Wednesday, April 2, 2003
Rocky Springs CG on the Natchez Trace, MS - Apr 1-2
For history buffs, the Natchez Trace Parkway commemorates the original Natchez Trace, the trail that early traders (mostly from Kentucky, called "Kaintucks") used to walk or ride back to Nashville, TN from Natchez after delivering their goods the other way by boat. For mystery buffs, Rocky Springs is the setting of Nevada Barr's "Deep South". There are no hookups here, and camping is free, so it is very popular with Canadian RVers on their way back home. When we arrived at 12:30 pm, the campground was almost full; we got the last spot by backing into the front end of a long pull-through. Of the roughly 2 dozen rigs in the CG, all but 3 were from Canada. Most of the conversations we overheard were in French.Although the original Trace was only in use for about 20 years (paddle boats rendered it obsolete), foot traffic was so heavy that portions of the Trace were worn to almost 20 feet below the surrounding terrain. Near Rocky Springs is a marvelous 1/2-mile stretch of the original trace that you can hike on when visiting the historic townsite, church & cemetery. We always try to do birding along this trail & it is ridiculous, with the trail being another 12 feet below the already too-tall trees, where the birds sing tantalizingly from the treetops. We came back with sore necks and few birds!
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 5:15 PM 
