The heavy rain continued during the early morning yesterday, finally subsiding by around 11 am. That was our cue to head into town, taking the opportunity to restock and gas up ($1.86 per gallon) before returning to where I had left off the other day. It continued to rain very lightly most of the remainder of the day, with only an occasional heavier shower thrown in.
Our destination for the evening was the Sandy Creek Wildlife Management Area, where our Adventure Cycling maps had assured us there was a campground. Our map showed two ways to access it: the main access was off of Liberty Road and 3.9 miles down a gravel road, and another south of Garden City, MS about a mile down a gravel road that was off of an unnamed paved road. We had originally planned to go to Garden City and find it via the second route, but since it was continuing to rain lightly we changed our minds once we reached the first turnoff. And we found out later that the paved road was not paved! If we had gone the other way it would have been at least double the miles on a muddy gravel road.
Fortunately, there was a WMA pamphlet at the highway that included a map showing a ranger station with four campground signs clustered around it. We found the ranger station, but we could find no indication of any campgrounds. We pondered our situation for a while and then decided that some of the overgrown roads in the area were camping accesses.
We found a place with two such accesses side by side and tried to back into one of them. The first attempts were pretty much comical. The rain had softened the verges of the road and we churned it into a muddy mess trying to line up on the first access. Of course there was a pretty good bump when we got off the road, and hitting it would cause the trailer to veer off course at the last minute. So we gave up on the first access and tried the second.
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| The mud bath that we created in front of our campsite. |
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| Looks like I'd been to a cyclo-cross race... |
After a couple of tries, I managed to get the trailer up over the bump and more or less lined up on the access. But at that point the front wheel drive was slipping in the mud. So I had Alea get in and back up a few feet while I helped to push the van up and over the bump. That was enough to get us on the access road, and soon we were set up and camping.
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| Do you see the campground sign? |
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| How about now? |
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| There it is - a 3" square inch sticker on a Carsonite marker! |
Of course there were no toilets in the area, so we once again had to deploy our Luggable Loo. And clearly this was free camping, given that there were zero amenities. But the true cost was around $6 or so, given the need to use one of our Loo bags, plus the $2.50 that it took to pressure wash the mud/dirt off of the van and camper.
Given the state of the camping facility (which was worse than normal, given that at least 3.5" of rain had fallen in two days), I can't imagine why Adventure Cycling would include this on their route maps. Liberty Road passes through National Forest land where there are plenty of gated or otherwise closed roadways. Getting a short distance off of any of these would work far better for a self supported cyclist than the muddy 3.9 mile slog down that gravel road.
But the site worked well enough for us. It was quiet and pitch black once darkness set in. There was some hunting traffic on the gravel road during daylight hours, but nobody bothered us. And getting out of the site was much easier than it was getting in.
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| Getting ready to break camp. |
This morning I dropped Alea back off at Liberty Road, where she resumed our trek south. Aside from not being able to locate a couple of unsigned roads, the day was uneventful. With one exception: while waiting for Alea along side the road to Garden City, a bobcat crossed the road. It was too far off to get a good look, but it definitely was not moving like a house cat. Most of the traffic was light, and some sections of road were very rough. But all in all, another typical day.
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| A view typical of today's ride: cloudy with light rain on rural backroads. |
Alea's ride concluded at Norwood, LA, just over the border from Mississippi. There was no convenient camping along this portion of our route, so we loaded up her bike and went nearly 20 miles west to a private campground located across from Audubon State Historic Site (which happens to be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays).
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| We made it to Louisiana! (At Norwood, LA) |
So we're staying at Peaceful Pines RV Park ($33.60, full hook ups). For what we get for the price, I'd almost rather be where we camped last night. But it is nice to have a shower and access to a flush toilet. It's also nice to be sitting outside again, after three straight days of being cooped up inside the cabin of our trailer.
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Another night in Glamperville.
Oh, no! That fifth wheel is trying swallow our camper! |
For the next few days there are campgrounds conveniently located along our route. The next one seems to be earning the reputation as the worst along the Southern Tier route, so we very likely will skip it. That might also help us get ahead of the wet weather and back into a prolonged warm and sunny weather pattern.
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