Montgomery Bell State Park Trip Report

“Saturday; March 8
My girl friends son, Jason and I head into Nashville to meet Cockroach at his Apt to backpack the Montgomery Bell Trail at (get this) Montgomery Bell State Park. After first searching the Wrong exit for his Apt (1st screw up), I called him for more directions. Now I get to his exit and I can't find his Apt.( 2nd screw up) So I call again. It took me awhile to find it but FINALLY we got there. Now on to my brother Steve's new house to meet him. This was only my second time to his new house so we passed his road and had to turn back around to get it (3rd screw up). We made it to his house only 40 mins late. I'm never late for anything.
We pull in the MBSP and I'm turning the map every witchaway trying to get my berrings. And just as I'm about to point to the WRONG road, I'm saved by Steve seeing the sign for the MBT parking (almost a screw up).
We get out and get ready. I'm feeling good about myself now since I'd hiked the trail a few years before and so we start walking. We tear out up the hill and make a road crossing about a half mile up and get about a hundred yards in the woods and I check the map. WE'RE GOING THE WRONG F*CKING WAY!!!!!! (Screw up #4)! So we turn around and head back. Look at the car as we pass it and think "well, that trip didn't take long". This is my first hike ever with Cockroach and I keep saying to him, Man, I tell you, I'm not this screwed up, I Swear!!"
We cover some distance, pass a few day hikers and it's going good. We come up on this HUGE tree by the trail and as we get closer there's this Buzzard-Vulture-Rodan-Lookin thing perched in the hollow trunk of it. It flies up in the tree and spreads his wings to scare us away. I go over and poke my head in and I'm expecting to see a dead deer or something in there but turns out SHE has 2 big eggs in there. The other guys come over to check it out and she's giving her most intemidating pose to drive us away. Upon leaving, I explain to her that we are leaving and we're very skeered.
On up the trail we join into an old Jeep road and continue to the shelter. After a while we start to notice the there are no more blazes to follow. I check the map and guess what? (screw up #5) So we turn around and go back to where we missed the trail..
We made it to the first shelter (Hall Spring Shelter) and took a break. While sitting there, some guy, his woman, & kid walk up and look at the spring. When they go to leave, we hear the kid say, "Mommy, where do they take a bath"? "Who", she says. And with a tiny finger he points at us and says, "THEM!!!!!" I about fell out! TOO Funny! So I pointed to the moss infested stream and told him, "In there".
The rest of the trip to the Woodland Shelter was only 1.7 miles so it was "screw up free". We got to the shelter and cooked supper. The Ranger had told us that there was no water at that shelter so we were prepared to back track to the last water we came to before camp. There was a small stream about .1 from the shelter so Jason & I went to clean the dishes. After that we got back and began rounding up fire wood. It just so happened that most of the fire wood we drug up was about 50 feet away right next to (get this) THE SPRING! That's right, we walked a tenth of a mile back the clean the pots and we had a spring 50 feet away from the shelter. DOH!! (screw up # 6?)
Fire was good, Temp was around 40 degrees, and the stars were out & shinning. And oh yeah, Some yellow dog in a red bandana kept stalking us. I don't know? Ya had to have been there.

SUNDAY March 11
The next morning we broke camp and headed out with the 6 miles of trail to get back around to the car. Besides making so many screw ups the day before, the wierd thing about this trip was that we didn't have to be in a hurry to get to our destination. I'm not used to creeping along on a trail. I bet we took a break about every half mile! Along the way we saw deer and a BIG wild turkey. The temp got up to prolly 70 degrees. I unzipped the legs off my pants and stripped down to a T shirt. On the last 3 miles of the trail my brother was ready to get it done and go eat BBQ. The route back would send us right by the Visitors Center and a short Road hike back to the car. We missed the last 2 miles of trail due to a Big BBQ attack!
We ate lots of dead pig and caught part of the race on the Big Screen.

The End”

“At the rate you walk Dude you musta tacked on an an extra 10 miles LOL”

“It's tough to drag your feet like that.”

“70 degrees, did it feel hot? I know the first warm days I experience after winter 70 seems like 85.”

“TOO HOT!!!”

“Another good trip report there Dude, but where are the pictures?
Thanks for sharing!”

“So is this Montgomery Bell State Park trail the one you and yer girlfriend's kid made?

Sounded like fun!”

“Naw Buddur, That one's called the Lytle Creek Trail. We're still chippin away on it.

Big Foot
I'll post some pics as soon as they're developed. I promise. I shot about a roll and a half.”

“Dude did you test out yer new Campmor down bag?”

“Yeah Steve Hiker I did. At 35 degrees, you sweat your butt off.”

“Sounds like a great time. There aree no screw ups, just different oppertunities! YO BEAR, Thanks”

“hey, I'm getting a bad rep here...we weren't slowing down 'cause of me. :)

I still think those buzzard eggs would've made some fine omelets. Hmmmm....buzzard omelets.

Jason has a bright future in carpentry or fenshui....or the fine art of crafting stones and wood into camp furnture...a real shame we had to burn part of it so future campers can't appreciate his work.

We had great weather and it was a real nice trip. Next time I think I'll bring my GPS...not 'cause we need it, just because it's a neat gadget. ;)”

“Yeah, it wasn't Cockroach's falt we moved slow. My brothers knee was giving him a little trouble until he got hungry enough for for that BBQ, then he spead up. Matter of fact, he beat us back to the car. The POWER of BBQ!”