Whittle While I Walk
The Great American Zig-Zag Day 159 | Hiwassee/Ocoee Scenic River State Park, TN
I am a big fan of community aggregation platforms which provide me with routes and options I never would have been able to find by traditional means. When planning my day today, I used the app AllTrails, an app which doesn’t have the site maps for every park, but does have community-made trails, corresponding with pretty much every hiking trail to exist. While I would love a non-profit, open-source application where every municipal, state, and federal park uploads their trails like the Nation Parks Service has for its site, I understand this is not a priority right now with our federal government.
So today, I opened up AllTrails and decided to do an 11 mile loop around the Hiwassee/Ocoee Scenic River State Park near Delano, TN. When I arrived, it seemed to be a popular day for people to be going to the park, which immediately assuaged much of my arachnophobia. When others regularly walk the trails, spiderwebs get knocked down by others and I have a safe time.
The hike consisted of about 2 miles straight up, 3 miles of flat, 1 mile of up and down to see a waterfall, .5 miles of up, then 3.5 miles down. For the first 5 miles, it was a wide trail, big enough to accommodate ranger vehicles, so I was able to practice a skill I have always been interested in. Whittling.
I have always been interested in woodworking, but with my busy, city lifestyle, I never felt compelled to sit down and whittle for hours on end. Today, I remembered to bring my knife, and found a good stick to start whittling. After about 30 minutes of effort, I understood why whittling knives have those large handles and thick blades. Using a cheap pocket knife was rough on the fingers and my pointer finger is feeling really stiff as of the writing of this article.
After about 1.5 hours of effort, I had gone 4 miles and had created the perfect blank for the design I am working on. Deciding that I would need a pencil to begin the roughing out and intricate carving sections, I pocketed the freshly made rod and turned my attention to the hike ahead of me.
The rest of the hike was much like the others I have been on, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
After getting back to my car, I drove straight to get some BBQ and capped off a wonderful day spent enjoying nature.
Love the practicality of learning a craft while covering miles. The realization about proper whittling knives having thick blades and large handles is one of those things you can't really grasp until you've spent 30 minutes with the wrong tool. I've had similr experiences trying to improvise tasks with inadequate gear. The walking rhythm probably helped with the repetitive knife work too.