Ha ha! I was going to post about the bridge over troublesome waters, but it washed out several years ago. However, it was OK, because Troublesome Creek didn't even have any water in it today. We aren't sure why it was so troublesome to someone.
There was a bridge, however, over Difficult waters. Difficulty Creek bridge had been recently repaired. And the creek valley was deep and had water in it, and it would have been a steep scramble down to creek level. We are very happy for bridges.
For a large part of the day we followed a very old road grade that we are thinking was used to access the Beatty Oil Well. Now here's an enigma of hairsplitting.
The Beatty Well struck oil in 1818 and produced quite a lot of oil. However, it was originally drilled to find brine (salt) not oil. The Drake Well in Pennsylvania claims to be the first commercial oil well (1859). The difference seems to be that the Drake Well was drilled specifically to find oil. To split the hairs even finer, Noble County, Ohio drilled for brine in 1814 and struck oil. It was bottled and sold as Seneca Oil, an all-purpose medicine. Most of the "snake oil" remedies sold for decades across the country were crude petroleum products and mixtures. So, who really had the first well? Who knows. But this is where the Beatty Well was, and at its height, it oozed 100 barrels of oil a day. It was sent down the Cumberland River to be repackaged and sold as linement, pitch, and lamp fuel.
We saw another box turtle, but this one's legs and the top of his head were gorgeous with bright yellow spots.
The mornings have been cool and foggy. I finally got a picture of the sun rays breaking through.
Tomorrow will be our last day over 13 miles. That's fine with me! Only 4 hiking days to go.
Miles hiked in 2026: 600.6
Sheltowee Trace miles: 272
Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. South of Ledbetter TH to Peters Mt. TH- 11.3 miles
 | See Sheltowee Trace- KY to TN |
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