Rogue River 2023

 This July we rafted down the Rogue River, repeating a trip we first took in 1991. The river hasn't changed very much, but we have.  This was our family then, just before the river trip.

Sarah and I in 1991

Sarah's Family on the River in 2023

There was a lot of rock jumping this trip starting with a stop at McCloud Falls on the way to the Rogue.

Sadly I discovered after the first day that my waterproof camera is not water proof if you don't close the battery hatch tightly.  The camera survived but most of my pictures after the first day are kind of fogged. 

The first day had a big rapid that all the people in the paddle rafts had to walk around but Toby and Calvin were in the "Duckies" so they got to navigate the fish ladder around the falls.

Toby went first

Then Calvin

My big adventure was when Calvin and I were riding on the big oar boat and we got stuck on a rock in the middle of a big rapid. WE managed to finally get off the rock without tipping and then promptly got stuck on the next rock in the rapid.

Natchez Trace part 2

 As we progressed north along the parkway the towns got smaller and there were fewer side trips. 

Day 3

 A short walk along a cypress swamp

Day 4

Another Cypress swamp and trail

Lunch stop and another nice walking trail

Day 5

Pharr Burial Mounds AD 1-200

and a lovely nature walk at the Visitor's Center at milepost 266 where we discovered that the next segment of the parkway was closed for construction.

Day 6

Since it was a rainy day and part of the parkway was closed we did a car tour.

We crossed into Alabama, admired the John Coffee Memorial Bridge across the Tennessee River then had lunch in Muscle Shoals

Next we crossed into Tennessee to visit the final resting place of Meriwether Lewis. He died at age 35 and the broken column on his memorial indicates a life incomplete.

Day 7

The final day of the ride.

Start

Finish

I think their total bike milage was about 400 miles

 

Our last night we had an evening at the "Opry" before we headed home.

Natchez Trace May 2023 Part 1

 Calvin and his brother took an epic bike ride on the Natchez Trace Parkway.I went along in the car for support and while they were riding I actually got to visit the sites along the way and walk segments of the original Natchez Trace.

We flew to New Orleans and then rented a car and drove to Natchez, Mississippi.  We didn't have time to explore Natchez, but we did spend the night at the Linden Historic Bed and Breakfast.

After a very formal breakfast the boys hopped on their bikes and headed for the parkway.

While they rode I visited the Emerald Mound used by the Natchez people AD 1250-1600 as a ceremonial mound.

Mount Locust Historic Inn, the last remaining historic roadside inn on the Trace built about 1780 with a lovely little cemetery

then I walked a segment of the original trace

After the bikers finished we visited Vicksburg Military Park

We spent the night at the Colima Plantation Inn

The bikers headed off 

and I explored the ghost town of Rocky Springs which consists of a few foundations and church built in 1837 which is still used today.

and I walked another segment of the Old Trace

In the late afternoon we did a walking tour of downtown Jackson Mississippi, the state capitol, which was surprisingly deserted at that hour, but did have a Smith Park where Calvin and James posed for pictures

and a lovely statue dedicated to the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of the veterans of the Confederacy.