Sheltowee Trace- Day 25- KY to TN

 Today was out of sequence, so we still have one day to hike in Kentucky, but today we crossed the state line. At least Kentucky had a sign!

There was actually a little trickle of water coming over this rock. Can you just see the splashes where it is hitting the rocks below? It doesn't seem to have a name.

Then we walked for nearly a mile in/beside this unnamed creek. This is when we were walking in the creekbed. In addition to this, the trail crossed it 19 times. I don't think this is a trail to hike in springtime.

We saw a harmless Black Rat Snake.

For the last big climb beside Massie Branch (creek) we were again on an old rail bed. This made the climb very easy!

Judging by the patterns of moss growth when we got a little higher, I thought they had not pulled out the ties. When we got a little higher, guess what!? Exposed ties.

And guess what again? This is yet another part of the Stearns Logging Railroad empire!

We got a bit of a late start hiking. We had to move to our final campground, and then do some exploring to get good intel about some of the pickup points I had planned to use. We massaged our plan a bit, but we like the new one a lot. Tomorrow, we'll go back and fill in the missing piece in Kentucky.

Miles walked in 2026: 589.3
Sheltowee Trace Miles: I think I messed this up somewhere. I think I'm at 260.7. I'll double check tomorrow.

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky and Tennessee- Peters Mt. Trailhead to John Muir Trailhead. 9.0 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- Tipple Bridge

Sheltowee Trace- Day 24- Tipple Bridge

 You know if there's a good railroad story it's going to be my highlight of the day. Today we walked past the end of the Tipple Bridge. We visited it by car yesterday down at the lower level. Today we were high on the hill at the level of the bridge. It's closed even for pedestrians, but at least I could sort of shoot a picture down its length.

What is a tipple bridge, you ask? It's where gravity is used to transfer coal (most commonly) from one train to a different one. Here is what it looks like from down below. Trains with coal would come across the high bridge, and dump the coal through this light gray structure into the waiting cars below. You can just barely see black cars below.

There was one other chance to see this bridge from an overlook today. However, when Doug and I got there, there was so much fog we could barely see it. Sue took this picture earlier in the morning. It sort of puts that huge bridge in persepective in the landscape.

They had an excellent model of the operation. I managed to get one picture without too many reflections. First of all, let me say that the trail goes along the orange and blue lines near the top. Trains would come over the high tipple bridge (orange line), and dump the coal down through the building. Then the train would continue on the orange line. When the last car was clear, they could back up (blue line). When the engine was clear of the yellow line, the train could descend to the lower green level. I should have broken the green line to show it's lower than the bridge. Hope you can figure it out.
I'd love to know more about the general lines in the area. This was ALL under the control of Justus Stearns whom I mentioned a few days ago. There is a biography of him, but I haven't read it because I wasn't so much interested in his southern operations before. But now, I really want to know more.

Other memorable moments of the day.

We started with a wade of Rock Creek. But we need to rename it as Lost Stick Creek. We got across, and Doug looked back and realized he'd left his hiking stick. And he'd already changed out of his water shoes. So he changed back and went to retrieve his stick.

We knew there were going to be showers during the day. We didn't mind hiking in the light rain much, but just sitting to eat lunch didn't appeal very much. We found a cave! It was completely dry under the overhang. You can see how dry the dirt is.

We saw two more box turtles- both of them small. We were able to hike right along. For the most part, the trail was in good condition. I was a tiny bit concerned about the distance because there were a lot of hills. But the big difference was that there was not a fallen tree to deal with every 10 minutes. I wasn't overly tired at the end of the day.

And we had a cheering section! Sue came and found us near the end at Waters Cemetery. We just had about an hour to go after that.

We hiked a little farther than the trailhead to reduce the mileage for the next day. Actually, that won't be tomorrow. We have to change campgrounds, and the logistics are tricky, so we are "jumping ahead" to hike shorter mileage tomorrow. Then we'll come back and connect from today.

Miles hiked in 2026: 580.3
Sheltowee Trace miles: 248.3

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky. K&T Railroad Bridge to junction with trail south of Ledbetter TH, 13.5 miles.

See Sheltowee Trace- Rain and Fun

Sheltowee Trace- Day 21- Stearns Coal and Lumber Company

 OK, I thought today's best feature was going to be the many creeks we followed. And of course, more rocks. But this is amazing! Those of you who know me know that I LOVE sniffing out historic railroads.

So, about halfway through our hiking day, just after we turned to go upstream along Railroad Fork (a creek), we entered this. "Railroad cut," I said. "Narrow Gage."

David wasn't really sure, but after we passed through the cut, this was the path we were walking.

We stopped to eat lunch where a substantial berm had been built to carry the tracks. This is almost always definitive. They didn't go to this much work for regular roads. And the grade stayed pretty even. It probably hit 3% in some places (2% is normal), but sometimes small railroads did this.

Where the trail now crosses Railroad Fork, it dips down to water level. But you could easily see where the track ran out onto an abutment and bridge, now long gone.

And on the other side of the creek you can see where the bridge came to. The trail climbed back up to the rail grade.

Once the trail and rail grade were on the west side of the creek it was benched into the hillside.

Altogether the trail follows that grade for almost 2 miles. A lot of it has been protected with environmental cloth and pea gravel laid over that. It was our best walking surface of the day.

Of course, I wanted to see if I could find out more about it on line. Sometimes this isn't really possible with small logging operations. The local museum might have info. But...

But! This is almost certainly part of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company rail lines. And... can you believe it, this is the Justus Stearns of Mason and Lake County, Michigan fame (where I live)?! He was one of the early lumber barons. He has many ties to Ludington, building the first hospital. Stearns Park- the main Ludington Lake Michigan beach is named for him. The Stearns Hotel is named for him. But in 1902, he decided to branch out into coal, and bought 30,000 acres in Kentucky. In McCreary County, where this railbed is located. The city of Stearns, Kentucky is just a few miles away.

At home, the lumber town of Stearns Siding (which burned in the late 1800s) was bigger than the nearby city of Baldwin is now. The North Country Trail uses several pieces of rail bed that are associated with Stearns.

So, I can not tell you where this line began and ended, but I can be pretty sure that it was built and operated by a man i've read a lot about.

Railroad sniffing heaven! But, of course, now I want to know more.

Miles walked in 2026: 545.2
Miles walked Sheltowee Trace: 217.3

Sheltowee Trace, Kentucky, Rt 700 at Cat Run Rd to Wiborg TH, 10.0 miles

See Sheltowee Trace- Cumberland River

Mason & Oceana Railroad Tour

The Mason County Historical Society put on a great event today. I certainly didn't think I would get to go; it cost more than I can afford. But someone kindly paid for my ticket!

This was an historical tour of Mason County with the primary emphasis on the Mason & Oceana Railroad. We began by traveling in buses to visit several places along the line that ran from Buttersville to a bit past Walkerville. The first stop was at Buttersville where I've showed you a bit of the old grade before. But today we heard much more about the village and the mill, and salt mines, and railroad yards.

This is some of the old grade as it approached the mill- it's the brown stripe near the water. I've shown you some of this before at Conservation Park.

We were visted by several historical figures. Horace Butters told us how he started the mill and what a busy place Buttersville was at that period of history.

Then we went to Pleiness Lake. There we were visted by John and Eleanor Pleiness who owned a blacksmith shop on the shore of the lake.

The railroad didn't have a regular stop there, but the line was about a half a field away. It followed that line of trees you can see.

Then we went even farther southeast to the former village of Fern. This is what's left of the school.

And George Yoke told us how he was injured working on the trains, and how he eventually died as a result of the injury. He also told us several other tragic tales. All that land you can see behind him was once the village of Fern. The railroad ran through the town.

We made one other stop, then returned to White Pine Village where we were served quite a nice dinner and saw some additional media about the railroad and the mills it served.

And that's enough for one day!

Railroads at Tustin

Glen and I have put our heads together, and here are our conclusions- he knew most of this already.

This is the station sign for Tustin station on the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad. This north-south line was the first through the area, reaching Tustin about 1872. At it's height, it extended from Indianapolis to Mackinaw City and was the longest north-south rail line in the country.

In 1889, a group of Ludington and Manistee businessmen, in the lumber and salt industries, set out to create an east-west line from Manistee to Grand Rapids, and that is what the railroad was named (later becoming the Michigan East & West). In 1893 the track ended at Tustin, meeting the GR&I. Here's where it gets speculative.

I found this map which shows a wye at Tustin, which makes some sense because where a railroad stops, it has to have a way to turn the train around. However, neither Glen nor I can find any other record of this wye. Anyway, the M&GR is the gray dotted line, with the WYE (which may not have existed, I suppose). The strong blue dotted line is the GR&I which is now the multi-use White Pine Trail.

See the purple dotted line that I added? Glen is pretty sure that is the location of the spur that was added to bring cars from the main M&GR up to the station. The spur needs to be about that long, or there is too much of a grade.

Eventually, the M&GR was extended a little farther east to Marion where it connected with the Ann Arbor Railroad

Here's where it gets interesting.

In order for the train to continue east, the M&GR had to pass under the GR&I because the grades were not at the same elevation. Glen showed me where that overpass was. They had to raise the GR&I some, so there was room to do this. In this picture, we are standing on the berm of the GR&I where the White Pine Trail now passes. The edge is marked with the orange line. The higher berm was built so there was enough clearance for the overpass. And it was built beside the old berm, not on top of it.

The yellow line is the old GR&I berm which was lower. When the M&GR was extended the lower berm was cut out to allow passage.

You can also see a large stone at the left of the picture.

That is one of the stones that formed the walls of the overpass.

The passage is all filled in now, but part of the header can be seen on the west side.

But more of the massive stones are obvious on the east side.

In 1913, the Michigan and Grand Rapids Railroad was insolvent, and was sold, becoming the Michigan East & West Railway. By 1919, that track was all gone. One of the surprising things is that it was standard gauge track, which was not always the case with these old railroads. You've seen some other pictures of this grade on my blog before (link below). It was a well-built track, but it eventually could not compete with the Pere Marquette and Flint, which is now Marquette Rail that runs in back of my house.

Gosh, I love figuring this stuff out!

I worked some on almost all my projects today. Pat me on the back!

See Michigan East and West Railroad

A Tour of the NCT North of 76th St

A group of people met today to hike on the NCT. Quite a group showed up- 15 people. This wasn't an official SPW hike, so I didn't feel constrained to try to connect with others. What I wanted to do was hike fast, and I did so. This meant I didn't spend much time with hardly anyone. If you were there and felt I wasn't friendly, I apologize.

It started out at freezing, but was up to 44° before I finished.

I thought I'd just give you a little tour of the trail because there's not much green stuff yet. Very soon after you leave the trailhead on 76th St (Lake County), you join an old railroad bed for just over a half mile. That is the former Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad that was completed to Ludington in 1874.

In about another mile, you enter a fenced corridor that people mostly hate and do not understand. Actually, it's a good thing. The trail passes through about a quarter mile of property belonging to the Pere Marquette Rod and Gun Club. The pathway is fenced because, as a hunt club, there is the possibility of shooting there at any time of year. Keeping hikers on the path is a real safety issue. And the trail needs a way to connect two sections of National Forest. We are thankful for the safe passage. Even though the fence is broken down in quite a few places, please stay in the corridor.

In another 3/4 mile, you'll come to a small creek that has no name. There are two wooden bridges across this. There's also a fair amount of corduroy turnpike that was installed at least 15 years ago made from cedar logs. It could use some work, but it's held up pretty well. That creek flows down the bluff to the Pere Marquette River.

Just a short walk farther, you'll see an old road bench angling down toward the river. This is indeed part of an old road that connected with Gleason's Landing Campground. Now, there is no bridge. You'd have to swim the river to get there from the trail! (Or have someone with a watercraft to transport you.) This is a good landmark because it's just about 2 miles from the trailhead.

But I was going farther today. In another 3/4 mile the trail crosses a "ditch" on a small plank bridge. On Avenza, this shows as a significant creek. Ha! I have never, ever, in 28 years seen any water in it.

Several of the hikers had set a goal of 7 miles total, and that sounded good to me too. That meant our turnaround point was the north end of the turnpike our chapter built two years ago. I last hiked there from the other direction with Monica (link below).

After a little snack, I headed back and passed the hikers who were still outbound. I caught up with Miki and Eamon and stayed with them a little while. Miki is doing great! She hiked 6 miles today. And it's Eamon's third birthday.

This is the longest hike I've done this season yet. I'm not too sore or stiff, but I am tired. I got some other things done today, but not a lot.

Miles walked in 2026: 115.9
NCT Hike 100 Challenge 2026:24.6

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. 76th St TH north for 3.5 miles and back.

See 100 Miles for Monica

Onward to Philly!

Marie and I packed up the car this morning and went to take a hike on a newly-paved rail trail near her. It was an Ontario and Western connector line. Nicely plowed and the sun had melted it clear. No snow pants needed! We wore jackets and gloves, but no extra layers on the legs. It was a welcome hint of a warmer season.

At one point we could see this other railroad bridge over Esopus Creek. I think it used to be New York Central, but I wasn't able to verify that just now.

Then we continued on our way. Most of my Philadelphia skyline pictures aren't good because they were taken from moving vehicles on the expressway. This one is no exception, but it proves we made it.

And here we are! Rachel, David, Marie and me. A smaller than usual gathering at flower show time, but that's OK!

We are doing the show on Monday so there will actually be a couple of calm days here. I'm ready for that.

We did manage to get in a decent walk. 3.7 miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 56.1
Kingston, NY, Ontario and Western Connector Trail, Washington St to Rt. 209 and back. 3.7 miles

See 1.4 Miles, 2 Counties

Railroad Pieces

The other fun thing I did on Saturday was drive a bit more of the road called Railroad Avenue in Oceana County. This is the dirt road on which the Pentwater Pathway trailhead is located.

The Chicago and West Michigan Railroad owned various lines at various times. One of them angled northeast from near Muskegon, and that is the part shown in the link below.

But one of their lines ran from New Buffalo (southwest corner of Michigan) to Pentwater. Now portions of that rail bed are roads, including a 5.3-mile stretch between Mears (where I was Saturday) and "sort of" Pentwater. The railroad ran to a settlement on the west side of Pentwater Lake called Frenchtown.

The parts I drove Saturday are roughly inside the red circle.

The access to Pentwater Pathway is almost at the north end of the line. There the road is dirt.

A little south of there the rail bed has been paved and is a road.

Right beside that section is this house. Can't you just imagine that when the rail line was operating (about 1869-1881) this was quite the beautiful place?

And this brings me to mention a category of blog posts that I never really started, but have thought about. Title: "Houses I'd Like to Save." The problem is that often I just see them while driving by and don't have the opportunity to stop and get a picture. I've only done one other post with this tag so far, but I see a lot of houses that would fit the category.

And this is frustrating. I have been in the house that was the station in Frenchtown. I've taken pictures of the railroad berm, and I was really sure I blogged about it. But I sure can't find the post-- on this blog or any other blog of mine! If I ever find the pictures, I'll have to do one.

A good day in terms of getting things done, although I did get off to a slow start.

See Chicago and West Michigan Railway