Sheltowee Trace- Day 30- Fini!

 We made it- in pretty good time, finishing at 3:25. There is no southern terminus sign, so we had to use the Burnt Mill sign.

We weren't sure the day was going to go so well. It rained most of the night and we broke camp for the final time in the rain and the dark. Then we had to put the extra cars somewhere since we had to vacate camp It was still raining when it was time to start hiking at 9:00. We thought that was a pretty good start with all the added difficulties.

We immediately, on the other side of the bridge, started up the biggest climb of the day. The trail was marked no horses, and even had a exclusion gate, but horses had been up it, churning up the dirt and knocking steps out of rockwork constructed for hikers. I know that sometimes we have to share the trail, but why do equestrians have to do this on trails that are marked "no horses." Do they not realize how much it damages the trail for hikers, or do they just not care?

Anyway, that first hill was close to 700 feet. On the way, we passed Devil's Den. The elevation profile for the day said we had a total of 1700 feet of climbing for the day and 1500 feet of descent. We were able to shed the ponchos after a while. The temperature was perfect for us northerners- it stayed in the mid-50s.

It was impressive, but the boulder scrambling got our attention more particularly. We didn't get any pictures of the actual scrambling (we were a little busy trying not to slip on wet rocks and leaves0, but there were some interesting places. Guess where the trail goes here.

Haha. We didn't believe it so we scrambled around the rocks to the left where many other people had done the same. Came around to the other side and learned that northbound hikers get some directional help. There is an arrow scratched on the rock Doug has his hand on.

And even though I had to pass up Maude's Crack, there was a chance to do rocks and rope right on the trail.

Sue met us for lunch at the top of the second hill at Honey Creek Loop TH. The trail got much better after that and we were able to pick up some speed.

We took the final steps coming in to the Burnt Mill TH just before 3:30 in the afternoon.

Great thanks to all who hiked with me and helped in so many ways. God has allowed me to finish one more moderately big hike, and it was grand! At 78, I don't take any big hikes for granted any more.

One more little piece of good fortune- I sewed a patch on the inside of my pants a week ago because they were worn through in a couple of places. It held out until the end!

Tonight we ate out, and are staying in a motel before everyone goes their separate ways tomorrow.

Miles walked in 2026: 645.8
Sheltowee Trace miles: 317.1 (I had to skip the tornado damaged part, remember)

Sheltowee Trace, Tennessee. O&W Railroad Bridge to southern terminus at Burnt Mill TH. 11.9 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- Prom Queen

Sheltowee Trace- Day 29- Prom Queen

 It's hard to pick the feature of the day because two monumental things happened. But I'll share this one first. Yesterday as we were taking a break at Leatherwood Ford (where Hwy 297 crosses the Big South Fork) we saw a lady come off a trail, go to her car, and pack up her stuff. She was memorable because of what she was wearing. And we ran into her on the trail today!

Her trail name is Prom Queen because she hikes in the colorful dress you see here. She's hiked the AT and the Ice Age Trail, and a lot in New England because she lived in the White Mountains. She had heard of me! (Because of my NCT hike- it's apparently newsworthy when you do something after you are old.) We chatted a bit. She's basically sold all her possessions and just hikes now. But she says she's recovering from a knee injury and doing shorter hikes for a while. We know a few of the same hiker people. She's doing loops to try to get all the Sheltowee in Tennessee on this trip.

The other really outstanding thing is that we did not have to wade the Big South Fork river. Chris and Jen were canoeing, and they ferried us across. We got to start hiking with dry feet!

For some reason, this just struck me as funny. We were going up a hill to meet yet another rock face. The left part is white and the right part is dark, but it's all rock. I wondered how we were getting up it since the elevation profile of the trail made it clear that we were going to the top.

But the trail turned to the right and went along the base of the wall higher and higher.

But it didn't seem like the trail was rising fast enough. It wasn't- there was a ladder/stairs for the last part!

We thought of this yesterday, but we have a new name for switchbacks that have short runs. I've always called them zippers, but they are now going to be "officially" twitchbacks.

Tomorrow is the last day, but it looks tough.

Miles walked in 2026: 633.9
Sheltowee Trace miles: 305.2

Sheltowee Trace, Tennessee, Station Camp Ford to Bandy Creek Campground- 9.2 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- O&W Railroad

Sheltowee Trace- Day 28- O&W Railroad

  We had to change plans before we even got very far out of the campground this morning. A semi-trailer was trying to come down the switchbacks on 297, went off the edge and managed to block both lanes of the road. We were able to turn around, but the only way to get to our planned starting location added 61 miles to the drive! We jumped ahead a day instead. I know I said we weren't going to do that, but I guess I lied.

The feature of the day was ending at the Oneida and Western Railroad Bridge. Oneida & Western ran from Oneida to Jamestown, Tennessee, carrying coal, lumber, mail, groceries and passengers. From the size of the rock cuts they had to make (the road to the bridge is on the old railroad bed), it cost a LOT to build. It began operation in the 1920s, and the final run was in 1954. Most of the profit was made in the early years

Interestingly, the reporting mark is O&W, which confused me. Every rail line has to have a unique reporting mark. There is a rail line in Ohio that interacts with the North Country Trail in a few places. But I guess it is OR&W- Ohio River and Western. And in New York, the Ontario and Western is NYO&W.

This bridge is now primarily used by trails, although cars are still allowed to cross it.

The next snafu is that my camera did not take any pictures for reasons unknown. I just checked it and it's fine. Maybe the SD card wasn't seated right. So Doug took all the pictures I'm showing today.

The nice news is that almost all of today was downhill, and the treadway was mostly good.

One of the highlights (and high point in elevation) was views from the top of a hill that apparently has no name. This cliff is on the other side of Falls Creek

But if you looked off into the distance, you could see the Big South Fork out there.

One of the oddest, and maybe saddest things, was this single grave for Archie Smith. He was born in 1932 and died when he was 5 months old. You can only get to the grave by hiking, but someone is keeping his memory alive.

It's been a while since I've done a picture like this. Just fun!

We also saw two young copperheads, and a large black rat snake.

Now I've struggled with transferring pictures as much as I want to. Tomorrow we will fill in the missing piece and Saturday... I finish!

Miles walked in 2026: 624.7
Sheltowee Trace miles: 296

Sheltowee Trace, Tennessee. Bandy Creek Campground to O&W Railroad Bridge. 10.6 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- Wading the Big South Fork

Sheltowee Trace- Day 27- Wading the Big South Fork

  I think the big story of the day is that we ended at Station Camp Ford across the Big South Fork River. Doug went and checked it last night to be sure we could do it. Horses cross here regularly, but humans are shorter and I'm on the short side of adult humans, and we needed to check the strength of the current. By using this ford, we were able to even out the mileage on the last few days a bit. It made today long, but we decided to go with it. Of course, we'll begin tomorrow by wading it again.

About halfway through the day we took in the view from the John Muir overlook. It's impressive. You can't even see the river down at the bottom.

The long descent down the toe of the hill below the overlook was actually well-built, but it was pretty steep at the top. These stairs were more like a ladder, and we both chose to go down backwards.

The other news of the day was Maude's Crack. This is an actual crack in a huge rock wall that just appears out of nowhere in the woods. You can see Doug's blue shirt, where he's standing, for scale.

It "killed me" to pass up doing it, but my legs aren't real happy with the 13-mile days, and it was a big scramble just to get to the crack. And there were still 4 miles to hike. But Doug went up it. Maybe you can see the yellow rope in the crack behind him. You have to use the rope to get up the crack because it's so steep.

Sue had taken a picture of the top a few days ago when she hiked to it.

We completed the miles in pretty good time, thanks to some good trail construction.

Miles walked in 2026: 614.1
Sheltowee Trace miles: 285.4

Sheltowee Trace, Tennessee. John Muir TH to Station Camp Ford, 13.4 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- No Bridge Over Troublesome Waters

Sheltowee Trace- Day 26- No Bridge Over Troublesome Waters

 Today, we went back and hiked the missing piece in Kentucky. From now on, everything should be in north to south sequence.

Ha ha! I was going to post about the bridge over troublesome waters, but it washed out several years ago. However, it was OK, because Troublesome Creek didn't even have any water in it today. We aren't sure why it was so troublesome to someone.

There was a bridge, however, over Difficult waters. Difficulty Creek bridge had been recently repaired. And the creek valley was deep and had water in it, and it would have been a steep scramble down to creek level. We are very happy for bridges.

For a large part of the day we followed a very old road grade that we are thinking was used to access the Beatty Oil Well. Now here's an enigma of hairsplitting.

The Beatty Well struck oil in 1818 and produced quite a lot of oil. However, it was originally drilled to find brine (salt) not oil. The Drake Well in Pennsylvania claims to be the first commercial oil well (1859). The difference seems to be that the Drake Well was drilled specifically to find oil. To split the hairs even finer, Noble County, Ohio drilled for brine in 1814 and struck oil. It was bottled and sold as Seneca Oil, an all-purpose medicine. Most of the "snake oil" remedies sold for decades across the country were crude petroleum products and mixtures. So, who really had the first well? Who knows. But this is where the Beatty Well was, and at its height, it oozed 100 barrels of oil a day. It was sent down the Cumberland River to be repackaged and sold as linement, pitch, and lamp fuel.

We saw another box turtle, but this one's legs and the top of his head were gorgeous with bright yellow spots.

The mornings have been cool and foggy. I finally got a picture of the sun rays breaking through.

Tomorrow will be our last day over 13 miles. That's fine with me! Only 4 hiking days to go.

Miles hiked in 2026: 600.6
Sheltowee Trace miles: 272

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. South of Ledbetter TH to Peters Mt. TH- 11.3 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- KY to TN