November 8, 2012
by David Ryan
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Wandering in the Backcountry

When I started working on The Gentle Art of Wandering almost three years ago I thought that it would be a book on how to explore the backcountry. But very soon into the project I realized that seeing and wandering were more important and changed the focus of the book to show how you can wander anywhere.

With that being said, the backcountry is still a great place to wander and has many surprises out there waiting for you to find. I have mentioned finding prehistoric archaeological sites in the book and in several posts in this blog. But there is much more for you to find. Here is a sample of what’s waiting for you.

On top of a mesa in the middle of the badlands west of Cuba, New Mexico, you can find a set of unexplained cairns. Nobody knows if they were made by Native Americans, sheep operations, or ranchers or their purpose. But if you make the effort to hike there you’ll the cairns, an amazing landscape, and many other surprises.

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October 25, 2012
by David Ryan
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Wandering Along US Highway 41 on Tennessee’s Highland Rim

As mentioned in The Gentle Art of Wandering, the mindset of wandering is not just for walking; it even applies to driving. Using the mindset of wandering can make any drive interesting and open you up to a wide range of experiences.

For example I can use a drive of less than 60 miles that I took along US Highway 41 on the Highland Rim in Tennessee to show you an amazing wandering experience. (If you read the previous blog post about waterfalls in Middle Tennessee you know that the Highland Rim is a limestone escarpment coming off the Cumberland Plateau.)

US Highway 41 begins at the northern most tip of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and ends 2000 miles later in Miami, Florida by way of Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta and Tampa. Like many numbered US highways, US 41 has been eclipsed by Interstate highways for much of its route. Interstate 24 has taken that role in Tennessee.

US Highway 41 leaves the Middle Tennessee Basin and climbs onto the Highland Rim a few miles south of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This is the same route that the Union Army used in June 1863 to get around the Confederate Army during the Tullahoma Campaign of June and July 1863.

The entry point to the Highland Rim for US 41 is at Hoover’s Gap in Beech Grove, Tennessee. One of the opening engagements of the Tullahoma Campaign was fought here.

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October 18, 2012
by David Ryan
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Waterfall Wandering in Middle Tennessee

A basic premise of The Gentle Art of Wandering is that once you adopt the mindset of wandering you will discover that you can wander anywhere. While visiting my mother-in-law in Tennessee, the dogs and I spent the day wandering looking for waterfalls.

Every place has something special to offer and Middle Tennessee happens to have waterfalls. The falls are there because of water flowing off the Highland Rim, a limestone escarpment coming off the Cumberland Plateau, into the Central Tennessee Basin. You have a good chance of finding a waterfall wherever a water course reaches the edge of the escarpment.

One of those edges is just up the street from my mother-in-law’s house at Old Stone Fort State Park. Old Stone Fort is a Native American ceremonial enclosure built almost two thousand years. It is a network of walls built along the edge of a bluff where the Big Duck and Little Duck Rivers reach the edge of the Highland Rim and come together. The area between the rivers is enclosed by the ceremonial walls. The circumference of the enclosure is more than a mile.

Both the Little Duck and Big Duck River have falls as they drop off the Highland Rim.

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