May 8: Hazlehurst to Prentiss, Mississippi
Today’s ride takes us 45 miles on rural roads to Prentiss, Mississippi, the north end of the LongLeaf Trace, a cycling, running, hiking, and equestrian trail in southern Mississippi.
That was the plan anyway. Pat made it to Prentiss in the Bayermobile OK, but I was about 5 miles into the ride today when I encountered a sign at the start of hwy 472 that read “Road Closed 5.7 Miles Ahead” and “Detour to Rockport via Hwy 28.” Robby had mentioned in his route details to me that there was some construction and a 200 yard stretch on a dirt road, but I remembered that it was on Highway 27 which is what Highway 472 was taking me towards. I stood there for a good 20 minutes debating about whether the sign referred to the construction that Robby described. When it got the point that point of people stopping to ask me for directions, I decided it was time to make a decision and go. I decided to take the detour. I had called Pat and asked her how Highway 28 was and she said it was pretty good especially after you got past a gravel pit about 10 miles east of Hazlehurst.
After the last minute rerouting, the route was a very quiet look a rural Mississippi. Not much traffic, so I had a great chance to look around. I found this shaded stretch of road to take a break and it was so quiet! Actually, there were a lot of sounds, but none of them were man-made, and that was nice. I took out the camera and set it on audio-only recording to capture this clip of the sounds of the southern Mississippi forest.