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

Sheltowee Trace- Day 1

 Bill and I were hiking at 8:09 this morning. That was awesome. It didn't heat up badly until after 2 pm. Here we are at the Northern Terminus.

OUr very first blaze of this hike! The trail is blazed pretty much adequately. Here it's nail-up blazes like this one and some arrows. The treadway was about half packed earth, and half loose rock. The footing on that can be difficult. Things are really dry. We would have had wet feet most of the day, but none of the stream crossings had any water.

A lovely Frittalary on some Wingstem flowers. Not going to look up what kind- I'm fading fast.

We started with a climb. Then we were up on a ridge for most of the day. The afternoon had a big down, then an up and down, and one final up. Not many views from the ridge though. This is the best I could get.

When we crossed one of the creeks (sorry, I'm not going to look that up either. Maybe I'll do a better job another day) there was this swinging bridge. Kind of fun, kind of weird. It does swing.

Up to the top of the next ridge. Shades of North Dakota- we shared the space with some cows. Of course you know I'll compare this to the NCT. The poison ivy is like Ohio. It hangs off the trees in an attempt to grab you. The loose rock is like New York.

We took the requisite selfie at the beginning. It's so wonderful to have Diane to take care of us. She had food ready pretty much when we got back to camp. She does a lot of the details that chew up time away from hiking. And she says she's having fun being with us.

The part that's pure Kentucky? We got in seed ticks again, like in 2019. This time I knew what had happened right away and proactively worked hard to get the little nasties off. Last time, they made me sick. But I think we acted fast enough and have the situation under control.

The temperature, depending on the thermometer made it to something between 87 and 92. Hot, very hot. I was strugging a bit the last 1.5 miles, but I made it. And the mileage... the trail wasn't exactly on the line in the FarOut app in a couple of places. The official mileage was 13.8. Bill's tracker said 14.2, but I thiink I'll stick with the 13.8.

Miles walked in 2026: 337.6
Miles walked on the Sheltowee Trace this trip: 13.8

Sheltowee Trace, Northern Terminus to Rt 799. 13.8 miles

See Three Amigos Roughing It

To Kentucky

 Today was mostly travel. We did a load of laundry at the park where we were because they had reasonably priced washer and dryer in the showerhouse!

Then we hit the road! Crossed the Ohio River 3 times as the interstate swings into West Virginia, back to Ohio, and then finally into Kentucky. Here's the middle of the three bridges.

We drove right along the Ohio River for part of the way. This was the best picture I could get from the car.

We stopped at a Denny's for lunch. That was a nice break from camp food. We did have dinners at the Trail Fest, and they were good, but this was just a nice stop.

We stopped to replenish supplies at a store, which Bill and Diane did while I drove to make sure we could leave a vehicle at the end point for hiking day 1. It will work fine. The Sheltowee blaze is a turtle, but this is the National Recreation Trail sign.

We arrived at our campground home for the next few days on Cave Run Lake. We have sites right across from each other. Two tents and a trailer. That's us.

OK, it's dark and the skeeters are out. Tomorrow is a day off to reorganize our gear and our brains. Hiking starts Tuesday. It's going to be a brutally hot week, so we're working on a plan to try to hike early in the day.

Gotta go. I'm being chewed!

See Ohio Trail Fest- Saturday

Arch, Point, Tunnel, Bridge

 September 18, 2019. I'm skipping the 17th for now. We took a day and went to the Kentucky State Botanical Garden. That was awesome, but I'll save that for another time.

Our first destination for the day was Gray's Arch. This is one of the biggest ones at about 80 feet high. Very impressive. But it was hard to get pictures because it's surrounded with trees.

Our biggest goal of the day was to find a trail that goes to Hanson's Point. It's not on the official maps, but everyone said we shouldn't miss it, and that it wasn't hard to find. So we went hunting, and it was well worth it.

This trail goes out on a peninsula of land that sticks out into the central valley. The peninsula gets narrower and narrower as you approach the end. Near the end of the point it's bare rock.

The views from there were the most far-reaching we'd seen. The valley is the Red River Gorge.

This is a fun item. I zoomed the picture in, but there is a tower of rock out there that isn't eroded away. It's called "Revenuer's Rock" because supposedly moonshiners operated out there during prohibition. No one could get to them undetected.

Then we drove through the Nada (say NAY-duh) Tunnel. This was hand cut in 1910 as a railroad tunnel for logging. Now it's a single-lane road tunnel. Yes, it's the small dark rectangle at the bottom of that pile of red rocks. It's 900 feet long.

We had just one more stop to make for the day. We wanted to walk the suspension bridge for the Sheltowee Trace across the Red River. I'm glad we got to walk it then, because it was destroyed in floods last year. There's a walkaround if the water is too deep to cross. Guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks.

We walked about 8 miles that day.

In other news: I hunkered down and worked on my projects. Time is running out, and I had to add another one that I had forgotten about to the list. Yikes!

See Seven More Arches