Hiking and Mississippi are not the first two words I would put together. However, after spending a good deal of time hiking in the North Carolina mountains, I began to long for the benefits of hiking closer to home. While Mississippi doesn’t have near the inclines, I have been learning in Helen McGinnis’s book, Hiking Mississippi, that there are many challenging and beautiful hikes to be had in our very own state.
Did you know that there are over 1 million acres of federal land designated as six national forests in Mississippi? In these national forests, there are 276 miles of hiking trails and 21 developed campgrounds and picnic areas. Most of this land has been recovering since the 1930s after being stripped of all its virgin trees. It was “Roosevelt’s Tree Army” who replanted the trees and established recreational areas for us to enjoy.
Author Helen McGinnis has hiked nearly every trail she writes about in her book. Much of the writing makes you feel like you have your very own trail leader. She points you to places you have never heard of and provides interesting tidbits of history rarely told. For example, she points out the little known Old Trace Trail, a pleasant 3.5 mile walk, which is not marked on the official Natchez Trace Parkway map:
“It is the wildest trail along the Parkway–crossed by no roads and out of sight from vehicles. The spell is broken only at the northern end, where the Trace passes along the edge of a large recent clearcut on private land.”
All of these details, historical notes and trail maps will certainly whet your appetite for a hike in Mississippi, but I would urge you to have a state atlas handy to get the bigger picture as you prepare for your hike. It also may be helpful to contact the National Forest office in the area for the most up-to-date information.
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