OK, its planing time again. I'm heavy into planning my tours at least six months out, it seems that I just completed my most recent tour a few weeks ago. Well it looks like my WOO(Window of Opportunity) is from March 15th thru 25th, about 9 days of riding. This tour will be mostly be on the Natchez Trace Parkway starting from Nashville, TN, my map and stop points http://goo.gl/maps/N2H4O .
Why Natchez Parkway Trace ride? Two things that caught my attention, one is it is virtually free of traffic and be void of drivers/commuters driving at high speeds while texting and talking on their smartphones. The drivers on the Trace will be vacationing, where the speed limit is 50Mph. I also have read on other bike blogs where drivers give you plenty of room while passing. So this is virtually a rail-trail, with no turns, really no need for a GPS except for tracking POI's. The second reason for this destination is its rich history the Trace offers and this is where POI's(Points of Interest) come into play. I uploaded hundreds of POI's all along the Trace which will use an offline mapping app. I guess one more thing is that most of the ride is flat, so hopefully I will spend less time on the bike and able to enjoy the sites. So if I have very few hills, no headwinds, low Humidity and Heat this will make a perfect ride, my last tour I had only 1 perfect day out of 8 days. A perfect ride will have ideal weather around 75 to 80 degrees, 30-40% humidity, a > 15mph tailwind with gentle rolling hills, too flat becomes too boring.
It will take about 9 days of riding with daily distances from 75 to 85 miles. The logistics of transporting myself, gear and bike to and from the starting/ending points are always a challenging part of any tour. To get to Nashville, it looks like a $17 Greyhound bus trip that leaves early morning and arrives at 9:00am and then a 17 mile ride from the downtown bus terminal to Natchez Trace Parkway.
Biking from Nashville to Natchez, MS will take 6-7 days on the NT Parkway and then 2.5 days to get to NOLA. Spend a whole day in New Orleans then take an Amtrak train back to Atlanta. A shorter option is to complete the entire Trace to the end in Natchez, MS and take a Greyhound back to Atlanta. The train ride from NOLA is 9 hours which seems much better than a 11.5 hour bus trip from Natchez with a bus transfer in Jackson, MS, so riding to New Orleans will be the best option. By the way, Natchez Trace tour is on my Bucket list.
Since I mentioned bucket lists, here are my top 5 Bucket list Tours....
1. Natchez Trace
2. Blue Ridge Parkway
3. PCH Pacific Coast Highway
4. Trans-am or Northern Tier route
5. Partial Atlantic Coast route from Savannah, GA to Williamsburg, Virginia
