Days 18 & 19: Natchez Trace

Yesterday we walked 13 miles from French Camp to Jeff Busby Campground, mostly in the rain. It stopped long enough for us to put up the tent, but we woke up in the middle of the night in a puddle. Congratulations to the Park Service for the amazing decision to create a tent pad with non-permeable crusher fine. The guy that came up with that great idea obviously does not camp in tents. Thankfully, there was a heated bathroom for us to dry out our wet sleeping bags in the morning.

Today was a better day - clearing skies and no rain expected tonight. We passed mile marker 200, so we are almost at our halfway point. We are camped at around mile 205 and we'll head into a small town of just over 700 people in the morning for groceries.

Included in the photos for today is one of some tornado damage in the area from April of last year. It's pretty crazy to see in person. Another photo is of Chris pumping water from a stream with our water filter. That little piece of gear is a big factor in our ability to be flexible - always having fresh water available is huge. However, the silty Mississippi water is kicking our filter's butt, and we just had to order a new cartridge even though we just got a new one right before this trip.

We're making a push to Tupelo this weekend, and won't have a chance to charge our phones before then. We'll be missing some blog posts this week, but hopefully we will get some good photos to share this weekend...