Edgar Evins State Rustic Park - Silver Point, TN

I’ve been trying to get to Burgess Falls State Park for over 3 weeks now so today I thought I’d give it another try. As I looked at the maps it made sense to do a “twofer.” Pick up Edgar Evins State Park on the way and then over to Burgess Falls. Plus it gives me a full trip around Center Hill Lake with several nice views.
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No suspense here, I didn’t make it to Burgess Falls (again)! More on that later. So here’s the route to Edgar Evins State Park.


Okay, here’s the sob story. I went into work at 6:30am in order to get a jump on some things I needed to do and, maybe, slip away for a few hours of riding. I was ready at 10:45am, rolled the Roadliner out of the warehouse, cranked it up and….my cell phone rang.

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It was a guy interested in the 2008 Concours I have for sale. He wants to see it but he can’t get here until noon. Dang it. To make it to both Edgar Evins and Burgess Falls I need 5 hours. No way I’ll have that after the noon visit. So scratch Burgess Falls again. (They guy came and looked at the Concours, test rode it and liked it but will have to think about it. Fair enough when you’re talking about a good chunk of money.)

Leaving the office to get to Hwy 96, I take the shortest route and find&#8230;.a train. Okay, reroute onto Main Street. Not much out of the way and I get a nice view of the Rutherford County Courthouse.

I should mention that the pictures that show my helmet are from a GoPro Hero II stuck to the side of my helmet. I had it set to take a picture each 10 seconds. That's a lot of pictures but it does help to fill in the blanks when I didn't want to use the little Nikon Coolpix S3000 (not a great camera but then, I'm not a great photographer).


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As I&#8217;m leaving Murfreesboro a dual sport bike comes by and I get &#8220;the wave.&#8221; I&#8217;ll leave it at that as another thread on here made some comment about Harley&#8217;s and &#8220;waving&#8221; and the posts almost got out of controlJ.

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A few miles out Hwy 96 is crossed by Thompson Lane (to the left) and Compton Road (to the right). What makes this intersection special is that Honest Ernest Jordan&#8217;s Used Tractor Sales is there. Actually it&#8217;s just called Jordan&#8217;s Used Tractors. Ernest and I have been friends for 20+ years.

For the first 15 years after we moved back to Middle Tennessee, we lived in the Lascassas community. This was our church, the children went to school here and most of our friends lived here. We live about 30 miles south of here now but still have many friends in the area.

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One of the touchstones of the Lascassas community was Brown’s Store. It had been there for several generations and was the place where people met before work each morning for a biscuit and conversations. As the saying went, “If Buddy Brown doesn’t know it, it hasn’t happened yet.” I guess every community has one of these. Buddy has been in poor health for a number of years now and the store has closed.

I don’t care what it looks like, the bicycle is not passing me, I am passing it.

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Growing up in northern Florida didn’t give many opportunities to see things like this and I can remember being amazed at the cuts through solid rock when I came to Tennessee a hundred years ago for college.

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About 10 miles north of Lacassas is the small community of Milton. That was our mailing address when we lived on this side of the city.

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Then you pass through the Auburntown community. Once you leave Murfreesboro, it’s just a series of small towns that really have a warmth that just isn’t there in larger towns.

Somewhere along the way I leave Rutherford County for Wilson County.

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Eventually, somewhere north of Cottage Home, TN, Hwy 96 tees into US 70. Actually, as is common around here, it becomes part of the road such that you get “Turn right onto TN-26 E/&#8203;TN-53 S/&#8203;TN-96 E/&#8203;US-70 E/&#8203;US-70 Scenic E/&#8203;Nashville Hwy.


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And a group of bikes going the opposite way.

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Just a few miles east on US 70 you pass through Liberty and then take a left on to Hwy 96 again. It’s a nice, tree lined, twisty 2 lane road that’s fun to ride. Plus it climbs and descends a little as well.

Before reaching the dam, you start seeing Center Hill Lake through the trees.

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I pulled off a little before reaching the dam for a quick picture.

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Here’s another view of the lake from the highway.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in this area and I didn’t realize that the dam was being worked on. They have some really neat looking equipment but I don’t know what most of it does.

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This looks interesting. What is it?

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I’m pretty sure that this is either a rotary drill or something like that.

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Before I cross the dam I take one more shot looking back at the Hwy 96 sign.

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It’s getting to be a bigger and bigger deal to be able to cross over a dam since Homeland Security began to see them as potential terrorist targets. Yet I’m always amazed at how close the water on the lake side is to the top and how far down it is to the river that emerges on the other side. In this case it’s the Caney Fork River.

Finally we get to the actual subject of this ride report. Edgar Evins State Park. Here’s a brief bio on Edgar Evins from Wikipedia:
James Edgar Evins (1883–1954), the park's namesake, was a Smithville businessman and state senator who played a vital role in the development of the Center Hill Dam and Reservoir in the 1940s. He was the father of former United States Representative Joe L. Evins, for whom the nearby Joe L. Evins Appalachian Center for Craft is named. The Evins family began pushing for the establishment of a state park along the DeKalb portion of Center Hill Lake as early as the 1950s.

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After taking the picture above, I entered the park and almost immediately saw a deer in the road ahead. It was a decent sized buck but he was in the shadow of the trees and I couldn’t tell how many points he had. I will say that he was a most patient deer. I had to stop, shift into neutral, take my glove off, get my camera out, set the zoom as close as it would get it and then took 3 pictures. He was looking right at me and I think he must have wondered what the motorcycle was all about. Just as I took the last one a truck came around the corner from the other direction and he ran into the woods. The picture isn’t great but it should hold up in court.

In some ways this is one of the neatest visitor’s centers I’ve seen and in others it’s the worst so far.

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Just outside of the door is the standard plaque giving the names of all the politicians who took our tax money and did things with it so that they could be remembered. The governor at the time this building was built was Ray Blanton. He left office under the shame of selling prison pardons for profit. I moved to Orlando shortly after that and began working in a high rise building down town. I remember getting onto an elevator that he was exiting one day. He seemed much shorter in person.

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One of the reasons this particular visitor’s center ranks low on the list of those that I’ve visited is that it’s quite small and the displays of information are not very well done. This one does have a number of geodes in it and my children used to break open river rocks from behind our old house and occasionally would find one. The ones on display were very large and beautifully colored in purple.

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What makes this center one of the best I’ve visited is the tower. You go inside and then up a series of stairs to the top where you can see the forest, the dam and the lake.

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The top of the staircase is well done with a wood ceiling. By the way, for the OCD Adventure Riders, there are 97 steps to the top.

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Here’s one view looking toward the dam.

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Here’s another one showing more of the trees behind the visitor’s center.

I left the visitor’s center and drove down to the marina. It’s quite large and has hundreds of boat slips. The restaurant was closed for the winter so I didn’t go all the way down to the dock area.

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As I was walking across the parking lot a very large houseboat was leaving the marina. I think it would be fun to spend a week cruising around on one of these.

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You can also see the dam from the parking lot of the marina.

Then I moved to the camping area. It looks like there are over 40 of the platforms where you either park your motor home or pitch your tent. Each one has a view of the lake and I saw at least two bath houses close by.

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Then I moved to the next area where there were more boat slips.

Then on to a picnic area.

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And finally to the area where the cabins were located. There were 6 separate buildings of 6 rooms each. That, if my math skills haven’t failed me, is 36 “cabins.”

One the way back out I found a few small trees that still had some good color left. So I stopped for a picture, or three.

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One of the trees had a really interesting series of red spots on its yellow leaves. I don’t remember seeing these before.

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And a final shot before leaving for home.

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Due to the approaching darkness I rode back the same way I came. So I’ll spare you the agony of seeing the backside of each picture from above.

looks like a good day

A grand ride and story. Thanks

Love Tennessee. Thanks for adding to my idea box.

Red Bud, it was an incredibly nice day to be on a bike looking at the beautiful Tennessee countryside.

Thanks Tom. I've spent a good bit of time in New Hampshire (Nashua area) but also did some skiing one time further north. A great state with some beautiful scenery as well.

David, I think it would be good if AdvRiders from every state put together a summary of their State Parks and, perhaps, other scenic areas for the rest of us to enjoy. A friend from PA was down yesterday and we talked about how much of your state is rural and remote. Great riding I'm sure.

Good job sir! Photos and narrative are first rate.
After reading this, I realized that I really need to do a better job with my SP ride reports. I never count the steps.

Nice report and pretty country! As a geologist I appreciate your interest in rocks, too. I'm like you, I wave to anyone riding on two wheels, could care less what kind of cycle they're riding. I've even been known to wave at folks driving in convertibles but only if they have the top down!

Doug

I've been meaning to speak to you about that.

And I know that you are not one of the OCD members. If you were you would have asked if the 97 steps included the landing at the top or not.