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>

Sheltowee Trace- Day 3

 The morning started with a walk through the city of Morehead and Morehead State University. Hard for a Michigander to think of MSU as Morehead. The hills beyond Triplett Creek are the backdrop of all scenes from the town which is spread up the opposite hill. We were hiking at 7:50 am.

Walking through town was kind of fun. We followed the turtles on the sidewalk.

The city had turtles painted for decorations. This is just one of them.

Our first five miles were on road and we cranked those out at a rate of 3 mph. Went past some nice farms nestled below the hills. You can see cows in the field.

Then we made it to off-road trail. Bill signed us in at the register box. We had 7.9 miles yet to go.

Right off the bat was a 400-foot climb. But I want to tell you that someone built this section of trail with very high standards. It was graded and benched and switchbacked properly all the way to the top. A nearly painless climb.

On the top of the ridge, I thought we were going to be on a gravel forest road, and we were off and on. So that walking was pretty easy too. We stayed up with little ups and downs until the end of the day when there was a big downhill to the Cumberland Ranger Station.

We moved campsites, and we don't have ANY internet, so we drove up to this overlook where we have service so I can blog and everyone can check their messages.

I didn't have any troubles with the hiking today. I ate more salt and who-knows-why else. It was hot, hot, hot. The night did not cool down and it was 93° when we finished. I need these temperatures to cool a little bit.

Tomorrow is another big mileage day, then they get shorter. I'm pretty sure the terrain gets harder too.

The bites burn unmercifully, and it's hard to sleep when it doesn't cool down at night. But it has to get better!

Miles walked in 2026: 361.6
Miles hiked on the Sheltowee: 37.4

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky, Eagle Lake Trailhead to Cumberland Ranger Station. 12.9 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- Day 2

Sheltowee Trace- Day 2

 Turtles on the pavement! We just had to take a fun picture.

Diane walked with us for a short distance. The trail crosses I-64 on a high concrete bridge on route 799. I reall would like a picture of it from below, but this will have to do.

We turned on a gravel Forest Road. You knew it wouldn't be long before I did some botany, right. This one is new to me, and as you can guess from the name it's alien. Chinese bushclover, Lespedeza cuneata. Too bad, it's kind of pretty.

This is a nice find, though. Native. Blue Mistflower, Conoclineum coelestinum. It used to be a Eupatorium.

It looked like the whole day was going to be on the gravel road, but some sections have been taken off onto real trail.

Unfortunately, we took one that wasn't part of the trail until we realized our mistake and turned around, so we hiked 0.4 extra miles.

The best views were at power line crossings. This area is full of these pointy hills.

I struggled more than I'd like to admit on the last two miles. When we fishished hiking it was 91° with a feels like 103°. I just don't function well at those temps. It's still 91° at 6 pm.

But we finally made it to Eagle Lake and the trailhead that is right on the Moorehead State University Campus.

Diane takes care of us. This chiken alfredo was awesome for dinner. Yes, I ate more than this. I had already wolfed some down before I remembered a picture.

Let's hike in Kentucky in the fall she said (me). It will be better than summer she said. Hopefully that will be true soon. I really can't do these temperatures.

Miles hiked in 2026: 348.7
Miles hiked on the Sheltowee Trace: 24.5

Sheltowee Trace, KY. Co Rd 799 to Eagle Lake TH, 10.7 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- Day 1