Sheltowee Trace- Day 14- The Car Spotting

 We DO have internet tonight. The lady who runs this campsite was here when we came this afternoon and gave us a Wifi password.

But, here's the best news of the day. David, Bill and I got to hike together again for one day. If you know me, you know that the three of us hiked together quite a few miles on the recent NCT hike. For example, in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota.

And here we are today.

Most of what we hiked today were also ATV trails that looked a lot like this.

The problem was, this looks about the same as the road we were using to spot a car at our planned ending point. This is the road.

Well, we got down it as far as Raccoon Creek Ford (after driving through three other fords), but we still had a mile to go to get to our destination. And it had taken a lot of time to carefully drive this far. Meanwhile Bill was waiting at the campground he had found for us. And we still had to go back and pick him up.

We were already fairly stressed out at this point. And the ford had a problem. We would have had to get on the concrete ribs in just the right place to not bottom out the cars. And the road on the other side didn't look worse, but it didn't look any better either. Um... no thanks. Then we realized the trail went right through that point. Decision! We put the car right there and shortened the day by a mile.

So, now I've massaged the next couple of days to even out the miles. Tomorrow we will start at a point where we have to re-walk one mile, but we decided that's better than driving that last mile again!

It turns out that Sand Gap, Kentucky, has an open gas station, a Dollar General Market (that has actual groceries), and a pizza place. Can you say celebration of our one day together? (Don't ask me why I have my hand against my face?)

But tomorrow morning, we have to say goodbye to Bill. David and I will go on for about 10 days until the companions will change again.

Miles walked in 2016: 479.7
Sheltowee Trace miles hiked: 152.9

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. S-Tree Tower Rd to Raccoon Creek, 8.6 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Details

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

Sheltowee Trace- Day 12- Resurgence Cave

 We put in a good number of miles today and it was all on trail except for a few feet.

While it was pleasant enough, we sort of named it the dim green tunnel. Light was muted, and most of what there was to see was trees. The best thing of the day is Resurgence Cave. This is a limestone cave on War Fork Creek.

Water flows out of the cave all the time. It was even flowing today while things are very dry. Supposedly, there is sometimes enough water to swim in.

There were even some little arches!

We did find some interesting fungi. Pretty sure this is Chicken of the Woods even though it's not orange or peachy.

And these are Jack O'Lantern mushrooms although they are wearing Christmas Ferns.

One kind of funny story. Diane took this picture yesterday of horseback riders coming out of the section of trail we hiked today. It is open for this use.

So, we kept seeing fairly good-sized leafy branches on the trail that had been trimmed from small trees. But I was feeling annoyed that they had just dropped them in the trail. Ha! Then I realized that the horseback riders had probably trimmed them from horseback!

Although it was trail, a fair amount of what we walked had once been roads, so the grades were good. The hardest part was that the final 500-foot climb had a lot of large, loose rocks on the trail so the footing was tough. Tomorrow is a shorter day, and it is also a "changing of the guard" so to speak. Stay tuned.

Miles walked in 2026: 461.8
Miles hiked on the Sheltowee Trace: 135.1

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky, Arvel to Lime Kiln Ridge Rd, 12.8 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Across the Kentucky

Sheltowee Trace- Day 11- Across the Kentucky

 Today was almost all roadwalk again. Soon after starting we crossed the Kentucky River at Heidelburg on the Albert Updyke Bridge. I think Heidelburg used to be a decent town. Now all that's left is a park and a boat ramp except for the bridge.

I was surprised to learn that the headwaters of the Kentucky River aren't very far upstream from this. However, there are a number of low-head dams that help regulate the amount of water flowing more consistently. In fact, one was just upstream from the bridge, but I like the downstream picture better. From here, it flows northwest until joining the Ohio River east of Louisville.

The first 8 miles were on roads- fairly populated roads. We needed a place to sit and eat our snack, and I needed to pee. A small rural church appeared at just the right time! They had a welcome banner, so we made ourselves comfortable on the edge of their ramp. (There were no steps!).

And they had two primitive but clean privies! Everything was perfect. Thanks for the hospitality, Cressmont Baptist Church! We left no trace... just sayin'.

Finally we left the road, but this also meant we started the first of two big climbs for the day. We ate lunch beneath this shelf cave.

Most of the afternoon was kind of tough with two big climbs and a downhill between them. But the weather didn't get too warm, and except for a couple of messy trees to get around the trail was pretty good.

Our new campground was serving nice dinners at a reasonable price, so we did that for our evening meal. Brisket, mac & cheese, vegs. Yum!

We did 13.3 miles today. The biggest challenge of the day was loose dogs. One pack of 5 were overly friendly. 3 of them followed us for about a mile. Then the 4th went a little farther, and one went maybe 2 miles before we convinced it to go home. At another place, one dog came for me, and actually got its lips on my elbow, but the teeth didn't connect.

Miles walked in 2026: 449
Miles hiked on the Sheltowee Trace: 122.3

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky, Quillan Cemetery to Arvel. 13.3 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Sinking Creeks

Sheltowee Trace- Day 10- Sinking Creeks

 Today was almost all road walk, or you could say it was all road walk. But one mile was more like off-road. And it was very interesting. We left a county road to walk down Little Sinking Creek. At one time, this was a road, but has long ago reverted to a soft surface and grass. With rocks! But the area was different from the other rocky places we've been through.

There were caves in the rock walls. Not shelf caves, but limestone, probably with tunnels and caverns. In fact, several of them had water flowing into them. I'm thinking that's probably how the Sinking Creeks got their names.

After a while, the berm that had held the road was all washed away, and the trail walked in the dry streambed. Look at the size of those raw hunks of limestone. Not very weathered. This section must be impassible at certain times of the year.

This is the confluence of Little Sinking Creek and Big Sinking Creek. Big Sinking had water in it. The old road reappeared and turned left along Big Sinking.

The trail crossed Big Sinking Creek at this large curved shelf cave.

Now, some of you know that I've decided I'm an historic transportation junkie. So here's the very cool part. The road did come here in the past. And it crossed the creek just about where we crossed. Here is one of the bridge abutments. I can just picture a car from the 1930's with a young couple coming down here to picnic at the cave. The kicker? This bridge was only abandoned in 1985 after structural failure. I can't quickly find a record of when it was built. But it all seems so old and reverted to nature, and yet, it was functional until I was 37 years old!

On the other side of the creek, the road continued with a fairly steep climb of 400 feet on the old roadbed. This part is now an ATV trail, so it wasn't off-road in any sense of the word.

We passed the 100 mile mark on the Sheltowee today. The rest of the day was roadwalk. The Sinking Creeks was the very best part.

Tomorrow we have to move campgrounds, and have a high-mileage day. It will be a challenge.

Miles walked in 2026: 435.7
Miles hiked of the Sheltowee Trace: 109

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky, Combs Cemetery Road to Quillan Cemetery, 12.1 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Lawful Evil