Sheltowee Trace- Day 17- Halfway

 I'm sitting at our picnic table blogging in the rain. Fortunately, we managed to get a tarp up this morning before hiking. So far, we are sitting here dry.

The big news is that I passed the official halfway point on the trail. Actually, this is more than halfway for me because I have to skip the miles that are still closed from a tornado last year.

The day turned out to be a lot more difficult than we anticipated. We thought it would be a fairly easy 8.5 miles. The beginning was roadwalk, and we crossed over I-75.

Then, I think we broke a cardinal hiker rule. I think there is one truck stop on this entire trail. We passed up a real bathroom, an extra cold drink, and an extra snack, and walked right by!

So far, easy. Then the trail went on a gravel road which turned into a sand road. Except for the fact that everything so far had been a climb this was pretty easy. Then we turned on Fall City "Road." This was mostly bare rock going up and down, and it was all slippery. Yes, David is standing in the "road."

The real problem was that the humidity was climbing, and I don't do well with that. Finally, we descended with bad footing to Hawk Creek which we knew we would have to wade. Yup. The log used to be the decking of the suspension bridge. The water doesn't look deep, and it wasn't a bad wade, but it was over my knees.

Then we had a 1.7-mile climb to the car. This wasn't too bad, but we were just moving slowly. It took us 5.5 hours to do 8.5 miles. Not great.

I wanted to tell you a story from yesterday. A young guy in an ATV stopped as we were climbing our last significant hill of the day. We'd already walked 11 miles. I wasn't struggling yesterday, so I assume he just had to say something "between the boys." He said to David with a conspiratorial grin, "She looks like she could use a tow." David graciously just said, "Me, too."

Tomorrow we skip to the south end of the tornado damage and are doing a short day. My body is glad.

Miles walked in 2026: 510.9
Miles walked on Sheltowee Trace: 183

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky, Olive Branch Church to Somerset Rd. 8.5 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Wildcat

Sheltowee Trace- Day 16- Wildcat

 We walked a lot of hot miles today, but finally David got to see some real trail.

The largest common denominator was "Wildcat." Finally got some vistas from Wildcat Trail Road.

Wildcat Trail Road is a road and a trail. It began as a decent gravel road, but then became an ATV trail. I tried to get a picture of one of the rockiest places, but it doesn't show the bumps very well. We were passed by one ATV and one pickup truck.

One more good vista. I just don't have any idea what I'm looking at though. I'm not familiar enough with the area.

We reached Camp Wildcat where a battle of the Civil War was fought. There was lots we could have explored, but we were too hot and tired to do much except take a few pictures.

Then we joined Wildcat Happy Hollow Road which interested me a lot. It was part of the Wilderness Road that was begun in 1795 and brought thousands of settlers to Kentucky.

It was this Wilderness Road that the Camp Wildcat battle was fought over. In fact, the fighting went on for a long time as control of the road was important to both the Union and the Confederacy. I would like to learn more about the road. It came through Cumberland Gap, the same as Boone's Trace, and a native path before that. But I'm too tired to do more about it tonight.

Miles walked in 2026: 502.4
Miles walked on Sheltowee Trace: 174.5

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. Robinson Cemetery Road to Olive Branch Congregation Church. 11.8 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Turtle on the Turtle