Sheltowee Trace- Day 21- Stearns Coal and Lumber Company

 OK, I thought today's best feature was going to be the many creeks we followed. And of course, more rocks. But this is amazing! Those of you who know me know that I LOVE sniffing out historic railroads.

So, about halfway through our hiking day, just after we turned to go upstream along Railroad Fork (a creek), we entered this. "Railroad cut," I said. "Narrow Gage."

David wasn't really sure, but after we passed through the cut, this was the path we were walking.

We stopped to eat lunch where a substantial berm had been built to carry the tracks. This is almost always definitive. They didn't go to this much work for regular roads. And the grade stayed pretty even. It probably hit 3% in some places (2% is normal), but sometimes small railroads did this.

Where the trail now crosses Railroad Fork, it dips down to water level. But you could easily see where the track ran out onto an abutment and bridge, now long gone.

And on the other side of the creek you can see where the bridge came to. The trail climbed back up to the rail grade.

Once the trail and rail grade were on the west side of the creek it was benched into the hillside.

Altogether the trail follows that grade for almost 2 miles. A lot of it has been protected with environmental cloth and pea gravel laid over that. It was our best walking surface of the day.

Of course, I wanted to see if I could find out more about it on line. Sometimes this isn't really possible with small logging operations. The local museum might have info. But...

But! This is almost certainly part of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company rail lines. And... can you believe it, this is the Justus Stearns of Mason and Lake County, Michigan fame (where I live)?! He was one of the early lumber barons. He has many ties to Ludington, building the first hospital. The Stearns Hotel is named for him. But in 1902, he decided to branch out into coal, and bought 30,000 acres in Kentucky. In McCreary County, where this railbed is located. The city of Stearns, Kentucky is just a few miles away.

At home, the lumber town of Stearns Siding (which burned in the late 1800s) was bigger than the nearby city of Baldwin is now. The North Country Trail uses several pieces of rail bed that are associated with Stearns.

So, I can not tell you where this line began and ended, but I can be pretty sure that it was built and operated by a man i've read a lot about.

Railroad sniffing heaven! But, of course, now I want to know more.

Miles walked in 2026: 545.2
Miles walked Sheltowee Trace: 207.8

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky, Rt 700 at Cat Run Rd to Wiborg TH, 10.0 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- Cumberland River

Sheltowee Trace- Day 20- Cumberland River

 Today, we were hiking along the Cumberland River for quite a long way, upstream from the falls. The river is beautiful, and it moves faster than you might think. It looks sort of lazy.

Almost immediately, we walked across this bridge that spans the river. It is a concrete, sandstone-faced closed-spandrel arch bridge. It opened in 1954. It's really beautiful, and I love to walk across special bridges.

The trail followed the river for quite a distance, and we were close enough to the water to actually see it in a lot of places. This was the best. Soon before we left the river there was a stretch of about a tenth of a mile where the rocks were a solid beach, and we could walk on that. It was hot, but it was so interesting that we didn't care!

There were plenty of the kinds of rocks we've been seeing all along, including this narrow passage for the trail.

We ate lunch in the cool shadow of a nice cave, just before heading onto the heat of roads for a few miles

Readers who know the trail may have noticed that a piece of trail is missing. It's the one nearest where we are camped. David will be with me one more day. We will hike together tomorrow. On Thursday, he will spot me to do that piece before he has to scoot for home and responsibilities there. A new set of companions will join me Thursday evening. I wear them out in about 10 days! wink

Miles walked in 2026: 535.2
Miles walked Sheltowee Trace: 207.3

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. Cumberland Falls Visitor Center to KY700 at Cat Run Rd, 9.5 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Cumberland Falls

Sheltowee Trace- Day 19- Cumberland Falls

 I guess the outstanding feature of the day was reaching Cumberland Falls. It's impressive.

But frankly, we were so tired by the time we got there that it almost didn't matter. The trail had much more elevation change than FarOut seemed to indicate.

Bark Creek was actually fun, but it took a long time to navigate it safely. It's a valley filled with boulders and you have to navigate across them!

Devil's Creek was ditto, but easier.

There was a lot of impressive rock work along the way today. Building rock stairways like this takes skill and time and muscle.

At Dog Slaughter Creek there was a good bridge! We were not sad. There must be a story that goes with that name.

We kept getting little hints of the Cumberland River. Although we were following it all day, there weren't many good views.

The trail kept going through interesting rock places. This one is novel for sure. The two rocks on top are just balanced!

We went by a sheer rock face that has to be over 100 feet high. We went up and down and up and down. The trail has had some damage just inside the Cumberland State Park border and we bushwhacked a bit. That is not fun in fallen trees and rhododendron.

We were in mega poison ivy with no way to avoid it. I've showered, but I don't have enough hiking clothes to change every day. Sigh.

Generally, the footing was awful with lots of rocks, and the benching has eroded so it's very narrow with too much outslope.

Miles walked in 2026: 525.7
Miles hiked Sheltowee Trace: 197.8

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. Bee Creek Rd to Cumberland Falls Visitor Center. 10.6 miles (and it took us 8.5 hours. Ugh)

See Day Off- Lin and Joe

Day Off- Lin and Joe

 Longtime readers of this blog will recognize the names in this title. Lin started out as a blogging friend in the heyday of blogs, and is one of the group of us who turned those relationships into real-life friendships. I visited them in Tennessee a couple of years ago.

Lin and Joe live close enough that they were happy to come visit at our campsite and bring us lunch!

They brought everything! A tablecloth, real plates and silverware. A rich butternut soup, foccaia bread and a kale and chicken salad. There were peanut butter cookies for dessert!

This morning I lay in the tent until I wanted to get up. The sun was well up by then. I read my book and wrote one of my newspaper columns.

After Joe and Lin left, I read some more. Tomorrow we hike! I do feel refreshed and ready.

See Sheltowee Trace- Laurel Lake

Sheltowee Trace- Day 18- Laurel Lake

 Today, we did hike, but it was a short day. We hiked from VanHook Falls TH to Laurel Lake and into our campsite!

Laurel Lake is a reservoir. The water is low, about 11 feet below summer level. That fits with everything we've observed about the area being dry.

The trailhead is a really nice one, probably because it's also the access to VanHook Falls in the other direction.

Can you find what we saw? It's well camouflaged in the fallen leaves.

It's another good-looking box turtle!

We did not waste the rest of the day. We went to town and did laundry.

We also hit a big box store because there were things I was out of or low on after 3 weeks.

Still, it was a fairly restful day, and tomorrow we are really taking a day off. But there is a surprise coming too.

Miles walked in 2026: 515.1
Sheltowee Trace miles: 187.2

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky, VanHook Trailhead to Laurel Lake boat ramp, 4.2 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Halfway