Day 37: Natchez Trace

This was an utterly ridiculous day. We walked 20 miles today, and we knew the weather would be rainy. Well. It rained from start to finish, in water filled bouts of varying intensity, and our consolation prize was the thought of a bathroom ahead which may or may not have a covered pavilion attached to it. After 20 soggy miles and puddles in our shoes, we arrived! And yes, there were covered picnic tables under a pavilion attached to the restrooms! We parked ourselves there and waited for a break from the rain so Chris could dash up a nearby hillside and pitch the tent. We made some hot tea and were enjoying the shelter of the pavilion when Chris got his chance... As he was applying the finishing touches to the tent setup, he managed to tear a bowling ball sized hole in the rain fly. And meanwhile, the drizzle had turned to a downpour. So, as you can see from the photos, we have decided to bring the Occupy movement to the Garrison Creek bathrooms on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Haha. Fortunately, our movement will be short lived in the interest of finishing our Natchez Trace walk tomorrow afternoon.

Day 36: Natchez Trace

We left the campground in the morning with the intent to walk 17 miles and arrive in Nashville on Saturday. However, when we arrived at mile 17, we decided it would be easier to walk an additional 2 miles to a restroom than it would be to pump water. So we walked 19 miles. We saw there was no good spot to camp, as it was on a steep and very windy ridge. So, we walked an additional 3 miles to another primitive campground up the road, bringing our total mileage to 22. 22 long, accidental miles. At the bike camp, we met a guy named Richard, who had recently sold all of his worldly possessions except those which could fit on his bike and was headed to Texas via the Natchez Trace. The extra boost in mileage gave us major Nashville fever, so we went ahead and changed our plans to arrive in Nashville on Friday instead of Saturday. All in all, the weather was perfect, and we had some terrific views along the Trace today. We also hit the 400 mile mark! Not a bad day for accidentally walking 5 more miles than planned!

Day 35: Natchez Trace

Today we walked 18 miles, and boy howdy were our dogs barkin'. Despite the tiring day, we enjoyed the good sunny weather and some cool sights along the way. We saw an old cemetery tucked off the side of the road, with no signage or even a path leading to it. The only way to spot it is to be on foot. In fact, we almost walked right by it. Most of the headstones were from the late 1800s and clear the area hadn't been kept up. An epitaph on one grave read "there are no sorrows on earth that heaven cannot heal".

We hiked to the Merriwether Lewis campground, where Lewis himself was murdered along the Trace and buried in 1809. We included a photo of the monument marking his gravesite. The fact that the great expedition leader met his demise along the Trace is a testament to the dangers early travelers traced. Thankfully, we are walking a much different Trace than Lewis experienced.

Day 33: Natchez Trace

Today was Tennessee and monster grocery day! We walked 15 miles to the little town of Collinwood, TN where we got groceries and BBQ sandwiches. Today was our final grocery stop before Nashville! However, our packs will be quite heavy with a week's worth of food. In fact, our rope that we use to hang our food away from critters at night broke under the weight of our food. Bummer. We are excited to be less than 100 miles away from the end of the Trace. Although we hope our journey will continue on, reaching our first major milestone will be exciting.

Day 32: Natchez Trace

This morning we woke up to a delicious breakfast of sweet potato pancakes, bacon, and coffee. Yum! We are very thankful to our lovely hosts in Florence, Alabama: Kristen and her parents Regan and Janet. We appreciated the warm hospitality!

We were dropped off this morning on the parkway right by the Tennessee River. We walked about 12 miles, filtered some water for the evening, and set up camp. The most eventful part of the walk was reaching mile marker 333 and completing 3/4 of the Natchez Trace! We will cross into Tennessee tomorrow and will be arriving in Nashville by this next weekend. Until then, we have 104 miles, one grocery stop, and one state border crossing.

Photos today include the river, us and our friend Kristen, and the 3/4 mile marker.

Day 31: Natchez Trace

On Friday morning we woke up and made some delicious potato pancakes! We found some chives growing in the area of our tent, and chopped them up to add to our instant mashed potato mix. Yum! We kept an eye on the weather though, because we had been told of stormy weather ahead. We were planning to walk today, but decided to stay put since we were in a campsite with a bathroom in case the storms turned into tornado watches or warnings. Sure enough, tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings were in effect for our county, so we were glad to have an option for cover! Although we didn't experience any hail or tornados right around us, many nearby areas had a lot of damages, which we saw later on TV because..... We stayed in a house! A friend from back in the day when we lived in Logan, Utah is from a town that is nearby the Trace. Since she was tied up with her work schedule during the afternoon, her mother graciously picked us up and rescued us from the impending doom of oncoming dark clouds (thank you, Janet!). We had a wonderful home cooked dinner and great conversation in Janet and Regan's home, which was a first since we began this trip. Kristen, our friend from Utah, took us out to experience the nightlife of Florence. We ended up at a place with live music called FloBama - the name alone was cracking us up. The whole experience felt like we were playing roles in a stereotypical movie about a Southern homecoming, filled with young twenty somethings dressed to the nines and yelling slogans about the USA during predetermined gaps within the lyrics of the songs. (For example, when the band played "Sweet Home Alabama" there was a gap in which the crowd chanted "Roll Tide Roll", referring to Alabama's powerhouse football program in Tuscaloosa.) We drove around town, saw a huge dam in the Tennessee River which was administered by the TVA, and took a token photo by the Guns 'n Such store in town.

Day 30: Natchez Trace

Today we walked about 15 miles, both along the Trace and into the little Alabama town of Cherokee for a grocery stop at the Piggly Wiggly. The walk into town wasn't much fun - it was a busy state highway and we were walking the shoulder with semi trucks barreling by. We made it into town after about 2.5 miles or so and bought groceries. We saw a crazy front lawn filled with literally hundreds of chairs (high chairs, upholstered chairs, lawn chairs, pews, kitchen table chairs, stools) all oriented in the same direction towards... Nothing. It was a quizzical sight to see, and unfortunately the photo doesn't quite do it justice. We ate our lunch at a semi abandoned playground and walked another 6 miles or so back to the Trace via another route and made our way to a campground along the Tennessee River. We were able to have a nice little campfire for the evening. All in all, the weather was absolutely perfect, and the campsite was a great spot to spend the evening - a good day!