Day 86: Jeff Busby Campground, MS

The forecast for Sunday .1 to .25 inches of rain.  It was raining heavy before sunrise and we awoke to plenty of puddles and a small river running down the paved campground road.  A half hour after Alea had fed Lana her breakfast, the bowl contained more than a half-inch of water.  It rained hard for a while after that, and then it throttled back and rained steady until late in the afternoon.

At first we thought we'd just hole up for a couple of days (the rain is supposed to be worse tomorrow), but we decided it was better to at least get a little farther down the road.  Of course, five minutes down the road I was pretty well soaked through, but the temperatures ranged from around 67 degrees to 70 degrees, so by wearing just a light long sleeve jersey and a lightweight jacket I was able to stay warm enough, provided I rode at a fairly fast pace.  I also put plastic bags over my socks, more to block the wind than to attempt to keep them dry, as the water would simply run off my legs into my shoes.

Does this look like fun?

Probably the most interesting thing we saw along the Trace today was the damage that is still left from an April 2011 tornado, one of the 355 twisters spawned by the 2011 Super Outbreak.  For several miles there are dead trees with their crowns ripped off, somewhat like a forest of giant pitchforks.  

I covered the 51 miles to Jeff Busby Campground (free, primitive site with water available) at an average pace of 18.4 mph.  When I arrived, everything I was wearing was thoroughly soaked, and I suspect my shoes probably weighed 5 pounds each with all the extra water that they were carrying.

When we arrived at Jeff Busby we were surprised that it was nearly deserted.  We talked with a motorcyclist who was here last night and found that all the "glampers" had fled for sunny weather as soon as rain had showed up in the forecast.