy Priest Lake along the Volunteer Trail at Long Hunter State Park.

The weather turned out to be perfect for hiking as a nice refreshing breeze came off the lake on our sojourns to the shore line. The trek was one of virtual solitude for the foursome as only one other hiker was encountered along the way. We did witness a boat angler making what appeared to be rather large catch only to release it back to the waters.

Our journey home was marked by a close call as we witnessed an accident right at the entrance to Long Hunter park that missed involving us by a few seconds. It appeared that a vehicle had just left the park heading north but failed to yield the right of way to a passing vehicle and the front of the vehicle was clipped, causing it to spin around and end up in the ditch. We pulled over to help and aided in directing traffic around the scene until authorities arrived. It appeared the occupants suffered minor injuries as they awaited medical aid.

Of course a lunch stop was in order and we enjoyed an array of barbecue fares at Nick and Jim’s in Smyrna before heading for home.