Today’s goal was the Chickasaw Agency interpretive site, but I must first talk about last night and this morning! It didn’t rain almost at all. Goodness, these forecasts here are so wrong! It was a good thing, though, because it’s never fun to set up or break camp in the rain. But we stayed at this odd spot in Dancy just to be out of the elements.
Anyway, Amy and I got up in the morning and were packing up and having breakfast when a National Park Service employee drove up. Uh-oh! Luckily, he was a cool guy, although he had a hard time understanding our Northern accents. (Especially “trash” and “garbage.”)
He’d come into work on this Saturday morning because there was a 
downed tree across the parkway a few miles north – where, apparently, it did rain overnight. We explained why we were here (trying to escape the rain), and how we didn’t do any harm. He noted that we shouldn’t worry, as there are security cameras here – so, apparently, they’d show we were just camping.
We sure hope they only showed the place where we camped, and not the side of the building, where we washed up and went to the bathroom!
Heading Out to Chickasaw Agency
Re: our hiking, today was an OK day. We saw more Native American mounds at the Bynum Mounds site, which was interesting. And there were some lovely, yellow (rapeseed?) plants in one expansive field. But we had two long parkway hikes of roughly 11 miles (17.7 km) and nine miles (14.5 km), and the traffic was often heavy. Lots of trucks pulling trailers with ATVs on them. Ugh.
At the end of the day, we drove back to the Witch Dance campsite. We met a few people who had been hiking or riding horses on the trails around here, but we were the only overnight campers.
Many of the campsites were in scruffy, overgrown areas, but we found a good spot for our two tents. It was also near the restrooms, which were lighted and relatively clean. Yes! They also had garbage cans and a working water fountain.
Oh! Can’t forget to note that I hit mile post 222 today, so I’m more than halfway finished!
Looking Ahead
The temps tonight were very comfy for camping – about 50 F. (10 C.). I keep hearing this distinctive owl hooting every night. I must figure out what kind of owl it is.
Snowshoe
Natchez Trace Miles Today: 20 (32.2 km)
NT Miles Overall: 242.4 (390.1 km)
NT Miles To Go: 201.6 (324.4 km)
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (among regular links) to products I own and like, or which I think you might like. This means that, at no extra cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
A good book on the Natchez Trace is Nashville to New Orleans Road Trip, a Moon guide by Meg Littman that includes info on the Trace.
I love my Big Agnes Copper Spur tent. Get yours here!
