Sheltowee Trace- Day 8- Magical

 Our first challenge for the day was to cross the Red River. There is a high water route that is longer, but there is so little water it really wasn't any big deal. This was the deepest it got where we chose to cross.

There used to be a nice suspension bridge for the trail, but that got taken out in flooding a few years ago. This is all that's left.

Even though the day was mostly cloudy, there was just enough sunlight in the morning to make a reflection of this big rock where we crossed.

The best news of the day was the temperature. It stayed about 70° all day with a few rain showers. After some weedy bottomland we climbed to the top of our highest hill for the day. There were a few bald rocks like in Minnesota on the way up.

The very best part of the day was in the early afternoon. There was a narrow gorge along a stream that was just magical! The pictures don't begin to capture it. Our first hint was this view down the trail with the huge rhododendron leaves and the shiny spot at the bottom. That turned out to be a pool of water that when there is more water would be the top of a waterfall!

We continued to wander down along the rock wall with a creek and another rock wall on our right.

I'm always fascinated by the textures of the rocks.

Because the area is mixed sanstone and limestone, very different things can be in the same area. Across the stream we found this huge triangular pillar of limestone.

Bill liked thinking about exploring the caves. A lot of them looked like good bear dens. Others seemed like they could shelter people.

We are taking tomorrow off. That was planned for Thursday, but tomorrow looks like a rain day with good weather after that, so we are going to do errands, real world stuff and blah blah.

Miles hiked in 2026: 410
Sheltowee Trace miles: 85.5

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. Red River to Natural Bridge Trailhead, 7.6 official miles, plus 0.4 mile to get back to the bridge from the trailhead for a total of 8.0 for the day.

See Sheltowee Trace- Day 7- Indian Arch

Sheltowee Trace- Day 7- Indian Arch

 Today was gorgeous but tough. We did not get an early start because we had to move campsites.

The trail today was more like what I've been expecting. Except for at one junction we didn't see a trail marker for the first 4 miles. We did see a lot of this, and worse. There was a lot of climbing over and through big fallen trees. My legs are tired. And the one big climb was really steep. These are not complaints per se... I just expect we'll see a lot more of this sort of thing.

This was a gorgeous little break at Gladie Creek.

There are so many beautiful things I want to share, but I'm just too tired to add much more. This was the high point of the day both physically (almost), and emotionally. The trail went right through Indian Arch.

I love the textures on the rocks with minerals, lichen, and the rocks themselves.

Turned out the arch was not all the way up. We climbed a little more to the top of the rock formation, and this was the view across the valley.

A failure in planning was that I didn't realize the parking was on a spur trail. When we found that out in the morning, the sign said it was a quarter mile. Ha! Of course it was 4 tenths.

Tomorrow we enter the Red River Gorge Geological Area.

Miles walked in 2026: 402.5
Miles on the Sheltowee Trace: 77.9

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky, Corner Ridge TH to Red River Rd, plus a spur. Total 9.9 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace-Day 6- Geology

Sheltowee Trace- Day 6- Geology

 Today was an easy day. Tehnically it was all roads although the middle third had been abandoned as a road and was an ATV trail. The surface in this picture is much better than it was most places. Note the caves.

But what really struck me was the variation in geology. We were walking beside a creek, and suddenly, instead of everything being the sandstone and yellow clay, the creek was pure New York shale. See the little waterfall going over the layers of gray shale?

Of course, we've been seeing both sandstone and limestone cliffs and caves. That didn't seem so odd to me. They are both of a similar geologic age and are often seen together. And yesterday we saw lots of conglomerate. Mostly quartz pebblws caught in a sandstone matrix. Where that has eroded, the white quartz pebbles cover the trail. This was a solid patch that was still cemented in the matrix.

The shelf caves Bill is walking toward above are limestone- gray, more fine textured. But the cave below is a sandstone shelf cave. Water runs over this sometimes and is called Clifton Falls. No water today!

But the shale just seemed totally out of place to me. Especially since we were walking in yellow clay and the gray shale was right beside us. Bill is kind of a geology buff. He likes an app called Rock D. Here is what we walked through today looks like.

This is VERY cool! the yellow is alluvial and has washed down the streams and is youngest. The olive green is Mississipian with shale the deepest- why we only saw it in the lowest (oldest) valley, then mixed sandstone and limestone. The light green is higher ( newer) and is Pennsylvanian.

The first and last thirds of the day were actual road walk. I don't dislike this as much as some people. I like seeing the homes- which varied from poor Appalachia to some nice farms with pretty views. Here's a hilly part of the roadwalk.

The day's biggest challenge was the 94% humidity we started in. I could hardly breathe. But then the humidity dropped a bit (and the temperature went up). We are glad we had a fast hike and finished just at noon.

Miles walked in 2026: 392.6
Sheltowee Trail miles: 68.4

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. Co Rd 1274 to Corner Ridge TH. 8.9 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- Day 5- Rocks

Sheltowee Trace- Day 5

 Today we started at Clear Creek at 7:40 am. As you can maybe see, there is a tiny bit of water in it. At other times of the year there are lots of streams that need to be waded. At this time of year, I doubt you could backpack the trail without putting water caches out. The other issue is that most of the streams are very silty. Lots of pre-filtering might be required.

We started the day at 768 feet elevation, and our high point was 1538 feet. That's 770 feet of change with a lot of extra ups and downs too. But, again, most of the trail was well-graded and benched. A few places were 15-20%, but most was the standard 10% grade. Kudos to the trail builders!

The big fun of the day was ROCKS. I think this might be part of the Allegheny escarpment. If not, it looks very similar. At first we were just climbing beside them.

Then we were climbing between them. The trail wound up to the top and crossed the tops of the rocks.

Here's a big example of the webs those orb spiders make.

This is a plant first for me- finding Sullivantia in bloom. It grows only on damp limestone walls.

Once we got up pretty high, the trail joined an ATV trail. Sometimes that made the walking easier, and sometimes harder. But this was a very neat space. The sandstone was almost like flowstone. The trail went right up this!

We only did 8.7 miles today, and even with all the climbing (and then descending back to 831 feet) it was a fun day! Tomorrow will be easy- quite a lot of roadwalk.

Miles walked in 2026: 383.7
Miles on the Sheltowee Trace: 59.5

Clear Creek Campground to Beaver Creek Road. I don't think the hill we went over has a name. 8.7 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Day 4

Sheltowee Trace- Day 4

 We had our earliest start yet - hiking at 7:30. We crossed the dam at Cave Run Lake. And now, I think I know why our last campground was called Twin Knobs.

We had started shortly before this picture at the Cumberland Ranger Station.

The biggest excitement of the day was this copperhead right in the trail. We took pix and talked to it a bit, and then I flipped it off the trail (I did not hurt it).

Caney Creek is flooded a long way upstream from the dam. Whenever it narrowed the water was this jade green.

Much more annoying than the snake is the dozens of orb weavers who put full webs across the trail right at face height. Most of them were black and white. But this one is a handsomw Arrowhead Orb Weaver, Verrucosa arenata. They don't bite, but I hate getting the webs plastered all over my face.

And... found a new-to- me plant- American Dittany. Cunila origanoides. Not a great picture. I'll try to get a better one.

Best news of the day- we got rained on twice. Being wet kept me much cooler. But I'll need to break out some dry clothes for morning.

Tomorrow is shorter miles, but a BIG hill. I have to go lie down soon. Again, we drove up the hill to get service for blogging and all the internet things.

Miles hiked in 2026:: 375
Miles hiked on Sheltowee Trace: 50.7

Sheltowee Trace, from Cumberland Ranger Station to Clear Creek Campground, 13.4 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Day 3/A>