4/25/08 - Tupelo, MS to Georgetown, AL

Day 9 – North Tupelo, MS to Collins Ferry Campground at Georgetown, AL

The stay in North Tupelo was uneventful. I did laundry and ate at Appleby’s. It never did rain overnight. Before leaving today, I checked the Weather Channel and they were predicting a cold front to pass through tonight, stall, and then back up as a warm front. This means rain. I was finally going to have to ride in the rain. I might note that out of the past eight days, I’ve had tailwind every day except one. 8 days, no rain, and great tailwinds? You can’t ask for better weather!

(Above left) Day 9 track – (69.8 miles) Today I cross the Mississippi-Alabama state line and this is the day I expected to start really hitting some mountain grades. Near Cherokee there are town names like Sand Mountain, and Mount Haster. (Above right) The gradient on the elevation axis changed today – since I departed Theodore the stripes have indicated 20 foot elevation changes. Today the stripes reflect 50 foot elevation changes. I started out low in Tupelo and did a lot of climbing. For the most part, the climbing was at very nice grades. The 800 foot barrier was reached and the granny gears were only used a couple of times. Not bad at all.


(Above left) The petals on this flower were fringed – identity unknown. (Above right) Clover gave way to these little small white flowers and they started to dominate the roadside in masses.


(Above left and right) The patches of red clover still made brief appearances. Out of millions of red clover heads, wouldn’t you know it – I find the only single patch of white clover – it must be an albino.


(Above left) The dense woods on the sides of the roads opened up to pasture land and several of the fields were completely covered with yellow buttercups. (Above right) Only 166 more miles to go.


(Above left) When I thought I’d seen enough red, yellow and white shoulders, patches of Lyre-leafed mint started shading the roadside in a light blue. (Above right) I eventually ran into a rather challenging climb. You know the elevation has changed when you start seeing roads cut through rock layers.

Today I cycled out of the central plains of Mississippi, across the Flatwoods, catching a little of the Pontotoc Hills, went across the Black Prairie and across the Fall Line Hills, all distinct physiographic regions of Mississippi. In Alabama, I was nearing the Highland Rim of the Cumberland Plateau. Tomorrow I expect much pain in ways of hills.


(Above left) Since I was going to camp near a Tennessee River boat ramp, I expected to have a nice downhill run to the secluded bicycle only camp site. Wrong. Here is the Bay Springs Lake Dam on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Wish I’d had time to bicycle over to the dam and explore it. It was after this dam where the bigger hills began. (Above right) Here I was battening down the hatches for the rain expected to happen during the night. As of midnight, the stars were out but at some point in the morning, winds picked up and the rains started. I stayed nice and dry and slept through most of it.

I really liked the change of scenery today – couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day.