We are checking in at 1500 miles!
Since we last updated we have ridden through the rest of North Carolina and The Great Smokey Mountains National Park, across Tennessee, through Mississippi and into Arkansas. For those of you not following our daily updates on Instagram and Twitter, be sure to do so! These longer updates will come more infrequently, when we take days off. As far as our time is spent, we sleep, eat, and ride as far as we can each day which is normally somewhere between 60-120 miles, which has been approximately 500 miles per week. Our energy levels and the terrain/road conditions are what dictate our speed and distance. We have been refueling with what we can find along the route in gas stations, general stores, and convenience stores. When we stay in town, we treat ourselves to the local restaurant which has been a lot of country home cooking and now barbeque. The trail has provided us with a natural spring, river, or convenience store, anytime we have been in need of some water.
The portion of riding we did between Maggie Valley and Tellico Plains was incredible. There were a lot of creeks to swim in, great campsites, and spectacular gravel and paved roads, with a lot of climbing.
We stayed at The Lodge at Tellico (aka Waltâs Place) where we met our first group of TAT riders from Australia riding Husqvarna motor bikes. This group was starting their journey from Tellico Plains, but we had seen other TAT riders zooming past at high speeds as early as Eastern North Carolina. It was cool to finally talk to some fellow riders, even though they thought we were nuts.
The portion directly following Tellico Plains took us through Cherokee National Forest which was really nice (a lot of great camping) and primarily gravel for 40 miles. The roads were a bit more rocky in sections than what we had seen and there were quite a few surprisingly deep creek crossings. Just outside the forest we started looking for food and water. We started seeing signs for an Amish food stand a mile off course and decided to explore it. What we found was a secluded Amish community divided by a narrow dirt path grid for visitors to drive slowly through. We stopped at the food stand and bought a dozen peanut butter cookies for only three dollars, and got some long distance cycling advice from the gentleman working the stand, and a lead on where to fill our water bladders.
The farther away from that area we rode, the more pavement we had. All the paved roads since Tellico plains have been drastically less trafficked back roads rather than the busy state routes we were riding in North Carolina.
In Graysville we made the mistake of staying in the Scottish Inn Motel. We should have left as soon as we noticed the first few bugs crawling around and the poor state of the room, but we were tired and didnât have much of an alternative, since we were in a more congested area. We paid for it the next morning, as we noticed bug bites all over our bodies⊠We are still trying to repress this memory.
The roads in Tennessee were quiet, narrow, and relatively tame in terms of climbing. We started to experience a lot more dog attacks but, nothing compared to what we would see in Mississippi. We were motivated to get through Tennessee as we were meeting my parents in Collinwood. The farther we rode the more frequent the dirt roads became.
When we first entered Mississippi we were blown away by the buff red dirt and the vast views from the logging roads along many rolling hills. In the middle of a dirt road outside of Ripley we met two other TAT riders examining a water crossing. We compared gear, chatted about the route so far, and continued on our journeys. From Ripley until Helena was probably the most challenging section for us.
Still hungover from having the comfort of company and supplies my parents had brought, we rolled out of Ripley around 11. Lightning struck right as we happened upon the only convenience store of the day. We happily took shelter and resupplied, but after the heavy rain, everything was still very moist, grey, and gloomy. I say gloomy because we were riding through some very poor areas, with a lot of chasing dogs. Once we reached Holly Springs National Forest, it was wild again, and we could unwind for a bit. It was here, in the middle of nowhere, where we heard the humming of a motor bike coming up the road behind us. We pulled off to the side, to let the rider pass, but he actually stopped! This was Jon, a TAT rider from West Virginia who was also a cyclist. He had heard we were out here and had tracked us down. We decided to camp together for the night, sharing information about the route, food, and again equipment. Just for comparison, John had traveled 400 miles that day, we had traveled 60âŠ
The next morning I checked the weather and saw a major storm system working its way toward us. The next 170 miles would be challenging terrain (primarily dirt) with very few services along the route. Over the next two days our goal was to ride as far as possible each day, and reach Helena by Thursday evening. This would require another night of wild camping, two days without a proper shower, and one day of wearing dirty clothes, which defines tough for me. Little did we know that the tough part would be riding the slow, soggy, sandy roads, until we reached one in particular which was all dirt. For roughly four miles we struggled, walked, pushed, shoved, and carried our bikes through thick sticky mud for what felt like an eternity. Once we got off that road, we were exhausted, but the roads went back to the sandy soggy state, which was much better than the alternative. By the time we reached Tilatoba around 4 p.m. we had covered 60 miles in 8 hours. As we rolled through Griffis Truck Stop, we turned the heads of all the patrons as the spectacle of two cyclists whose clothes, skin, shoes, and bikes were completely covered in mud. With another large storm on the way, we decided to bunker down and take advantage of showers, laundry, and the restaurant for a few hours before we got back on the bikes and rolled to the backyard of a church to set camp. It poured all night, but surprisingly we woke up rejuvenated and motivated to reach Helena, a 100 mile ride away. For the first 40 miles, the terrain was similar to what we had been riding for the past few days, then after a couple long stretches of pavement, we entered a new area, a flat area. This area consisted of a grid system of agricultural farm dirt roads that had a lot more gravel on them and were easy to ride.
We crossed the Mississippi river and entered Arkansas. Helena was a cool old port town occupied by the Union Army during the Civil War, and later became a thriving city, known for having a good blues scene, until the rubber industry closed in the area. The town is a little bit of a ghost town now, but it was a welcomed break from seeing so many loud trucks waving rebel flags. The people were friendly and the barbeque and pie was off the hook!
About 15 miles outside of Helena we came across an unofficial, official TAT Rest Stop. When we stopped, I asked the elderly gentleman what this place was, referring to the historic museum like building and the rest stop, and he responded âthis is the promised land!â That was enough for me and before we knew it, we were sitting on the porch with Dr. Pepper and cookies as one by one, local TAT aficionados, stopped by to see us and take our picture. They knew we were coming and were very excited that now bicyclists know about the TAT. At this rest stop they have you sign a book with your information and take your picture, then every year they print a little photo book of all the riders and their motor bikes, jeeps, and now bicycles. This was a very welcomed experience as it was the first time we actually felt like we were on a trail, a common journey that people from all over the world take on, at their own pace, and in their own style.
After many flat, straight, and fairly rough miles along freshly graded (or fluffy) farm roads, we are taking our first day off in two weeks, in Beebe. Tomorrow we will wake up and hopefully catch our package of tires and sealant at the post office, do a quick swap of our rear tires, which took a beating on all the paved sections, and get on the road to Ozark National Forest. If all goes well, we will be in Oklahoma by next week. We are hoping for dry conditions in OK.
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For more photos of the last couple weeks visit our Flickr album: https://flic.kr/s/aHskiWsgqX
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