Natchez Trace 2013 Bicycle Tour: Day 1 - 62 miles North Terminus to Meriwether Lewis Campground

March 16, 2013:
Woke up around 7am had a great waffle breakfast and espresso with my hosts Bill and Sametta. Assembled the bike the night before and had a wonderful Pesto Alfredo dinner. We got on the road around 9:15. Started out to the beginning of the Trace which was 1.5 miles from Bill's house. My rear tire started to rub against the frame, stopped to check it out and forgot to tighten down the quick release. Got back on the bike and headed down a hill and hit bump and off went my left rear pannier at 20Mph then it slide down a 25ft ravine. I climbed down or actually slide down to retrieve it, got back up and no damage. Then secured it correctly to the rack.

Made it the the terminus and started off great going down some nice hills, then a big up hill required to shift to a low gear but it would not go, it seemed to be stuck into 3rd and would not go I kept trying and knew something was up. I grinded my way up the hill, stopped and checked my derailer to see what the issue was, the derailer cable was frayed with only one strand holding the derailer to 3rd gear. Now I needed a cable, so Bill called Sametta and she was able to find a cable and drove 5 miles to my rescue. What may have happened is when I packed the bike into the small bike box, I must have put something next to derailer cable where it chaffed and rubbed against the bare cable and cut the strands. Installed new cable and we were on our way and now its 10:40 and we only biked 7 miles in an 1.5hours .

We rode about 40 miles then had lunch, Sametta pack us each a mini loaf of Zuchinni bread in, which I ate that along with a tuna roll up. As we were departing from lunch, we met a couple pulling in the parking lot where they ended a week long tour of the Great Rivers Route. We talked for about 20 Minutes, then entered the parkway rode a 1/2 mile, I hear a ping from the rear wheel, broke a spoke on the freewheel side. I get out my cassette removal tool and I cannot find the hex key insert to remove it. The other alternative to removing the Cassette is using a large adjustable wrench that will turn the removal tool; which is impracticable to carry because of the weight So Bill had an idea to go back and ask if the couple we just met to see if they had tools in their car. Ten minutes later Bill comes back with a monster adjustable wrench. Replaced the spoke and back on the road again, now I am getting nervous about all of my issues with the bike all within 5 hours. Will my bike make it to the end of a 444 mile journey and I'm sure Bill and George had some serous reservations about the integrity of my bike. So the last 20 miles went smooth, except for the hills and headwinds. We passed two bike tourist, but they did not stop also we did not attempt to stop as well, generally if your on a flat terrain and not zooming down a hill I would stop to chat. The first tourist we passed was walking his bike up a hill and we were hulling ass down a hill, also he looked a little rough around the edges, he was riding a single speed bike, had no panniers, where he had plastic bags strapped to his rack. The second person we passed was solo as well, he looked like a retiree and we waved at each other and kept on riding. Around 6:30 we pulled into the Meriwether Lewis Site campground.

http://www.nps.gov/natr/upload/MLInfoPage.pdf

We setup camp, ate and went to bed around 10:30
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