Tuesday 4-11-23 Natchez Trace State Park Camping & Hiking

 

Awesome Day

We had another awesome day with sunshine. The temperature was about the same as yesterday with the low in the 40s and the high of 76 degrees. Great weather for camping.

When I finally rolled out of bed it was about 7:30 I had set the thermostat at 66 degrees but the heater didn't turn on because the plug had fallen out. In the living area it was 55 degrees. Larry plugged the heater back in and turned it on. When I got up it was 66 degrees. After getting dressed I surprised Larry by making pancakes for breakfast instead of mini waffles.

After breakfast we went on a hike. We wanted to hike the other part of Lake Trail. We started from the Minnie and walked to the visitor center that was closed. There we picked up the trail on the other side of the parking lot. The trail started out fine with a bit of mud here and there that we were able to skirt around, after about a mile we got to an area that was impassible, we had to turn around and go back. As we were hiking the trail a lady was walking her dog and she warned us about the mud. She had decided not to go any further. We thanked her and of course we said hi to the dog. When we got back to the visitor center we rested. Then we went back to the Minnie. We had only hiked for 2.5 miles but we were happy to stop, we are a bit out of shape and due to yesterdays hike we were a bit stiff. We hadn't really done any hiking since our fall trip back in October. We still had a good hike.

We read until it was time for lunch. We had sandwiches for lunch. 

After lunch I played my Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. I did the event, which was Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Spider and 3 Klondike) It took me 1 hour and 28 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group.

Then I went on an hour walk/hike for 3 miles. I walked to the cabins area to the trailhead. I hiked the Lake/Red Leaves Trails for a mile and turned around. During my hike I saw a couple of guys hiking to the backpack campground of the trail. I took the same route as Larry and I did yesterday. I had to crossover a little bit of muddy area. It was a great hike through the trees.

The trails we hiked

 

The hiking trail

When I got back I joined Larry in relaxing with a book. Larry finished reading his second book and started a third on this trip. 

Reading is fun and relaxing

For dinner we barbecued pork ribs. They tasted good but they didn't have a lot of meat on them.

After dinner I walked around the campground for an hour and walked 3 miles. I walked to the other loop for rigs smaller than 20'. As I was walking a couple stopped me asked where to camp and I told them. When I got to the loop they were turning around because it was closed. I was surprised. I told them we checked in at the lodge. They thanked me and drove off a little later they were back in our loop I walked around the loop. It had 20 sites and needed some road maintenance and needed to be cleaned up. It looked like maybe they had a lot of rain and hadn't cleaned the loop up because it was closed for the season. Then I walked to the beach area and the cabins. I had a great walk even though by the time I got back I was tired. I ended up doing 27,500 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group. 

We spent the evening reading.

During our travels we use lots of public restrooms. Most state parks have showers and we are happy to use them. Of course some public showers are better than others, the ones in this park are a bit better than most. You can adjust the temperature to your liking and the shower head worked well.