“Ok, google. Where is the highest point in Mississippi?” I asked my phone as I pedaled into a nasty headwind on the Natchez Trace Parkway. I knew the answer was somewhere in Northeast Mississippi, but I wasn’t sure how close it was to the parkway. When the answer came back “Woodall Mountain” with a link to the map, I saw it was about twenty miles west of the parkway from the spot where I was. This was a bit more than I wanted to add to my ride, but I also knew how rarely I get to ride in this part of Alabama with a round-trip ride from my house being well over 300 miles. So the opportunity to add Mississippi to the list of state high points I have reached by bike (in order by date – Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, and now Mississippi) on a tri-state one way commute from Florence to Birmingham was too good to miss.
Topocreator county map showing my tri-state, eight county, 241 mile commute home from Florence, Alabama to Hoover, Alabama. (click to enlarge and see annotations).
Alabama Academy of Science
One of the professional organizations I am proud to be a member of is the Alabama Academy of Science. Major contributions of this organization are its annual meeting and research conference held in the spring, the Alabama Academy of Science journal publishing high quality research being conducted here in Alabama, along with mentoring of up and coming scientists through the Alabama Junior Academy of Science and the Gorgas Scholarship Competition. This year’s meeting was being held at the University of North Alabama in Florence. Having completed my tenure as President, I turned the position over to 1st Vice-President Dr. Akshaya Kumar from Tuskegee University at the awards banquet.
I had originally planned to bike up to the meeting leaving after my classes on Wednesday and biking home when the meeting finished up on Friday. But when my wife decided she wanted to come visit Northwest Alabama with me, this turned my bike ride into a one way trip home on Friday with Kristine leaving on Thursday to get back to Birmingham. Before leaving, I had a fun time showing Kristine the natural bridge picnic area in Bankhead along with a nice dinner at the 360 degree grille next to the Tennessee River.
I headed out on Friday morning after a late night at the banquet with my Camelbak Alpine Explorer backpack stuffed so full with laptop, shoes, clothes, and gear that I didn’t have room for water in the reservoir (which led to a few problems later, running out of water twice in very rural MS and AL). I was giddy with anticipation of a three-state 200+ mile bike commute home as I biked past the on-campus lions and north of town with a massive tailwind. It wasn’t until I was battling a headwind across the Tennessee River that I thought about altering my route to add in the high point of Mississippi to the ride. That wasn’t my only route change as I eventually got so tired of the headwind coming from the southwest, that I decided to change directions and head east for a couple hours while the wind was strong hoping to find a route that was more southerly after the wind died down in the evening. This worked out perfectly as I eventually had calm conditions under a full moon for the last 111 miles of the ride. The complete ride ended up being 241 miles taking 16.5 hours with just under 15 hours of moving time. The rest of the time was spent by buying food and water at gas stations, stopping for pics, and hike-a-biking up the ATV trail at the Mississippi high point. I’ve created a gallery of photos below that tells the story in a bit more detail. But before that, I’ve created an annotated topocreator map of the tri-state portion of the ride with the Mississippi high point. I’ve also annotated the iBike data … check it out below, too!
Tri-state portion of my route home with the Mississippi high point annotated. Click to enlarge.
Annotated iBike data for the ride. Click to enlarge and see detail – interesting to see the headwind and tailwind data!
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Swung by the lion pen on the UNA campus as I was heading out.
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The UNA campus was deserted for winter break on Friday.
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Made it up into the Tennessee hills with a nice tailwind.
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I like this Welcome to Alabama sign at The Shoals.
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Here is the Tennessee state line at The Shoals.
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Alabama – Tennessee state line information sign on the Natchez Trace Parkway.
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Panorama of the Tennessee River bridge on the Natchez Trace Parkway.
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Looking northeast with the high river bluffs along the Tennessee River.
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Riding down from the parkway onto Sutton Hill road.
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The hills of Northeastern Mississippi near the state high point.
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The Mississippi border (note the pole with a missing sign on the right and the change in pavement)
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Looking back at the Alabama border from Mississippi.
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Woodall Mountain, the highest point in Mississippi, viewed from the Woodall Mountain lakes subdivision.
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The ATV trail shortcut I hike-a-biked to the high point in Mississippi.
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29% grade on the ATV trail to the Mississippi high point.
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Looking back down a powerline cut from the highest point in Mississippi (Woodall Mountain).
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The large rock at the high point on top of Woodall Mountain.
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My signature on the register at the top of Woodall Mountain. The book was full so I crammed mine in on the last page.
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Dirt switchbacks on the dirt road to the top of Woodall Mountain.
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Informational sign about Woodall Mountain.
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I saw 807 feet in a couple places online as well as this sign which says 806′. My Garmin 1000 read close to 860′ at the top. It was reading a bit high all day, though.
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After being out of water for quite a while, I spotted this Pepsi machine in a lumber yard from the highway.
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I had enough cash to get two 12 oz gatorade bottles out of the pepsi machine.
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This is the border crossing back into Alabama. I was being chased by two dogs here when I took this pic, and they chased me into Alabama. So I was involved in a two-state dog chase! 🙂
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Shortly after crossing back into Alabama, I got a flat tire and changed it by a chicken farm. Thankfully the wind was blowing towards the chickens.
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I rode on some large highways on this ride that had great shoulders that were mostly debris-free.
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Snickers should be the official candy bar of RAAM! Loopy and sleepy!
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This was the turn off of AL-24 onto Woodrock Rd. Fast, fun, turn.
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Woodrock Road was aptly named as there were lots of trees as well as this granite mining operation.
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Shortly after the town of Woodrock, the sun set and it was dark for the last 111 miles of the ride. I didn’t take any additional pictures until I made it to the end of unopened section of I-22 at the intersection with I-65 (car / truck lights in the foreground).
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I took the ACIPCO route into Birmingham making my way eventually over to 22nd street.
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After crossing Red Mountain, I still had Shades Mountain to climb up to Vestavia Dr where I got this pic of Homewood and Birmingham as well as the next pic of Samford.
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Samford from Vestavia Dr at 1:30 in the morning.
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Annotated Garmin 1000 elevation profile.
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Garmin 1000 summary map. You know it’s a long ride when the route map shows this many states!
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My backpack was so heavy – here you can see the laptop and shoes after I already took tools out of it.
Topocreator map with satellite imagery zoomed in. The “end of the appalachians” is the spur from my route down in the lower left. Sand Mountain is also down there. Click to enlarge and see detail.
Topocreator.com map of my 4-county “western reverse” loop. Click to enlarge and see detail.
Topocreator county map showing my tri-state, eight county, 241 mile commute home from Florence, Alabama to Hoover, Alabama. (click to enlarge and see annotations).
Tri-state portion of my route home with the Mississippi high point annotated. Click to enlarge.
Annotated iBike data for the ride. Click to enlarge and see detail – interesting to see the headwind and tailwind data!