I’m lining up my “tours” for 2020 and I’ve had Natchez Trace on my list for a while. My super sag wife and I’ve talked about it and she’s game for giving it a go this spring!! Woo hoo!! Having her drive really helps with the logistics, plus she’s extremely experienced sagging for us on the Blue Ridge Parkway and my cross country ride. She’s a little rusty since it’s been a few years but I’m hoping she can pick it up again pretty quickly!!

We are thinking about riding it the last week in April. Except for the unexpected possibility of severe weather, would the temperatures be okay for that time of the year?

We live about a day’s drive from Nashville so the plan would be to drive over and start riding the next day. What are folks thoughts about riding North to South vs the other direction?

It looks like the total distance is 440 miles. I haven’t looked at the elevation profile but my guess is it’s not too hilly? Is that a correct assumption? My typical ride around the house for 100 miles is about 4000’ of hills. I’m thinking Natchez should be less than that.

With it being 440 miles and assuming it’s not too hilly, I’d like to see if I could ride it over 4 days averaging about 110 miles a day. Is that schedule too aggressive?? I guess I could add a day and shorten it to about 85-90 a day if needed. 85-90 miles is what I averaged on my XC ride but I was probably in a little better shape and a few years younger. I did do 6-100+ milers in a row on that trip though.

For those in the area or have ridden it, did you find tourist spots, restaurants or B&Bs you’d highly recommend?

We have the option to camp but initially I’m thinking we’ll do lodging of some sort along the way. It just removes the element for in climate weather and saves time setting up stuff and packing back up.

Now to figure out which bike to ride!

Any thoughts and input from the 50+ folks would be appreciated.