Mississippi Hill Country Ride
By Luke Bartkiewicz
February 2004 

Preface by Sam Correro:

Luke Bartkiewicz and Ken Slawson were the two riders that rode this ride from Madison, MS to Batesville, MS. This is a two-day loop and each day uses a different non-pavement route. Motel to motel is about 260 miles of trail. All of it has GPS at each turn. They did this in February, which is a somewhat cold month in Mississippi, and they had cold days and nights and a little snow on the trail. The following riders' report and photos were submitted by Luke.

I learned about Sam's site while researching items to make my XR650L more of an adventure tourer. Sam had a route extending from near Jackson, MS to Batesville, MS, about 130 miles as the crow flies. This dirt and pavement adventure would be perfect for a weekend away from work. After I contacted Sam, we all planned on a trip in early February.

Ken lives about 4 miles from the starting point and with 260 miles ahead of us, we got up early and headed to get gas and a little food. It had been raining for three days prior to the weekend and flooding in many parts of Mississippi, but we were to have a cold, dry weekend. Still, there were unknown mud and water conditions ahead. It was a little after 7:00 a.m. leaving the starting point, and we wore several layers to keep the low 30's from penetrating. Since we knew we would often be far from help, we packed dry clothes, extra layers, tire repair items and duct tape.

For the next hour or so we had great deteriorating paved roads, with turns, obstacles, dips and rises. Eventually smooth graded gravel, then flooded mucky roads with running water or huge puddles. The mucky section was a few miles long with the hardest thing being the ruts of four wheel drives before us. But no problems yet, just a little challenge. The real adventure came after the route took us off a smooth grade and we dropped down into a landscape covered in dead kudzu. (I know it's beautiful in the summer...). The road had been eaten up by 4WDs that were not able to stay straight. I swear by Avon Gripsters, they were on both bikes and they got us through, but it took some sweat wrestling our machines in heavy clothes. As long as we kept our momentum we were OK, but I wedged to a stop with my bike in two separate ruts causing Ken to barely miss me. My mistake caused Ken to do the same. We were just out of the bad stuff and up the long grade so we stopped to breathe. I regret not taking a picture of the "road" since I assumed there was more deep muck ahead.

From there on, the riding was easy with respect to skill and athletic ability but it would not be boring. I have been in a lot of remote parts of MS but this scene I'll never forget. We followed a road that was just a flattened out part of a meandering ridge. There were other ridges and gullies to either side covered with the black remains of burnt kudzu that once covered everything. There were no trees since they could not survive the eroding gullies, and the path was strewn with the bones and carcasses of the previous deer season. It looked like a scene from a bombed out battlefield. We did not come across any people nor did I want to meet the people who traveled in those parts.

Its now almost 11:00 a.m., we're 77 miles out and we see snow flurries. The roads are now fun but what's going to happen next? Well nothing happened for hours to come, no bad mud, and no carcasses in the way and no more snow, just very cold body parts. North of Kosciusko the route travels a hilly area that has random boulders, something you just don't see in MS. Later the Winona gas stop offers a warm restaurant and we take advantage of it.

Soon after Winona Sam's route takes us by a very big, old cemetery on a hill, and I'll have to come back with my wife one day to explore. Near Holcomb, Sam has found one of the best-paved motorcycle roads that I have ever seen. Beautiful, finely crushed limestone on an asphalt binder that winds through miles of light brown hilly pastures. You could see through the sweepers, there were maybe two houses and not one other vehicle to spoil the fun.

We travel smoothly and quickly through the Delta counties of Carroll, the infamous Tallahatchie and Panola. Sam's roll chart is very good and I make few mistakes negotiating the numerous road intersections and turns. We just got off a straight section of a river road where 75mph is easy, cross an old railroad bed and then are affronted with a Road Closed sign. Hoping that it's nothing serious I lead us down to the where they're constructing a new bridge. Getting off our bikes we surveyor the situation of sand, gravels and mud. Well I know we'll sink in for sure and we don't have knobbies, but there is a shallow gravel bed at one point, concrete forms, lots of lumber and something better then knobby tires. There are two of us, two bodies to push, and we're both engineers, so we can't just pull out the virgin maps and go around! Well I talked poor Ken into getting wet feet and in less than 20 minutes we were across. Now were on the home stretch and we can smell the hotel room. Somewhere along the way I loose the sequence of turns and can't be sure of where we're at. We loose some time trying to get back on track, do some backtracking, but I'm missing something.

We pull out the maps and figure out our location and where we need to head, but I missed another turn and ended up on Hwy. 51. I declared that we were so close, had gone about 260 miles, and we deserved to take the highway into town. The AmenSuite that Sam recommended had a pool and hot tub to remove the cold and stiffness.

That night we did some bike maintenance, dried socks and rerouted our course around the closed bridge. The Weather Channel informed us that it was 28 F and heading down to 21 F by morning. We start out at 8 AM hoping a little time will allow the temp to come up a bit. As we head south out of Batesville we follow the course I should have found the day before and see my error. All is well but the cold is forcing me to stop too often because my fingers and toes are very numb. Finally the duct tape and a plastic bag are put to service around my hand guards and mirrors. This blocks enough wind so that my fingers stay content for a relatively long time.

Today's ride retraces much of yesterday's route but without anxiety since Sam said it was easier. There is a lot to see on Sam's Hill Country Tour, more that I can mention or remember. Besides the good riding and possible adventures, you have to really enjoy Sam's work by allowing time to take pictures and explore along the way. I know that next time I'll save two days for the northern leg. Heading south on a Sunday morning I may stop in North Carrolton to hear the gospel singing coming from a store front church.

 

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