Murder on the Trace

Day 6    Florence, AL to Leiper's Fork, TN    104 mi

This monument marks the grave of Meriwether Lewis, who died on the Trace in 1809. This was only three years after his epic "Lewis and Clark" Corp of Discovery trip ended. He was most likely murdered, although some speculate he committed suicide. He was only 35 yrs old.

It was another warm day, and again with tailwinds to make riding 100 miles very pleasant indeed. What was different about today was that we all were shuttled from Florence to the Parkway, and at the end of the ride, from the Parkway to our hotel here in Franklin. So, no riding on regular roads to get from and to our hotels. The Parkway is so nice and safe, and we had 100 miles even with the shuttling.

They do an amazing job of getting all our bikes, luggage, and us into the trailer (in this photo), the van, and the car that belongs to the Johnsens (which has a 4-bike rack). When the ride is over, Rick and Pam Johnsen have to drive that car all the way home to Seattle.

Once underway at Mile Marker 330, the weather was cool and we all pedaled along nicely for 10 miles to the Tennessee border for photos.

As we rolled up to this sign, Bob laughed that out here in the South, it was pretty strange for the border sign to start off mentioning King Charles II. We all took lots of pictures and continued on.

This portion of the Old Trace was also called Sunken Trace, just as we had on Day 1. Only this one wasn't as sunken. Still, I find it cool to see these sections of the original trail.

We had our usual fabulous rest-stop treats, carrot juice, and other goodies overlooking a stream at Mile Marker 364. Sorry, no photos. We continued on, and the scenery was as nice as ever, but I took only this photo prior to the lunch break:

Yes, we get a variety of scenery, and this field of yellow struck me enough to pull out the camera. I saw two wild turkeys next to the road today, but both scurried into the woods as soon as I tried to stop for a photo. And they were THIS big!!

Our lunch was at the Meriwether Lewis site. Before eating, I toured around a bit. This photo describes the monument. They had several items there honoring him and his brief life. One thing I found coincidental was that to reach this site, you turned off the Parkway onto TN Hwy 20. Well, he was born in Charlottesville, VA right off of VA Hwy 20! I've passed the sign on VA Hwy 20 noting his birth so many times!

The stones in the ground behind the sign are all that's left of the stand (inn) where he was staying the night he was shot and killed.

I actually rode my bike a few hundreds yards on this section of the original Trace. I thought I was headed to the site of the Grinder House where he died, but I was going the wrong way as it turned out. Anyway, I "rode the Trace". As it would turn out later in the day, That was Nuthin!

At Mile Marker 397, I stopped at this pull-out for yet another section of the Old Trace. See my bike parked up there at the sign?

This spot was where I had a little adventure. See how the sign is titled not only Tobacco Farm but also Old Trace? Well, there's a 2-mi section you can drive on that goes off behind that old barn and parallels the Parkway and then returns to it. I decided to try it. Mistake. It was rocky, bumpy, gravely, and not fun. I went only about 3-4 mph to stay safe, and just hoped I wouldn't fall and/or get two flat tires.

Here's what it looked like. Not much different than any old dirt road. But I suppose there was some charm in knowing that it was trampled on for thousands of years. Actually, I felt I tiny bit better later when I realized that this section I rode on was the cover photo of one of Paul's books about the Natchez Trace.

See, there it is. I took this picture of the cover of the book. Anyway, I made it back to the pavement in good shape, and continued on to the final rest stop at Mile Marker 408.

Before arriving at that final rest stop, I came across this scenic overlook. This week I have stopped at numerous highlighted "overlooks", but never took a photo, or if I did, did not put it in this blog because they had never been too scenic. Until this one (I thought).

After the break, I pretty much just pedaled on to our finish. I still felt pretty strong. I did come across this sighting along the way:

I actually thought we'd see more of these private family cemeteries, but haven't.

When I got off the Parkway, near Leiper's Fork at Mile Marker 429, and turned left into a junior high parking lot where the van was waiting for us, their marching band crossed my intended path (much as a herd of cows might, hahaha):

The cool thing was, they soon started playing, just as four others of our group rode up. So, it was like they were welcoming us. We all enjoyed them playing, as the rest of us finished.

Eventually we got all loaded up and drove the 15-or-so miles to our hotel in (or near) Franklin. For dinner, we all got back in the van and car and drove into the old historic district of Franklin, and ate at a legendary restaurant:

Puckett's Grocery. With live music, as you can see. LOUD live music, which made it hard to talk and order drinks and food, but it was fun. They sang 70s songs, and we sang along to many of them. They asked who our group was, and I yelled "bicyclists", so they kept calling us the bicyclists when they were working the audience.

Tomorrow we are expecting afternoon thunderstorms, so here is the plan: We have only about 15 miles left of the Trace Parkway that we have not ridden, but we also want to get in more than just 15 miles. And, we don't want to ride from this hotel back to the Parkway due to busy, not-good-for-cyclists roads. So, we will shuttle to the terminus of the Parkway, Mile Marker 444, and ride the other direction back to Mile Marker 426. Then, we will make a U-turn and repeat what we just rode, and end back where we started - at the terminus. So, a total of 36 miles. Then we will shuttle to our hotel in downtown Nashville, and have a celebratory night.