Day 7 – Fall Hallow to Nashville

This was it, last day!  Bill was up early with us for breakfast.  It was time to fuel up because I wasn’t planning on making a lunch stop.  Over the past 7 days I have accumulated a ton of granola, powerbars, dried fruit and jerky.  I’m not sure why I was hording but it was

Day 6 – Collinwood to Fly Hallow

Today was a short day, as planned.  I had been tracking a storm last evening so I made a run for it early in the morning.  Not much to see in this part of the trace so I just moved on in hopes to beat the storm.  The weather was cool and beautiful so I spent

Day 5 – Baldwyn to Collinwood, TN

What a great day of cycling, the humidity dropped and the cloud cover was perfect. Tom, being the gracious host, shuttled me back to the trace to my starting point. From there I had several moderate climbs and some good decents. My first stop of interest today was Cave Spring. There’s a couple small caves

Day 4 – Houston to Baldwyn

Today was the shortest day so far and thank goodness for that. I had a 6 mile ride out of Houston to get back to the trace this morning. The weather was very muggy and warm which was not the case for the previous three days. The first 20 miles felt like my legs were

Day 3 – Kusciusko to Houston

Everything is falling into place today. I finally got the groove of the trace; when to eat, when to drink, and the correct gear setting for the perfect pace. This was the best day by far and I think I can put all the psychological and physical issues to rest. 75 miles today but it

Day 2 – Raymond to Kusciusko

The day started with a hearty breakfast followed by a tour of the Dupree house by its owner. There were two couples from Florida staying here and heading south to Fort Gibson. Unfortunately, I was headed north and couldn’t ride with them. I set off around 9:30 which was a lot later than I wanted

Day 1- 85 miles

After a restful night of sleep I started my day with a wonderful breakfast at the bed-and-breakfast I was staying. I sat with a couple from Holland on a vacation. Another couple rode a motorcycle down the Natchez from Kentucky so I had a ton of questions for them. They were very helpful. After thanking

Day 0 – Natchez Mississippi

After two great flights I finally landed in Jackson Mississippi. I was greeted by the wave of heat and humidity as I exited the airplane which set reality for the next seven days. I grabbed my rental car and headed down south to Natchez. I was starving when I reached Natchez so I stopped in

Boxed up, and ready to go

Today was packing day. It started with a quick disassemble of the bike but that was all that was quick. The box I purchased from shipbikes.com was very easy to assemble and they thought of just about everything. There are spacers for wheel skewers, protectors for the wheel hubs, tie downs and extra support for

Full Dress Rehearsal

Today was trial and error day.  I went for a ride with the trunk pack fully loaded, iphone, wahoo sensors and heart rate monitor.  The first think I was most curious about was the fully loaded trunk with panniers deployed.  All I could imagine is a parachute behind me but in actuality, my legs seems

Rear Bike Rack

This has been a pain in the a$$ for weeks now and finally, the pain is over. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about all my luggage for the week and what kind of rack or trunk I needed. The final call was a rack with a bike trunk and it seemed simple

Falling into place

I might regret the compact car route

Bike Transport

I ordered and received my bike transport box this week.  I’m trying a new thing called an ebike box.  It’s basically a reinforced cardboard box which has tie downs for the bike and wheels.  The advantage I’m going for is the ability to break the box down to a flat state and ship it up

Travel Plans in Progress

Flight plans finalized.  I scheduled a very early flight out of Allentown to Jackson so I had plenty of time in Natchez to reassemble my bike and explore Natchez before I head out on the trace the next morning.   Still need to work out the plans for the one way car rental from Jackson to

Booking Lodging

Finished booking my lodging for the trip and it ought to be interesting.  Some are B&B’s in the local area and others are small cottages in the back woods.  I have a night in Kosciusko, Mississippi that I’m going to wing it.  I see a bike only campground local so maybe I’ll just roll up

New Toys

So I’ve been working with new equipment from wahoo fitness.  The bike speed and cadence accessory integrates nicely with the iphone app.  It work via a very small antenna that plugs into the iphone and receives the sensors from the bike.  The technology is called ant+ and requires very little power so it’s great for

Indoor training

Indoor training is not my favorite kind of cycling but the short days and cold leave me little options. The new gear I got from wahoo fitness make it less painful however. I’m still getting the hang of it but it integrates nicely with the iPhone and enables easy uploads to mapmyride which is my

Jackson to Natchez

Had a major hurdle overcome today. If I fly to Mississippi I will be arriving in Jackson so I’ll need to figure out how to get to Natchez. Turns out, Enterprise allows one way rentals between Jackson and Natchez. There’s a $50 drop charge, but I’ll take it! The next challenge is getting my bike

Travel Website

Travel Website

All the information you would ever need to bike the Natchez Trace begins here.  Thanks Randy for all your help so far.

Cycling Vacation

After talking about riding the Natchez Trace for a couple years I finally pulled the trigger and started planning. Logistics may be the hardest part of this trip.