Ride Report - Natchez Trace Parkway
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Ted Durant
Oct 2, 2025, 10:33:34 PM (2 days ago) Oct 2
to RBW Owners Bunch
Another ride report for y'all. I’ve been contemplating the Natchez Trace Parkway for a while. My brother who lives in Louisville had been riding his Rambouillet a lot this year and when I asked if he was interested in the Natchez Trace he jumped right in. My initial plan, to ride it solo, was to do it in 4 days, maybe 5, so +/- 100 miles per day. He balked at that, so I put together a 7-day itinerary. It’s a good thing I did that, as the weather turned out to be hot, and water is hard to find. The other critical decision was that our wives agreed to drive the support vehicle, which turned out to be a significant help.
For those who don’t know, the Natchez Trace Parkway is a US national park, essentially 450 miles long and about 100 feet wide. It was built in pieces over about 70 years, with the final section being completed in 2005. The parkway has always been conceived as a cycling route, and all commercial traffic is prohibited. It’s a 2-lane road that is regularly marked with signs telling motorists to expect bikes and to switch lanes to pass them. However, there is no shoulder for most of it and, while most drivers are respectful, there are plenty of them that think it’s okay to pass while cars are coming the other way. Also, in the bigger cities (Tupelo and Jackson, especially), there is just plain a lot of traffic, and frequently there are commercial vehicles whose drivers have ignored the prohibited signs. We made great use of the support vehicle, sipping those areas where the traffic was especially bad.
More info, and the best place to start research, is at https://www.natcheztracetravel.com/.
This was definitely not a bike packing trip, though plenty of people do the Trace that way. There are camping areas scattered along the route, but I think there are some significant logistical challenges. For us, it was B&Bs and hotels. It took some research to find places convenient to the parkway, but the website makes it pretty easy. Distances between them varies, though, so it can be tricky to schedule even distances each day. After lining up the places to stay we worked on the plan for each day, where we would possibly eat, find a bathroom, get water, etc. Also we looked for interesting things to do and see, either along the way or in the places where we stopped for the night.
Part of the parkway infrastructure is bathroom/water structures. They are irregularly spaced, though, and irregularly maintained. The staff cuts to NPS have taken a real toll there. We managed okay with bathrooms, and managed our water only because our wives were carrying a huge supply in the car. It got very hot - mid 90’s and pretty high humidity - and we were going through a bottle every 45 minutes at times. There are also scattered places to buy water off the parkway, some within a mile, but often farther. There are many historical markers along the way and they make interesting places to take a quick rest, but typically they don’t have any facilities and sometimes no shade, either. There also are many spots where there are short hiking trails, a few of which promise waterfalls. Don’t expect much and you won’t be disappointed :-)
In spite of the infrastructure and weather challenges, we had a great time, partly because of the phenomenal support of our wives, but also because of the amazing warm hospitality of all the local people we met. B&B hosts, restaurant staff, visitor center staff, and fellow travelers all made it clear they were glad we were there and they would do whatever they could to make it a pleasant trip.
Here’s a quick view of the itinerary
Day 0 - Drive from Louisville to Nashville, spent the night at Hampton Inn near the start of the parkway outside Nashville. Send off dinner at Husk in Nashville was outstanding.
Day 1 - breakfast at the Loveless Cafe, and then a 56 mile ride to Hohenwald, where we stayed at Miss Scarlett’s B&B. Lunch stop along the way provided by our fabulous support team. This is the hilliest part of the Trace, so lot’s of up and down hill. Dinner at the Junkyard Dog, one of the only options there but it was great.
Day 2 - huge breakfast at Miss Scarlett’s, then 45 miles to Florence, AL where we stayed at the Farmhouse Sanctuary. This is actually a bit outside of Florence, so we were glad to have the car, because in Florence there is the Rosenbaum House by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the 360 Grill, a revolving restaurant with a lovely view of the Tennessee River and some excellent food. The Rosenbaum House is outstanding and worth way more than the $5 they charged us seasoned citizens to tour it. The Farmhouse Sanctuary was our favorite stay; the owners are the 2 most interesting people in the world and have accumulated an amazing menagerie of rescued animals. The B&B is newly done and they made all the wood trim and furniture.
Day 3 - another huge breakfast and then 79 miles across the Tennessee River and into Mississippi to Tupelo, staying at Moon Lake Farm in Belden. Made use of the car to get from the Parkway to the B&B and were glad for that, as the roads weren’t fabulous for biking, and as mentioned the traffic on the parkway builds up as you get close to Tupelo. We had a cabin that fit the 4 of us. The host was very nice, but we only met him briefly as we arrived. They don’t provide breakfast. We drove into Tupelo for dinner at Bulldog Burger (recommend). Sorry, didn’t visit the birthplace of Elvis. Hot, long day, but the hills are a bit less by this point. And, most of the Parkway is lined with trees so there’s shade except in the middle of the day.
Day 4 - breakfast from our fabulous support crew and then 82 miles to French Camp. Well, theoretically. There is a 24 mile stretch of the Parkway that is closed, the southern end of which is at French Camp. So, we had to exit at Mathiston where we met up with the support crew to reassess. My brother made the right choice to put his bike on the car. Did I mention it was hot? This day it was really bad. Still, I’d worked out a detour and thought I’d ride the rest of it. As I rolled south out of Mathiston I heard and felt a big truck coming behind me on a road with no shoulder. I hopped right off the road just in time to watch the end of a pine tree, hanging out the side of a logging truck, whizz by the left side of my face. I stuck it out for a while, though, and had some pretty good miles but I was melting in the heat. About 7 miles shy of French Camp my route turned onto another busy road with no shoulder and I called in for a pickup. I never like taking a DNF, but it was probably the right call. French Camp is an interesting historical site with an inn and other housing (we had the Carriage House for the 4 of us). They have a restaurant which has a basic menu but the food was just fine.
Day 5 - Breakfast from our support crew and off for 77 miles to Jackson. The weather finally changed this day and it looked from the start like we were going to get wet. We stayed at the Old Capitol Inn in downtown Jackson and we decided to put the bikes on the car north of the city, before the traffic would get too bad, and to avoid riding city streets into downtown. It was just a question of whether we could get to that point before the rain started. After about 56 miles we met up with the crew at a picnic shelter and, based on the radar, decided to put the bikes on the car. Sure enough, it started raining shortly after that, and we drove to a nicer picnic area (turned out to be the nicest of the whole way) where we ate lunch and hoped for a gap in the rain. No such gap came, though, and we drove into Jackson through periodic massive downpours. Did I mention how glad I was to have a support vehicle?? Dinner at the Mayflower Cafe, a classic southern seafood diner, was a lot of fun.
Day 6 - still some showers in the morning, so after breakfast at the Old Capitol we put the bikes on the car and drove northwest to the visitor center at Clinton, where we picked up the Parkway as the last of the rain moved off. This was a shorter day, thanks to skipping the ride from downtown back out to the Parkway, ending up around 56 miles, and it was still humid but a bit cooler. It also is getting a lot flatter by this point, but also more stretches along farmland, rather than through the woods, so not as much shade. We ended the day at Port Gibson, staying at Isabella B&B. It’s a great old home with a lovely host, Isabel, no relation to the Isabella who once lived in the home. Dinner was at the restaurant she recommend, a little local place in the old train depot serving classic, simple southern food. Lots of it! Along the way we met up with a man who was riding from Clinton to Natchez and staying at the Isabella, too, so he joined us for dinner.
Day 7 - huge breakfast from Isabel and off for the last day, a reasonable 41 miler to Natchez. Much more comfortable temperatures, steady down hill, and smelling the end made for a fun, fast ride. Lunch at the Magnolia Grill, overlooking the Mississippi River, a walking tour of downtown Natchez, then we stayed at the Monmouth Historic Inn in one of the garden cottages and enjoyed dinner in their grand old dining room.
Then a 10 hour drive back to Louisville and a 6 hour drive back to Milwaukee.
Gear - I rode my Chapman with a Herse/Berthoud handlebar bag; my brother rode his Rambouillet with a Saddleback out back and a banana bag on the handlebars. This was definitely a road bike ride. Road surfaces were mostly great on the Parkway, not nearly as great off the Parkway. I wore Aerotech Designs shorts with their thinnest pad most days, except the rainy day I wore wool boxer briefs and Compass knickers. Up top I wore a variety of things, mostly my preferred polo shirts in light wool (I especially like 33 Below’s lightweight wool polo) or cotton. On the longer, sunnier day I wore an Aerotech Designs sun-blocking long-sleeve jersey, which I like but it holds moisture a little more than I’d prefer. I also wore one day a short-sleeve Vuori t-shirt, which is practically like not wearing anything and, surprisingly, didn’t get as stinky as I expected. Some gear got pretty stinky, according to our support crew. I suspect my cycling cap (Walz custom-designed lycra) got stinky when I dipped it in a stream that smelled a bit funky. A couple of our overnights had washer and drier, so we were able to wash the stinky gear. On my feet were my usual Lems mesh sneakers over a mix of lightweight socks. I can’t understand why anyone still uses cleats, especially for touring. It’s very important for me to be able to vary my foot position on the pedals to keep my bunionettes from making me miserable. My brother coveted my Tifosi photosensitive lenses with reader spots at the bottom, which do a good job of keeping my contact lenses from drying out.
My brother has a Küat trailer-hitch bike rack that worked exeptionally well. The front arm grabs and holds the front rack of my bike very securely. I appreciated not having to make use of my rinko-fenders to put the bike on the car. Honda CR-V support vehicle is comfortable with 4 people and gear and efficient. Hotel shower caps kept the leather saddles dry.
A few photos, which I may or may not have posted in the photos thread.
Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA
For those who don’t know, the Natchez Trace Parkway is a US national park, essentially 450 miles long and about 100 feet wide. It was built in pieces over about 70 years, with the final section being completed in 2005. The parkway has always been conceived as a cycling route, and all commercial traffic is prohibited. It’s a 2-lane road that is regularly marked with signs telling motorists to expect bikes and to switch lanes to pass them. However, there is no shoulder for most of it and, while most drivers are respectful, there are plenty of them that think it’s okay to pass while cars are coming the other way. Also, in the bigger cities (Tupelo and Jackson, especially), there is just plain a lot of traffic, and frequently there are commercial vehicles whose drivers have ignored the prohibited signs. We made great use of the support vehicle, sipping those areas where the traffic was especially bad.
More info, and the best place to start research, is at https://www.natcheztracetravel.com/.
This was definitely not a bike packing trip, though plenty of people do the Trace that way. There are camping areas scattered along the route, but I think there are some significant logistical challenges. For us, it was B&Bs and hotels. It took some research to find places convenient to the parkway, but the website makes it pretty easy. Distances between them varies, though, so it can be tricky to schedule even distances each day. After lining up the places to stay we worked on the plan for each day, where we would possibly eat, find a bathroom, get water, etc. Also we looked for interesting things to do and see, either along the way or in the places where we stopped for the night.
Part of the parkway infrastructure is bathroom/water structures. They are irregularly spaced, though, and irregularly maintained. The staff cuts to NPS have taken a real toll there. We managed okay with bathrooms, and managed our water only because our wives were carrying a huge supply in the car. It got very hot - mid 90’s and pretty high humidity - and we were going through a bottle every 45 minutes at times. There are also scattered places to buy water off the parkway, some within a mile, but often farther. There are many historical markers along the way and they make interesting places to take a quick rest, but typically they don’t have any facilities and sometimes no shade, either. There also are many spots where there are short hiking trails, a few of which promise waterfalls. Don’t expect much and you won’t be disappointed :-)
In spite of the infrastructure and weather challenges, we had a great time, partly because of the phenomenal support of our wives, but also because of the amazing warm hospitality of all the local people we met. B&B hosts, restaurant staff, visitor center staff, and fellow travelers all made it clear they were glad we were there and they would do whatever they could to make it a pleasant trip.
Here’s a quick view of the itinerary
Day 0 - Drive from Louisville to Nashville, spent the night at Hampton Inn near the start of the parkway outside Nashville. Send off dinner at Husk in Nashville was outstanding.
Day 1 - breakfast at the Loveless Cafe, and then a 56 mile ride to Hohenwald, where we stayed at Miss Scarlett’s B&B. Lunch stop along the way provided by our fabulous support team. This is the hilliest part of the Trace, so lot’s of up and down hill. Dinner at the Junkyard Dog, one of the only options there but it was great.
Day 2 - huge breakfast at Miss Scarlett’s, then 45 miles to Florence, AL where we stayed at the Farmhouse Sanctuary. This is actually a bit outside of Florence, so we were glad to have the car, because in Florence there is the Rosenbaum House by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the 360 Grill, a revolving restaurant with a lovely view of the Tennessee River and some excellent food. The Rosenbaum House is outstanding and worth way more than the $5 they charged us seasoned citizens to tour it. The Farmhouse Sanctuary was our favorite stay; the owners are the 2 most interesting people in the world and have accumulated an amazing menagerie of rescued animals. The B&B is newly done and they made all the wood trim and furniture.
Day 3 - another huge breakfast and then 79 miles across the Tennessee River and into Mississippi to Tupelo, staying at Moon Lake Farm in Belden. Made use of the car to get from the Parkway to the B&B and were glad for that, as the roads weren’t fabulous for biking, and as mentioned the traffic on the parkway builds up as you get close to Tupelo. We had a cabin that fit the 4 of us. The host was very nice, but we only met him briefly as we arrived. They don’t provide breakfast. We drove into Tupelo for dinner at Bulldog Burger (recommend). Sorry, didn’t visit the birthplace of Elvis. Hot, long day, but the hills are a bit less by this point. And, most of the Parkway is lined with trees so there’s shade except in the middle of the day.
Day 4 - breakfast from our fabulous support crew and then 82 miles to French Camp. Well, theoretically. There is a 24 mile stretch of the Parkway that is closed, the southern end of which is at French Camp. So, we had to exit at Mathiston where we met up with the support crew to reassess. My brother made the right choice to put his bike on the car. Did I mention it was hot? This day it was really bad. Still, I’d worked out a detour and thought I’d ride the rest of it. As I rolled south out of Mathiston I heard and felt a big truck coming behind me on a road with no shoulder. I hopped right off the road just in time to watch the end of a pine tree, hanging out the side of a logging truck, whizz by the left side of my face. I stuck it out for a while, though, and had some pretty good miles but I was melting in the heat. About 7 miles shy of French Camp my route turned onto another busy road with no shoulder and I called in for a pickup. I never like taking a DNF, but it was probably the right call. French Camp is an interesting historical site with an inn and other housing (we had the Carriage House for the 4 of us). They have a restaurant which has a basic menu but the food was just fine.
Day 5 - Breakfast from our support crew and off for 77 miles to Jackson. The weather finally changed this day and it looked from the start like we were going to get wet. We stayed at the Old Capitol Inn in downtown Jackson and we decided to put the bikes on the car north of the city, before the traffic would get too bad, and to avoid riding city streets into downtown. It was just a question of whether we could get to that point before the rain started. After about 56 miles we met up with the crew at a picnic shelter and, based on the radar, decided to put the bikes on the car. Sure enough, it started raining shortly after that, and we drove to a nicer picnic area (turned out to be the nicest of the whole way) where we ate lunch and hoped for a gap in the rain. No such gap came, though, and we drove into Jackson through periodic massive downpours. Did I mention how glad I was to have a support vehicle?? Dinner at the Mayflower Cafe, a classic southern seafood diner, was a lot of fun.
Day 6 - still some showers in the morning, so after breakfast at the Old Capitol we put the bikes on the car and drove northwest to the visitor center at Clinton, where we picked up the Parkway as the last of the rain moved off. This was a shorter day, thanks to skipping the ride from downtown back out to the Parkway, ending up around 56 miles, and it was still humid but a bit cooler. It also is getting a lot flatter by this point, but also more stretches along farmland, rather than through the woods, so not as much shade. We ended the day at Port Gibson, staying at Isabella B&B. It’s a great old home with a lovely host, Isabel, no relation to the Isabella who once lived in the home. Dinner was at the restaurant she recommend, a little local place in the old train depot serving classic, simple southern food. Lots of it! Along the way we met up with a man who was riding from Clinton to Natchez and staying at the Isabella, too, so he joined us for dinner.
Day 7 - huge breakfast from Isabel and off for the last day, a reasonable 41 miler to Natchez. Much more comfortable temperatures, steady down hill, and smelling the end made for a fun, fast ride. Lunch at the Magnolia Grill, overlooking the Mississippi River, a walking tour of downtown Natchez, then we stayed at the Monmouth Historic Inn in one of the garden cottages and enjoyed dinner in their grand old dining room.
Then a 10 hour drive back to Louisville and a 6 hour drive back to Milwaukee.
Gear - I rode my Chapman with a Herse/Berthoud handlebar bag; my brother rode his Rambouillet with a Saddleback out back and a banana bag on the handlebars. This was definitely a road bike ride. Road surfaces were mostly great on the Parkway, not nearly as great off the Parkway. I wore Aerotech Designs shorts with their thinnest pad most days, except the rainy day I wore wool boxer briefs and Compass knickers. Up top I wore a variety of things, mostly my preferred polo shirts in light wool (I especially like 33 Below’s lightweight wool polo) or cotton. On the longer, sunnier day I wore an Aerotech Designs sun-blocking long-sleeve jersey, which I like but it holds moisture a little more than I’d prefer. I also wore one day a short-sleeve Vuori t-shirt, which is practically like not wearing anything and, surprisingly, didn’t get as stinky as I expected. Some gear got pretty stinky, according to our support crew. I suspect my cycling cap (Walz custom-designed lycra) got stinky when I dipped it in a stream that smelled a bit funky. A couple of our overnights had washer and drier, so we were able to wash the stinky gear. On my feet were my usual Lems mesh sneakers over a mix of lightweight socks. I can’t understand why anyone still uses cleats, especially for touring. It’s very important for me to be able to vary my foot position on the pedals to keep my bunionettes from making me miserable. My brother coveted my Tifosi photosensitive lenses with reader spots at the bottom, which do a good job of keeping my contact lenses from drying out.
My brother has a Küat trailer-hitch bike rack that worked exeptionally well. The front arm grabs and holds the front rack of my bike very securely. I appreciated not having to make use of my rinko-fenders to put the bike on the car. Honda CR-V support vehicle is comfortable with 4 people and gear and efficient. Hotel shower caps kept the leather saddles dry.
A few photos, which I may or may not have posted in the photos thread.
Ted Durant
Milwaukee, WI USA
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