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Monday, November 26, 2001 - In the Fog
60 miles. Near Poplarville, MS to Bluffs Creek Campground, Vancleave,
MS
We got a really early start today leaving the
campground just before seven. When we arose at 4:45 it was clear but fog soon
made its appearance, the sixth significant fog since central Texas. Fog seems to
be a common occurrence in the area and we are getting to be foggy experts. This
particular fog was moister than most and condensation on our glasses made seeing
the road difficult.
Fog moving thru the pines made a light rainfall since
needle are particularly good collectors of water. Per our prediction by 10 a.m.
the fog had lifted and it became a partly sunny, very humid day. As the fog
lifted we had our roadside lunch of noodles with butter and parmesan cheese on a
table next to one of the many small Baptist churches that dot the pineries of
the south. We ended up eating all of our food since we chose not to go into
Perkinston, it being a mile off route and Larue has no services. Both are only
"areas".
The riding was on very rural, low traffic roads bounded
by young pine forest. The hills are gradually flattening out and are not that
much of a factor now. One thing about this route, it is possible to shave
several hundred miles off it from beginning to end, but if you do so you will
probably be riding with more auto traffic. All these twists and turns have their
purpose. The last 40 miles were thru the Desoto National Forest with hardly a
house in sight.
The Forest Service is doing a nice job here
regenerating longleaf pine naturally. The secret is to leave some seed producing
pines behind instead of clear cutting all of them. If this had been done 100
years ago there would be saw log size reserves of this species today. We were fooled
when we got to Vancleave (pop. 3214). It is an area and not a city so it took a
while to find the food that we needed. This must have added at least five miles
to our ride. Tomorrow we will take a much needed day off for rest and
recuperation.
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