Kosciusko to Clinton

Click the map for route details

Are we there yet?

Grass on the left, grass on the right. Then trees. Same as yesterday. At least for the first sixty miles. The only nice diversion during that time was the Pearl River, pictured below.

The Pearl River

The Pearl River was named in 1698 by the French explorer Pierre Le Moyne, after he found pearls at its mouth. The ridge between the Pearl and Big Black Rivers was used by the Natchez Trace to avoid the marshy lowlands. Since 1812, the last 75 miles of the Pearl River have served as the boundary between the states of Mississippi and Louisiana.

The Trace then reverted back to grass on the left, grass on the right until it reached the banks of the Ross Barnett Reservoir and wound its way into the Jackson metropolitan area.

Jackson

I'm goin' to Jackson, I'm gonna mess around,
Yeah, I'm goin' to Jackson,
Look out Jackson town.

—Johnny Cash

The Pearl River is impounded and turned into a great reservoir with 105 miles of shoreline just outside of Madison, part of the Jackson metropolitan area.

The Natchez Trace follows the banks of the Ross Barnett Reservoir

The Ross Barnett Reservoir

Reservoirs mean watersports, chief among which is fishing, of course. I do not know anything about fishing, have never successfully fished anything in my life, but am surely willing to learn. From observation, I have come to learn that one essential tool of the sports fisherman is a boat whose engine must have a horsepower rating equal to or exceeding the weight of the boat in kilograms. This allows a kind of "shock and awe" approch to fishing, through which a fisherman is able to get close to a fish before the fish can realize it, much like an F-18 fighter jet can drop a bomb on you before you ever hear it since it is faster than the speed of sound. I have seen this practiced in all states I have ridden through thus far, apparently with some success.

Next was Jackson, through which the Natchez Trace has not yet been completed, according to the Adventure Cycling Association. So I followed their detour through a bunch of industrial parks and dirty backroads only to find out that the Trace had indeed been completed, and not just yesterday, by the looks of it. I have felt that the ACA has been taking an easy way out of designing their route by simply directing riders to stay on the Natchez Trace for about 400 miles, and this does not make me feel any better. I am a little disappointed, I'll be honest.

Clinton
Eventually I wound my way into Clinton, a quaint little town on the outskirts of the Jackson metropolitan area, my home for the night. Clinton is home to Mississippi College, which was founded in 1826 and is the second oldest Baptist university in the world. Interestingly, MC does not give away its religious affiliation in either name or appearance.

Mississippi College

MC was also the first co-ed college in the U.S. to grant a degree to a woman. Who'd have thunk? In the end, though, Clinton is mostly famous for being the former headquarters of Worldcom. Remember that company with the minor accounting problems?

Dinner
Not much else going on in Clinton, so I checked into a motel and went out to get some dinner. Have you ever tried to walk around near an interstate highway? It is not designed for pedestrians, that is for sure. Bill Bryson has a wonderful description of what life can be like for a pedestrian in his book, Notes from a Big Country.

Out for an evening stroll

The first food place I chanced upon was a Popeyes, advertising "Chicken and Biscuits." Sounded appropriate enough for me, and I had never eaten there, so in I went. It's basically a KFC, as far as I can tell. Their spicy chicken is not very spicy.

Chicken and Biscuits for dinner

This reminded me of a fun heat transfer problem we had as one of our assignments in college. We were to design a cooler that would be able to freeze 20,000 chickens per hour. Imagine killing and plucking 20,000 chickens per hour. Not a pretty picture. I am told that that would not be an especially large installation.

Tomorrow: Natchez. This trip is winding down. A large cold front is moving in that is expected to dump a lot of rain starting tomorrow night. Could be interesting.

Road Kill Tally
Another quiet day on the Trace, with a few more kills close to the metro area. Snakes picked up some slack, most of the race is happening in the mid-field. Raccoons and opossums are apparently in a different league. Suspicious?

Psst! It's sleeping. . .

1. Raccoon: 86
2. Opossum: 52
3. Frog: 31
4. Skunk: 26
5. Snake: 26
6. Squirrel: 20
7. Deer: 18
8. Cat: 17
9. Turtle: 15
10. Groundhog: 13
11. Bunnywabbit: 10
12. Armadillo: 10
13. Mouse: 7
14. Fox: 3
15. Lizard: 3
16. Dog: 3
17. Mole: 2
18. Porcupine: 1
19. Chipmunk: 1

• Bird: 119