From about mile 1.5 to mile 3 of The Longleaf Trace, there’s a stretch where signs appear indicating various trees along The Longleaf Trace. I took a picture of each sign for curiosity, future nostalgia, and for a series of poems I’m working on. I assume there are more trees, such as the bamboo and lilac trees I have spotted but that are not marked. (I’m not good with identifying trees, but I can identify those two.) If you know of more trees along the Trace, please leave a comment thanks.
The order of these pictures are in the order as I encountered them. I walked west for the first part, so I took a picture of the tree signs on my right-hand sign, or towards the north. Then I turned around and walked east, and took pictures on my right-hand side, again, but this time to the south. The last of the north signs is, I think, “Sweetgum,” which is right at the 5K marker.
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The Longleaf Trace, if you don’t know, was once a railroad track, but it has been converted into a long walking and biking path. It begins at The University of Southern Mississippi campus and goes west 40.2 miles until it ends in Prentiss, Mississippi. More officially:
This is South Mississippi’s premier running, biking, hiking, equestrian trail. It is a beautiful linear park, 41 miles long and fairly flat (a rails-to-trails conversion), extending from Hattiesburg (elevation 220′) through Sumrall (290′), Bassfield (460′), and Carson to Prentiss (336′). The trail is 10 feet wide and paved with asphalt. It has been extended to the USM campus, and negotiations are underway to acquire the right of way to downtown Hattiesburg. And can you imagine the impact of someday extending it from Prentiss to Natchez, thus connecting it to the Natchez Trace and Mississippi River Trails? (www.longleaftrace.org)
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May 11, 2014 (Mother’s Day): I walked another mile or so along the Longleaf Trace to Jackson Road, where there’s a rest stop, too. There is also this sign, with the unfortunate typo:
There’s also another half dozen or so other trees that are labeled in the extra mile stretch. Hopefully, I’ll add them to this collection. I doubt however I’ll extend the long poem I wrote, which has a section for each tree, plus a couple others.//