Sheltowee Trace- Day 13- Details

 Today was 9.2 fast miles, mostly on ATV trails.

We saw rocks- not exactly something new. But this place was neat where the trail went between two rock walls.

This is one of the biggest burls either of us has ever seen.

There was a short road walk in the middle, and we saw quite a few Woodland Sunflowers. Most of the flowers are done blooming, but there are some asters and goldenrod.

If you are on an ATV trail, you might as well embrace the concept, right? (Note: the Sheltowee Trace is a National Recreation Trail, and as such, motorized use is not necessarily prohibited.) We encountered a lot of places where the surface had been hardened with these interlocking blocks. We found a loose one, and they are primarily concrete, although the upper surface looks like asphalt with a lumpy black surface with embedded stones. Most of the places we encountered them, they were doing a good job of hardening the trail. We did find one place where everthing around them was washed out. Bill's feet for scale.

The biggest challenge of the day was that we had to find a Forest Road that led down to a county road to get to our spotted vehicle. For about a half mile we were walking with a rock cliff beside us on the side that was the direction we needed to turn. Yet, several different maps showed a road going off from the trail. And we had placed a car where we thought that road came from the trail.

As we were getting close, the trail rose beside the cliffs, and sure enough, we easily found our way to the car, only about a tenth of a mile off the trail. Success!

Then we spent a lot of time trying to find a campground to move to tomorrow. It's taking a ridiculous amount of time to stage the days' hikes from the location where we are.

Diane left this morning. She is safely in a motel for the night on her way home. Bill and I made our own dinner. Next hiking partner, David, is set to arrive at any moment. Bill, David, and I will hike together tomorrow. Then Bill has to leave on Wednesday morning.

Miles walked in 2026: 471
Miles hiked of Sheltowee Trace: 144.3

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. Lime Kiln Ridge Road to a Forest Road and a spur on that down to S-Tree Tower Road. 9.2 trail miles. My body was happy for the lower mileage today.

See Sheltowee Trace- Resurgence Cave

Wildflowers/Weeds

A bit of roadside botany and I learned something new in each case.

First up, we have Woodland Sunflower, Helianthus divaricatus. These sunflower relatives drive me nuts. I can never remember how to tell them apart.

Well, the most common ones that have a pair of flowering stalks coming up in the top leaf axils are this one, Woodland Sunflower- which is the smoothest of the three, Hairy Sunflower- which is hairier, and Jerusalen Artichoke- which is really rough. Wonder if I can remember that.

This next one made me stop and say, "Huh." It's obviously a Brassicaceae (cabbage, mustard, cress, etc) because of the 4 petals and long skinny seed pods. But I wasn't aware of ones that bloom in the fall.

It's Diplotaxis tenuifolia, or yes, Arugala. It's not native here, but often escapes gardens. The leaves are probably tough and more bitter than usual at this point, but here are the leaves which are distinctive. This was growing right along the road. Not a great place to collect edibles. But I think I'll know how to ID it in the future.

Finally, I always called this one Cudweed. That is one of the common names, but that also gets used on some other plants. Perhaps a more distinctive common name is Rabbit Tobacco, Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium. Yes, it's a relative of the Pussytoes and Everlastings- all of which have flowers that look like they don't open. It's a biennial, and this is the first year.

The stems and flowers are wooly with soft hairs. In the second year it gets taller and the pods get yellow-brown and burst open with seeds. I'll have to watch for that.

My mouth really doesn't hurt much at all. Face is a little swollen. I tried to be quiet today because of the stitches, but I think I'm pretty much good to go. Well, I'll eat soft foods a couple more days. The original direction for two weeks of soft food was when they originally thought I would have one more thing done at the surgeon. Now, I may skip that. I'll explain if it comes up again.

The computer managed to repair one of its problems with repeated urging, but I think I'll be going tomorrow to get started on getting a different one. I spend too much time working on a computer to have to worry about regular crashes.

See Gale's Pond Botany