Day Off- Lin and Joe

 Longtime readers of this blog will recognize the names in this title. Lin started out as a blogging friend in the heyday of blogs, and is one of the group of us who turned those relationships into real-life friendships. I visited them in Tennessee a couple of years ago.

Lin and Joe live close enough that they were happy to come visit at our campsite and bring us lunch!

They brought everything! A tablecloth, real plates and silverware. A rich butternut soup, foccaia bread and a kale and chicken salad. There were peanut butter cookies for dessert!

This morning I lay in the tent until I wanted to get up. The sun was well up by then. I read my book and wrote one of my newspaper columns.

After Joe and Lin left, I read some more. Tomorrow we hike! I do feel refreshed and ready.

See Sheltowee Trace- Laurel Lake

Sheltowee Trace- Day 18- Laurel Lake

 Today, we did hike, but it was a short day. We hiked from VanHook Falls TH to Laurel Lake and into our campsite!

Laurel Lake is a reservoir. The water is low, about 11 feet below summer level. That fits with everything we've observed about the area being dry.

The trailhead is a really nice one, probably because it's also the access to VanHook Falls in the other direction.

Can you find what we saw? It's well camouflaged in the fallen leaves.

It's another good-looking box turtle!

We did not waste the rest of the day. We went to town and did laundry.

We also hit a big box store because there were things I was out of or low on after 3 weeks.

Still, it was a fairly restful day, and tomorrow we are really taking a day off. But there is a surprise coming too.

Miles walked in 2026: 515.1
Sheltowee Trace miles: 187.2

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky, VanHook Trailhead to Laurel Lake boat ramp, 4.2 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Halfway

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

Sheltowee Trace- Day 15- Turtle on the Turtle

 Well, Bill left this morning, and David and I are on our own. Problem 1- The road commission closed the road we needed just as we got there. We had to take a long detour. Problem 2- Google took us to the wrong place and I had to figure out how to get to the right place with no cell service. Problem 3- Then we had to take a car back to Raccoon Creek Road. Yikes! We didn't start hiking until 10:30 despite leaving the campground before 8 am.

We did find a nice box turtle on the Big Turtle Trail. This was a smallish box turtle, but friendly.

We had to wade Horse Lick Creek twice.

It's a good thing we decided to hike the double mile and not check out Horse Lick Road. The whole thing is a mud pit ATV trail- none of it driveable by a car. Hard to walk at any decent speed. We did meet 4 horseback riders.

The entire day was ATV trails and then 4 miles of actual road walk. Poor David hasn't seen any real trail yet, and I think tomorrow is all road walk too.

Despite the bad footing, this was a pretty scene of light through the trees on Horse Lick "road."

Found a completely new-to-me flower on the road walk. This is the native Orange Noah Morning Glory, Ipomoea coccinia. Very cool!

The campground where we stayed last night had one chicken. She loved being given treats like the innards from a pepper and pizza crumbs. She was pretty funny!

So we hiked until 4 pm, then had to retrieve the car on Raccoon Creek Rd which took an hour, then drive an hour south to our new campground. We stopped at an Arby's for a quick dinner. Got the tents up just as it was getting dark, and I'm now blogging in the dark and the bugs. Have to get to bed quick.

Miles walked in 2026: 490.6
Miles hiked on the Sheltowee Trace: 162.7

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. Raccoon Creek to Robinson Cemetery Road that counts- 9.8 miles (plus 1.1 mile of overlap on Raccoon Creek Rd). We are tired.

See Sheltowee Trace- Car Spotting

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