Day #12 - Tishomingo State Park to Colbert Ferry- 31.72 miles

STEALTH CAMPING

We woke early after a restful second night in the cabin. We quickly had breakfast and coffee, packed the bikes up and headed out. The three miles down the mountain and out of the park went much quicker than the way in and up. In fact it was pretty much hands on the brakes all the way. Woohoo!

Our destination today is Colbert Ferry on the Tennessee River. This is one of the spots on the Trace with a biker only campground, our stopping point for the night. We pedaled up some moderate hills, and got just a taste of things to come as we head North. The day started off cool but very quickly became muggy. Ugh. What happened to Spring? We have stopped at almost every pull off along the Trace to read the history of the area and if truth be told to catch our breath and give our seats a rest. Today was no exception. We've come to call these roadside stops 'interesting things' and there is always a sign 1/2 mile prior to the pullout to let you know one is coming up. Today we stopped at Cave Spring and saw two shallow caves used by Native Americans. A spring and small creek bubbled down and around the caves. It was a cool and peaceful spot in the trees.  Bear Creek Mound was next and was one of many Indian burial mounds along the Trace that we've seen.  We came upon the next pullout for Bear Creek and in the parking area was a truck and a trailer with several bikers standing around it. It was the support group for the Fuller Center for Housing bike team and they were riding from Nashville to Tupelo as a fund raiser. The Fuller Center for Housing is similar to Habitat for Humanity and we were told the two groups were founded by the same individual. The group had approximately 36 riders and it was interesting to see several on tandem cycles and even one rider who was 86 years old. Most impressive. James and Mitch spotted their fancy bike pump with it's built in pressure gauge and quickly asked if we could borrow it. Amazing what a difference properly inflated tires can make!

We wished them well and continued on our way and for the next several miles passed Fuller Housing team members heading South.  It was nice to see other biker's.  We arrived at Colbert Ferry and quickly found the primitive biker only campground, just where the adventure cycling map said it would be - down the road and go around the road closed barricade, down a path to the campground. It was swampy. Day after day of rain had left the area saturated and mosquito infested. We looked around and said no way could we camp there and decided to ride down to the recreation area by the river to check it out. This is a beautiful spot on the Tennessee River and none of us realized just how big and wide this river is. It's huge. Barges were traveling on it. We had snacks at a picnic table overlooking the river and watched the barge and boat traffic go by. We had been told a few days previous that the park had been closed a week earlier due to an accident on the river. A helicopter pilot checking power lines had crashed into the river very near the Natchez Trace bridge and the park was used as the staging grounds for the search and rescue teams. We were able to look the story up online and found out that the helicopter was quickly recovered but not the pilot. While we were sitting there a search boat was launched at the boat ramp nearby and they headed back out on the river to continue looking for the pilot. The afternoon had become overcast and a chill wind blowing off the choppy waters. It was sobering watching what would now be a recovery boat go out and we decided to head back to the park entrance and find another location to camp. A suitable spot was selected near the picnic area and we settled in for the night.