TRAVELING THE TRACE IN TENNESSEE

It's been on my list for quite some time now - to travel on the Natchez Trace Parkway. This ancient migratory route for bison and antelope, turned commercial thoroughfare for Native Americans and later, white settlers, has always intrigued me. The goal is for Ruth and I to ride the Trace end to end from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS. But alas, on this trip I am flying solo, and will have to be content with riding the Tennessee portion of the Trace this go round. But next year, Roo and I have a date to party in Natchez together.

Day 1 - Simpsonville, SC to Tellico Plains, TN. - 220 miles
I decided to break my trip to Nashville in two. It is only 420 miles via the scenic route. Totally doable, but I just did not want to deal with Friday afternoon Nashville rush hour traffic, especially after 10 hours in the saddle. So my destination for the first night was Tellico Plains, TN, a tiny hamlet in the middle of the best motorcycling country in the East. It also boasts good eateries, B&B's, and a motorcycling outfitter's store - Tellico Plains Motorcycle Outfitters. Stop in and talk to Mike, the owner. He's a bit intense, and he packs a sidearm (plainly visible), but he's a nice guy whose shop carries nothing but quality gear for ADV riders, LD riders and dual sporters. No leather chaps and beanie helmets here.

My route today took me on two of my favorite motorcycling roads : The Blue Ridge Parkway and the Cherohala Skyway. Readers of this blog know of my love for the BRP, so allow me to extoll the virtues of the Cherohala Skyway. Built strictly as a scenic drive, this 50+ mile, curvaceous string of asphalt rises to over 1 mile in altitude, and it's sole purpose is to connect Robbinsville, NC to Tellico Plains, TN., with astounding vistas in between. No side roads, no intersections, no commercial traffic. Motorcycling nirvana.




My lunch stop-NC 28 in Stecoah, NC



The view from my picnic table!



Lake Fontana. Beautiful!



Cherohala Skyway - ready for the Mile High ride!

 Here are a few more views from the Skyway as I ascended to the 1 mile mark.

Crossing the Tennessee state line and dropping down towards Tellico Plains, the Skyway begins to level out and follows the beautiful Tellico River.




Tellico River



Tellico River

My lodging for the night is Hunt's Lodge Motorcycle Campground. Situated right outside of town on a beautiful piece of property, they offer tent camping in a meadow and have 5 or 6 cabins for rent. Do check them out if in the area.



Home away from home - Part One

 Hot, hot, hot, humid, humid, humid! Thank god for the cooling rain on the BRP! I arrived at Hunt's Lodge by late afternoon, set up camp, shower (ahhhh....), dinner, social hour, bed. And wouldn't you know it, my sleeping pad sprung a leak. Oh, that hard, unforgiving ground. Oh well, it's all part of the adventure. At least the next two nights will have me in a cabin on a real mattress! Tomorrow, it's another scenic 200 mile trip into Nashville.

Day 2 - Tellico Plains, TN to Nashville, TN - 198 miles
What a storm! Around 2 AM a kick-ass thunderstorm blew in with an unbelievable lightning show. The rain was pelting my tent and the wind was blowing like stink (to use an old nautical term). I was beginning to feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz as the wind rocked my free standing tent to and fro and side to side. The noise was deafening, even with earplugs firmly in place. With every flash, I thought a bolt of lightning was going to rip right through the tent fabric. This went on for about 2 hours! If I had to pee, I'd be screwed, as the loo was a good 50 to 60 feet away. Wouldn't have mattered if it was 50 inches, I would have been soaked before I got a second foot out of the tent. Maybe fried too! D was right. There is no place like home, in bed, under the covers, on a night like this. Not much sleep happening here tonight.
Friday AM was clear and sunny. I was up most of the night, so I made the most of the cooler temps (?) and started packing up early. The heat and humidity were already building.
Water everywhere! Gee, I just love packing up wet gear (note sarcasm). By 9:15 I was rolling down the gravel drive and onto TN68N. New road-new territory for me. TN 68 and US Hwy 70 are designated scenic drives, and they did not disappoint.
As I head north on TN 68, I see something kind of weird off in the distance. As I get closer, I start to laugh at the familiar, yet unfamiliar sight. I ride past, then U-turn the ST back to this strange and humorous find:

What's this?



Cows?



A whole field of white cows!

Never saw a whole pasture full of white cows. Very cool. Coming up onto US Hwy 70, the beaST and I bank a sweeping left hander and are now heading west. The road begins to climb and I find myself riding through a mini-gorge! What a fantastic find!



I climbed to the top and took this shot

I love traveling west. Gives me the feeling of exploring unfamiliar territory farther from home. Crossing the Tennessee River, I am now on the west side of Knoxville, and heading into the..........Central Time Zone! Crossing into the Central Time Zone always feels weird when I am traveling west. So I stopped for lunch at 11 AM, the "wrong" time, while my stomach was grumbling for food at the "right" time of 12 PM.



Crossing over the Tennessee River - US Hwy70



Tennessee River

Just shy of 200 miles on the odo, I arrive at the KOA Nashville, my hangout for the next two days. Smack in the heart of country music and Opryland, Ruth and I stayed in this same KOA on the last night of our cross-country tour in 2010. I said it then and I'll say it now - Tennessee sure has a knacky for tacky.




Home away from home-Part 2. It even has A/C!



Just behind the cabin are the tent-sites, where Roo, myself, and the Beagles
tent camped the last night of our Western States Tour. Great memories!

Day 3 - The Natchez Trace Parkway - 269 miles
What a gorgeous morning in Nashville! Bright sunshine greeted me as I opened my cabin door at 6 AM EST (5 AM TN time). I had a great nights sleep in my cabin last night, and I was ready for a long day in the saddle on the Natchez Trace. The plan is to eat breakfast at an iconic Nashville eatery at the Trace's northern terminus, then to ride to the Alabama state line, hiking sections of the original footpath and visiting other historic sites along the way. So I brewed up a cup of camp coffee (Starbucks instant Italian Roast), and had a pre-breakfast fruit/nut bar to go with it. I have 30 miles to ride before breakfast, and this high octane body needs fuel upon awakening. On board the beaST, I have to slab it on I-40 and I-440 for a few miles, then on through West Nashville to my breakfast destination: The Loveless Cafe & Motel.

The Loveless Cafe

This place is fantastic! Just the designated motorcycle only parking and electric vehicle charging station put it at the top of my eatery list. But the food is great! This place has been around for over a hundred years offering food and accomodations for weary (or wayward) travelers.
They are famous for their country ham and biscuits, but I opted for the pancakes with fresh blueberries in the batter. These things were the size of frisbees, and there were three of them! But jeez, they were delicious. After eating, I strolled (rolled?) around the grounds to work off those pancakes and buy a souvenir or two.



The motel rooms are now individual boutique shops



The courtyard



Very cool. Progressive thinking.



A Nissan Leaf  "filling up" on electrons



Warms the cockles of my heart. I love this place!

Having walked enough to where I felt I could now swing a leg over the ST, I donned my riding suit and fired up the big V4. Finally, me and MyST are going to ride down this famous road.

The first impression I received after turning onto The Trace was how bucolic the landscape is. Farmland and open valleys. This is rolling countryside that gets flatter the farther south and west one travels (the Trace runs from Nashville to Natchez in a southwesterly direction). The second thing I noticed was the large number of bicyclists. This is a well used road for the Nashville area cycling community. Thirdly - no traffic! The farther from Nashville I rode, the less traffic there was! At times, I was literally by myself on the road for miles and miles, not seeing another vehicle from either direction!



Bicyclists enjoying The Trace

This is a cruising road - laid back and slow. This road does not encourage an adrenaline fix - no tight, off camber, left hand, downhill curves here. Smooth, slow sweepers that encourage you to sit back, relax, and take in the beauty. Coming from a cruiser riding background, I had no problem keeping the ST sedately humming along at 40-50 MPH (speed limit is 50 MPH) in third gear. Cruiser riders love this road. Sport bikers will find it challenging to control their throttle hand. Park Rangers cruise up and down the Trace and will gladly present you with a performance award to show your riding buds back home how inept you are at basic throttle control.



Cruisin' and chillin'. This road encourages a slow, relaxed pace.

 Four miles down the road you come to the first must stop photo op: the Double Arch Bridge. A architectural marvel, this bridge spans TN 96, and is a beauty to behold. I exit off The Trace onto TN 96 and pull off in a designated photo parking area. As contemporary looking as this bridge is, it seems to fit well amidst it's natural surroundings.



Double Arch Bridge



Close up of one arch

 Besides riding my motorbike on The Trace, one of the main reasons for this trip destination was to hike on the original Natchez Trace footpath. The Parkway follows the original footpath route to Natchez as closely as possible. All along the Parkway, The National Park Service has maintained sections of the original footpath that you can actually hike on, and marked it with signs like this:

The first sign for the Old Trace came up about ten miles in. I was all over it! I was finally going to walk the exact same route that Native Americans and early settlers had used 400 + years ago!

You really get a sense of how desolate it must have been, and how dangerous it was to travel in this remote part of the country. Even today, the area of Tennessee that the Trace passes through is pretty remote, so you can imagine what it must have been like 400 years ago. No cars to flag down on the Parkway if you ran into trouble. This was the parkway!

Imagine a wild boar or hungry bear charging toward you here...........





...... or bandits blocking your way waiting to relieve you of the $$$
you just collected in Natchez, and who knows what else!



These boots are made for riding motorbikes and hiking
The Old Trace!

 More opportunities to walk on the original old footpath would come, but now it's back on the big Honda and continuing down The Parkway to my next historical stop, and the historical highlight of the Tennessee portion of The Trace, the Meriwether Lewis Burial Site

History lesson! History lesson! Remember him? Meriwether Lewis? Lewis and Clark Expedition. Westward expansion - the search for a river route to the Pacific Ocean. We're taught about the Lewis and Clark Great Discovery Expedition in grade school and how it has been romanticized over the centuries. But we weren't told much about these two great American pioneers in the aftermath of the expedition. In a nutshell, this is what I surprisingly learned about Meriwether Lewis:
Lewis had ambitious political goals after his return from the expedition. He and President Thomas Jefferson had become friends before the expedition, as well as Lewis being a part of Jeffersons Cabinet. Upon his return from the Expedition, Jefferson was so elated about the success of the mission that he offered his friend Meriwether the Governorship of the then Louisiana Territory. Lewis accepted without hesitation. Unfortunately, there were two other political rivals of Lewis vying for the same office whom Jefferson quickly snubbed in favor of his friend.
After a few years as Governor, Lewis found himself increasingly in debt. The Federal Government was shuttling money to the Louisiana Territory via the Governor, who, rumor has it, had his hand in the till. One of Lewis's political rivals saw his opportunity to topple the Gov, so he accused Lewis of using Federal dollars for personal use and reported him to the Feds. An investigation ensued. Lewis professed his inocence, and decided to take his case directly to Washington and face his accusers himself. History reports that Lewis kept meticulous records of all financial transactions with Federal monies. So, he packed up his papers and personal belongings and headed east to Natchez, MS to begin his journey to Nashville, Tennessee on the major north-south thoroughfare of the time - The Natchez Trace. In Nashville, he would then travel by stagecoach to Washington.                                                                                                 This was an arduous trip, and apparently, he traveled alone. Arriving at Grinders Stand, about 50 miles south of Nashville, he stopped for the night. Stand was the term used for overnight accomodations along the Trace at this time, sort of like a hostel today. The owners name preceded, hence (Mr.) Grinder's Stand.




Replica of Grinder's Stand on the site of the original house






Part of the original foundation of the Grinder House
where Meriwether Lewis met his fate

 The story goes that during the night, Grinder and his wife heard two gunshots. Running to the guest accomodations of the house, they found Meriwether Lewis on the floor with two fatal gunshot wounds to the head and chest. They took Lewis' body by cart about two hundred yards from the house and buried him, then proceeded to clean up the house. Remember, this was a very remote area of the American frontier. Law was sparse around here at the time. Nashville was just a frontier outpost. It wasn't until 30 or so years later that the identity of the man buried 50 miles south of Nashville was discovered.
What happened? No one knows for sure. No belongings were found once it was discovered who he was. Murder? Suicide? Rumor has it that Lewis fought severe boughts of depression during his time as Governor and was in serious debt. Did the pressure and prospect of being found guilty of using Federal money for personal gain prove too much to bear? Did his political rivals follow him up the Trace and choose this remote area to further their political careers? No answers were ever found.
Over the years, rumors spread that Meriwether Lewis was buried on the old Grinder property. Sometime around 1840, local officials conducted an investigation, found the grave, and dug it up to see if indeed it was Meriwether Lewis. By whatever means of identification they had acess to at the time, they declared that the body in the grave was indeed that of Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis and Clark Expedition fame. Concerned citizens of the area, historical organizations and the State of Tennessee, then decided to erect a monument in honor of this American pioneer who met an untimely death in the Tennessee wilderness.

The monument was erected right over Lewis' grave.

Note how the top of the monument has a jagged edge, as if over the centuries it had been eroded away. Not so. This was intentionally done by the sculptor to signify a life cut short. Meriwether Lewis was only 35 years old at the time of his death.
The Old Trace, of course, cuts right through the burial site, well preserved by the Park Service. I am walking the exact footpath that Meriwether Lewis did on the night of his death 203 years ago!



Walking in the footsteps of Meriwether Lewis

The Old Trace - Meriwether Lewis Burial Site

A solemn stop along the Parkway, but hugely informative. I had no idea these events occured and that Lewis would be buried in some obscure area of Tennessee. Well worth the time spent here.
Finally leaving the burial site, I have about 50 miles to go to the Alabama State Line, with a few stops along the way to immerse myself in the natural beauty of this area. I reach the State Line around lunch time, and pose for the obligatory pictures on this part of The Trace:



Front wheel in Alabama, rear wheel in Tennessee.
Everyone traveling the Trace by motorbike takes their picture here.



Looking south into Alabama. Oh how I wanted to keep going!
Next year, me and Roo, all the way to Natchez!



From whence I came. I'll retrace my route back to Nashville
on this beautiful, historic road.

 I relunctantly swing the beaST around and head back north on The Parkway. Just up the road from the State Line is a beautiful picnic area where I stop for lunch. Then it's back on the bike for a leisurely 100 mile ride to Nashville. Leisurely until I slab it once again through the city on I-440 and I-40 in crazy Saturday evening Nashville traffic to get back to the KOA. I arrive safely, get cleaned up, and prepare a nice, relaxing camp meal on my cabins front porch. I give Roo a call to check in and recount the fantastic events of the day, assuring her that she will be seeing these things soon also. Then it's off to bed and a good night's rest. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

Day 4 - Freeway Frenzy - An Unexpected Detour - Welcome Home - 388 Miles
A long day in the saddle awaits me. A really long day. I had to get home by this evening, so I planned Nashville to Simpsonville in one day. Up reeeeaaallllyy early, I ate a quick camp breakfast so as to get on the road quickly. The ST was packed, fueled, and ready to roll last night. Just my cookware to shove in the panniers this morning. I'm ready.
The sun is just coming up through the trees as I press the starter button and Honda's iconic V4 growls to life. Bidding bye, bye to the Nashville KOA and Opryland (thank god), I have 10 miles to ride to hook up with I-40 and the long slab slog to Newport, TN, just east of Knoxville. Up ahead, the sign for I-40 East-Knoxville directs me to the on ramp. Here we go. I'm on the slab as I bring the ST's smooth power up to a comfortable 70 MPH.
As I surmised, Sunday morning traffic was very light. I settled in and cruised along. Not much else to do now. Gradually, over the next few hours, traffic steadly increased to insane proportions as the signs for Knoxville began to appear. Things started getting hectic. Trucks, RV's, bikes, cars - anything and everything with an internal combustion engine was filtering onto I-40. Going through Knoxville, I think my speedo hit every designation of speed: 70 MPH, 55, 35 (yikes!), 80, 40......... Going through all the interchanges of I-40, I-640, I-75, was truly an exhilerating experience. All my senses are running at hyperspeed. In this kind of traffic pattern you've got to ride cautiously aggressive in order to not get run off the road, or worse yet, just run over. Years of driving in New York really paid off here.
I found myself on the east side of Knoxville when my gas gauge started flashing at me. Time to feed the belly of the beaST. I gladly pulled off the next exit and rolled into a gas station. I let my heart rate come down as the ST satisfied her thirst. Looking at my map, I saw I only had 11 more miles on the slab before I reached my exit for Newport, TN. A quick drink of H20, and I'm once again rolling onto the on ramp and into the freeway frenzy. Jeeeezzzz! What a cluster @#%&. Five quick gear shifts and, like the Starship Enterprise going into warp drive, the ST whooshes forward to 80 MPH, just to keep up with traffic! Less than 10 minutes later (much less!), like a ray of sunshine coming through the clouds on a rain soaked day, there it is: EXIT HWY 25/70 NEWPORT. Yeah, baby! I'm outta here! Now we're going to have some fun!
Hwy 25/70 is a beautiful, fun road to ride into Hot Springs, NC. I planned to eat lunch there before heading down the mountain for home. But wait! A sign up ahead: ROAD CLOSED 5 MILES AHEAD-DETOUR. Hmmm. This could be interesting. I am detoured onto TN SR107 heading north. That means higher up the mountain, which means twisty roads, which means FUN! I drop the ST into third gear as the road ascends and starts to twist and turn like a pissed off snake. What fun, and scenic beauty all around me! There's no development up here.
This ended up being a pretty long detour on twisty mountain roads. Finally, the road turned east, then south and dumped me out near Marshall, NC, totally by-passing my lunch stop in Hot Springs. But not to worry. I also know a great place to nosh in Marshall. Good Stuff Cafe has great food and now a new atmosphere. Since I last ate here, they have moved into a decommisioned church (do they do that with churches?).



Good Stuff Cafe- Franciscan robes optional

I had a relaxing lunch, enjoying the A/C and some time off the bike, while listening to Frank Sinatra crooning in the background. I felt blessed (pun intended).
Sadly, but also happily, the last leg of my journey is upon me. I throw a leg over MyST one more time and head south. Following the beautiful French Broad River into Asheville, then down the hill and crossing the state line into South Carolina. Thirty minutes later I roll into my driveway and shut the beaST down. Ruth comes bounding out of the house with hugs and kisses and the quadripeds are both clamoring to jump all over me. It's great to be away, but greater to come back home. Such is the dichotemy of solo travel; you don't want the trip to end, but you want to be home too, until the road calls again.

Online Info:
Hunts Lodge Motorcycle Campground: www.huntslodge.com
Tellico Motorcycle Outfitters: www.tellicomoto.com
KOA Nashville: www.koa.com
Loveless Cafe and Motel: www.lovelesscafe.com
Natchez Trace Parkway: www.touringdepot.com/natcheztrace
Good Stuff Cafe: www.goodstuffgrocery.com

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