Natchez Trace 600K?

[Pedal Wench]

Has anyone ridden much on the Natchez Trace Parkway? I'm thinking about doing a 600K there, and have no idea if it's hilly/flat, boring/gorgeous -- any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[indysteel]

I'm ridden part of it in Tennessee. It was nice, with some rolling hills. I enjoyed it, but I've heard that the southern part of it the Trace is pretty boring, and I have to admit that even the section I rode was pretty monotonous. At least when I rode it (last June on a Sunday morning), there were more cars than bikes, which was nice, and the road surface was smooth. I've read that certain sections have rougher pavement, however.

[marni]

have ridden the part from about 60 miles south of Natchez. Mostly wide open and smooth but with a gradual and insidiously sneaky uphill except of the last 10 miles or so where we got off the trace to go into town which had quite a lot of short not so gentle hills.

Natchez itself has a few hills. The trace is lovely and generally quite wide ohadn the part we rode. The only problem I had was with a couple of big motor homes who insisted that they needed the full width of both lanes and the shoulder and blithely drove me into the grass.

marni

[Pedal Wench]

This 600K starts at Nashville, goes south for 300K (187 miles) and then turns around heads back north, so we'll be mostly on the northern sections. I've heard that it's hillier on that end too.

[Zen]

See what you can find through Adventure Cycling or Women's Tours

[indysteel]

Out of curiosity, I looked at the information about the brevet. One thing I noted is that the stores that are available outside the Trace all close by 9 p.m. I've never done a brevet but wondered if that poses much difficulty.