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“Five days, four rivers, three bridges, two ferries, Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Accommodations | Photos | Statistics
Seismic Activities The tour can also be sub-titled the “All Shook Up Tour” as there is a whole lot of shaking going on where we meander in the New Madrid seismic zone (150 or more quakes a year, though most are imperceptible rumbles deep in the ground). We will come close to the eponymous town of New Madrid, Mo., and cycle by Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee, supposedly created when the Mississippi River flowed backward for a time following the famous New Madrid quake of February 7, 1812, purported to be the strongest earthquake ever experienced in the continental US. (Since it predated seismometers and the yet-to-be-devised Richter scale, this claim cannot be quantitatively validated, but various newspaper accounts were used to extrapolate an 8.0 magnitude for the famed New Madrid Big One! The major quake was preceded by several large ones and perhaps 2000 smaller pre-shocks all through the winter of 1811-1812.) We will spend one night in Charleston, Mo., where on October 31, 1895, another earthquake of 6.6 magnitude shook the area and caused a great deal of damage. How active are the fault lines in the New Madrid area? Here is a real-time depiction of earthquakes within the past six months in the New Madrid seismic zone.
Geography & Terrain Starting from Marion in the hills of the western end of Kentucky’s Pennyrile Region, we head north to the Ohio River and cross into Illinois on the Cave-in-Rock ferry. Recrossing the Mississippi River on the Dorena-Hickman ferry to the far western tip of Kentucky at Hickman, we ride through the bluffs marking the eastern edge of the river floodplain on the way to Union City, Tenn. North of Union City, the gentle terrain of Kentucky’s Jackson Purchase region treats us to a nice day of cycling on the way to Benton, Ky. On the last day of the tour, we are back into the undulating hills of the Cumberland and Tennessee river valleys, which we cross to arrive back in Marion. References: The physiographic regions of Kentucky are described on the Kentucky Atlas & Gazetteer Web site. The relief map above is a small portion of the Mississippi Embayment map on Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, and used in accordance with the GFDL. Participants The fellowship of the wheels consists of: Greg Beachy and Duc Do of Louisville; Earl Crowe and Steve Fort, and Ryan Bartholomy of Owensboro; Dickie Swift and Jesse Tichenor of Livermore; and Rod Tompkins of Madisonville. Day 1, June 4 — Marion, Ky., to Vienna, Ill. – 76 miles Route: Marion - Ohio River (16) - Elizabethtown (10/26) - Golconda (16/42) - Vienna (23/65) Day 2, June 5 — Vienna, Ill., to Charleston, Mo. – 106 miles The short route: Vienna - Karnak (11) - Grand Chain (6/17) - Olmsted (8/25) - Mound City (11/35) - river at Cairo (10/45) - Charleston (16/61)
Tunnel Hill Trail: http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/Landmgt/PARKS/R5/tunnel.htm Day 3, June 6 — Charleston, Mo., to Union City, Tenn. – 69 miles Route: Charleston - Dorena (34) - Tenn. state line (9/43) - Union City (8/51) Dorena-Hickman Ferry: http://www.dorena-hickmanferryboat.com/ Day 4, June 7 — Union City, Tenn., to Benton, Ky. – 82 miles Route: Union City - KY/TN state line (11) - Crutchfield (9/20) - Beulah (17/37) - Hickory (16/53) - Symsonia (14/67) - Draffenville (15/82)Day 5, June 8 — Benton to Marion, Ky. – 50 miles Route: Draffenville - Lake City (12) - Frances (24/36) - end (14/50)
Photos of the Tour: 2006 FDFS Tour on PBase.com Statistics: 383 miles, five days, four rivers, three bridges, two ferries, one hell of a two-wheeled tour in four states! Copyright ©2005-2006 except portions thereof as noted. All rights reserved. web posted: 10 October 2005 last updated: 24 October 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
With seven states sharing their state’s border, Kentuckians don’t have to go too far to cross into another state. Consequently, it is relatively easy to plan an interstate bike tour from any point within Kentucky. The real challenge is to see how many states one can ride in in a relatively short tour. On that premise, we will set out to do a five-day tour from Western Kentucky that encompasses parts of four neighboring states and have fun doing it. The tour is slated for early June 2006.
The east-west band of hills that marks the southern edge of the Illinoian glacial advance (see relief map at left) and the rugged terrain of Southern Illinois’s Shawnee National Forest provide the challenge while we ride across the southern tip of Illinois. Crossing the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Mo., we soon are treated the flattest stretch of the tour in the flat alluvial plain of the Mississippi Embayment, the ancient upper reach of the Gulf of Mexico (visible as the flat green area in the 