Port Gibson, MS to Natchez, MS

Sunday, October 12, 2003
Distance Cycled: 53 miles
Total elevation gain: 1,405 feet
Our Total Flat Tires on trip to date: 1

When we woke up this morning we were again in fog. We got dressed, loaded the bicycles and headed to a restaurant. We started at a Sonic restaurant where Mary Kay and Becky had French toast sticks and I had a breakfast burrito. My breakfast was not very satisfying. We went to a second restaurant and it did not open until 10:00 AM but we were told that another restaurant made take out breakfasts. We went there and I had a small bowl of cereal. Between the two meals I sort of got enough to eat.

We headed back to the Natchez Trace Parkway where we again visited the old sunken trace. We then turned south and stopped at all the points of interest. At one of these locations we found out why the trace sunk. In years past, dust from the west blew into Mississippi and was deposited at times up to 30 feet deep. This soil is called Loess. Wherever the trace crossed this Loess soil it would sink. In some places it sank 20 to 30 feet. The following picture shows this Loess soil at Loess Bluff on top of the original ocean bottom sand and gravel.

We later came upon the old trace again and I took a picture of Mark Kay against the bank of the trace. You can see how much the trace sank in this area.

From this location it was only a very short distance to Natchez. As we were riding into Natchez, we passed the Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church, which was formed in 1807.

We traveled all around the downtown area of Natchez trying to find a motel where we would have ground floor, non-smoking rooms. Finally we gave up and headed for one of the modern motels that were about 3 miles away. We found a nice motel, checked into the motel and then I went to work on the sheared bolt on Becky's bicycle. I got lucky in that I was able to turn out the broken end of the sheared off bolt using a jackknife. Becky had a number of spare nuts and bolts and one was the correct bolt to replace the sheared off bolt. In 30 minutes her bicycle was fixed. I then cleaned and lubricated the chains on our recumbent tandem bicycle. Finally we went to dinner and then to bed. It ended up being a long day.