Jeff Bugsby Park MS to Russ Barnett Reservoir camp (just north of Jackson MS) 61 miles of warm Mississippi sunshine.

We get an early start because we don’t have to pack up camp. It’s Sunday morning and there is very little traffic just like always on the Natchez Trace. Riding into the little historic town of French Camp we notice a church parking lot full of Sunday worshipers and ask about breakfast places. We are told that everything is closed on Sundays. We ride on and munch on energy bars and leftovers from our food bags. Our day is spent enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful scenery as we pedal along the Trace. The hike around Cypress Swamp goes without a gator sighting, yet there is something magical about these monstrous trees growing out of the water. We pull into a private campground and pay the $5.00 camp fee. It is our first paid site and comes with a shower – well kind of a shower . Let’s just say it was warm and wet:). Camp happy is set up on a flat area just above the water. My friends joke about me becoming gator bait as night falls in the Mississippi Bayou. The only real predators turns out to be the mosquitoes. I crawl into my little tent (camp happy) close my eyes and listen to the wild songs from the birds and animals of the Bayou. Two owls hoot from a tree above lull me to sleep.