Today the family needed to get outside and hike around together. We did not want to go too far, and so we opted to head up the road to Jonesborough, Tennessee and hike at Persimmon Ridge Park. First we stopped by Ingles to get some food for a picnic lunch. Once we had acquired our food, we headed over to the picnic pavilion and ate.
Felling full we hit the trail. The trail system at Persimmon Ridge Park is not well marked and is a bit confusing.
This site might help sort things out a bit. We started of on a boardwalk near the picnic shelter.
The wet soils alongside the boardwalk harbored blue lobelia
and other wildflowers.
Once we reached the opposite side of the boardwalk we found a road and turned right onto it. We saw a sign for Walter's Trail, but we opted to stay on the road (John's Trail). Sierra insisted on hiking on her own for a bit and so the going was very slow.
Moving slow gave us the opportunity to check out some interesting caterpillars though.
Finally, we convinced Sierra to ride in the backpack.
We made our way through a powerline cut in which goldenrods
and asters
were prevalent. Then we started to ascend on the road past an area posted as off-limits
and up to a large water tower.
A trail looped around the water tower and back towards where we started.
Instead of following the boardwalk back to the car, we opted to follow a different trail to see where it lead. We got Sierra to agree that following the trail was a good idea because we told her that it probably led to the playground. We crossed a small creek
on a footbridge and then began an ascent on singletrack trail. After topping out the trail, Luke's Trail, began a descent down to the playground. I left Noelle and Sierra there to play while I followed a paved trail back to the car. We all got rained on while I retrieved the car, but I thought the light, cool rain felt rather pleasant.
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