I’m Having Evil Dreams of Leaving Tennessee: Shakedown at Natchez Trace

As many of this year’s hikers are either beginning their hikes or are already on their way, I am still dreaming of the day I will head to Georgia, waiting for graduation to wish my students well and embark on my summer adventure. In the meantime, I spent my spring break doing a test hike here in Tennessee. I drove to Nashville and hiked the Highland Rim section of the Natchez Trail on a quick 2 day, 2 night trip.

The Natchez Trace is a National Scenic Byway that runs through Tennessee and Mississippi, but today it’s more of a scenic avenue. It’s popular with cyclists, but unless you want to walk the road for 400 miles, it’s not really the best for a hike. That being said, there are five sections of trail that run along the parkway, totaling about 50 miles. I walked the entire northernmost section, which is about 20 miles long.

Day 1

I started the first day around 1pm, after a 3 hour drive to Nashville and a sandwich stop in the small town of Leipers Fork. I walked south about 8 miles before stopping for the night. Water was plentiful and it was easy to mark the miles I had traveled through frequent trailheads and road exits. The trail was also easy to follow which was nice.

That night I made my first ramen bomb (I’ve been backpacking since 2013 and have never missed one) and set up my new Gossamer Gear tent, which set up easily and was nice and cozy overnight. I also tried practicing a PCT Hang but I didn’t really have enough rope. Fortunately, this trail is not really in bear country, so not hanging a bear-friendly bag wasn’t much of a concern.

Day 2

The next morning I got up and began my hike through farmland, which continued throughout the day. The fields definitely define the path of the trail, as there is often not much space between the parkway and someone’s farmland to put a trail on. That morning I saw some cows and a friendly old couple walking their dogs. They said she reminded them of their granddaughter.

As the day progressed, the trail became more difficult to follow as it crossed more grasslands with little opportunity for blazes (or desert-style rock cairns) to appear. I went off the road a few times, which was a little frustrating. Fortunately, the trail follows the parkway so closely that if you ever get lost, you can simply head toward the road or walk along it and you’ll find the trail again. I also tried very hard to follow the horseshoe tracks, since the trail is also for horseback riding. There was still plenty of water, so I filtered it when I needed it along the way. I also saw lots of pretty early spring wildflowers!

I ended my second day at the end of the Highland Rim section, at the bike camp on Highway 50. The bike camps along the Natchez Trace are intended for people who bike along the parkway without a support vehicle, but I figured since I was hiking without a support vehicle I met the criteria. There was also a tap to refill water and a fire ring. I didn’t light a fire, but it was still nice to sit on a log next to it.

My initial plan with this trip was to walk for 4 days and do the entire forward and reverse section. However, by the end of the second day, I felt pretty tired and didn’t really feel like walking the same 20 miles I had just walked again. So I decided to sleep and if I still felt like that in the morning, I would walk down the road and hitchhike to my car.

coming back

The next morning came, and other than still feeling that way, everything was fine. wet. It hadn’t rained, but it was an incredibly humid morning, so my tent had a layer of condensation on the inside which meant it was soaked when I packed it up. Luckily, none of my other gear got very wet as it didn’t touch the roof of my tent. But, as I walked across the dewy grass of the campground making breakfast, packing, etc., my shoes and socks got soaked. So I decided hitchhiking was the way to go. I was picked up in about 45 minutes by a man driving to Nashville and dropped off right at my car.

When I returned to my car, I noticed a bright orange sticker that said “Abandoned Property NPS.” I thought, “Hey, I’ve only been gone 48 hours, well, it’s not abandoned” and I got into my car. I sat there for a while trying to decide if I wanted to go home or try to hike the next section in Tupelo, MS, and while I was sitting there a ranger came up to my window. I was like, «hey, what’s up?» and he said, «wasn’t there a sticker on your car? I came here to tow it because it was abandoned for over 24 hours.» I said, «Oh yeah, I saw the sticker and I took it off because it’s my car and now I’m on my way back. I didn’t see anything I needed to do. I was backpacking down the trail, walked to the other end and hitchhiked back this morning.» And he said, «Oh, okay, well, if you do that again or have friends who want to do it, make sure they call the ranger station ahead of time; it’s not really a good backpacking trail, so we don’t advertise it, but that way we’ll know not to tow your car and we can tell you things you need to know, like not filtering the water that causes pesticide runoff from the fields.»

Cue the side-eyed monkey puppet meme expression on me.

Anyway, nothing bad happened, my car wasn’t towed and I had a great trip! But if you want to hike any section of the Natchez Trace, definitely call ahead to one of the ranger stations! (And maybe don’t drink water that doesn’t come from a tap.)

This trip was a great opportunity for me to put together my gear, so I hope my next post covers my full gear list! And I hope that’s my last post before I head to Georgia – it’s only 34 days until I meet my dad in Atlanta.

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