"When we lived in Brentwood -- a suburb just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, -- "RandoGirl" and I took this two-day tour a couple of times," writes Robert. "Most of it is on the Natchez Trace, a federal road closed to commercial traffic and carefully maintained by the National Park Service, making it a truly superb bicycle route. It makes for an easy self-supported tour; you can follow the route either to one of two bed and breakfasts, or to a full-amenities campground. By following the 'off-Trace' part of the route, you'll go by a great country store for lunch, and a fine little winery for an afternoon break."
Continuing on, Robert's off-Trace narrative is a bit more precise than our typical Bike Overnight story-- which offers some insight into the potential trickiness of finding one's way in this part of rural Tennessee. Here the road choices are plentiful, but the road signs apparently are rather scarce.
"Kettle Mills Road goes on for another two miles, with a long climb near the end. At the top of that hill, there are roads going right, left, and center; you'll take the one in the middle -- Love Branch Road (unsigned). After descending gently on Love Branch Road for 2.4 miles, bear right on Stephenson Schoolhouse Road. This road climbs through a forest, runs along a field, and crosses a one-lane bridge to end at Cathey's Creek Road, where you turn right. In one mile, turn right to cross the bridge and stay on Cathey's Creek Road. Go 1.5 miles on Cathey's Creek Road to another optional stop, the Keg Springs Winery.
See what we mean?
RandoBoy and RandoGirl like staying at the Ridgetop Bed and Breakfast, which features two small guest houses and one room in the main house. They don't serve dinner there, but the proprietors have been known to loan their old pickup truck to lodgers wanting to drive to dinner.
Read the rest of RandoBoy's story at BikeOvernights.org. While there you can take a look at our current Photo of the Week -- which, as it happens, also comes from a story about Tennessee: Big Ride to Big Ridge, by Jon Livengood (which he's certainly doing if he takes a lot of rides like this one!) In fact, it was our first Bike Overnight from the Volunteer State, while this week's is the second one ever.
Top 2 photos by Robert Hendry.
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BIKE OVERNIGHTS is posted every Monday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling?s media specialist, and highlights content from BikeOvernights.org. Previously, from March 2009 through January 2012, Mac posted weekly at Biking Without Borders. He also compiles the organization's twice-monthly e-newsletter Bike Bits, which goes free-of-charge to 45,000 readers worldwide.
Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/08/two-days-on-natchez-trace.html
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