It's been over a month since I went on my first backpacking trip on the Sheltowee Trace and I've been feeling a hunger for more solitude and miles through the forest building up within. Since I left the trace at US-27 on April 5th, I've been on several day hikes --some sections along the sheltowee, and some waterfalls around McKee and London. I also took a little 4/20 camping trip to witness the sunset over Laurel Lake again. But still I was pining for another few days of uninterrupted bumbling through the Daniel Boone National Forest, for the excitement of a whole afternoon of letting my feet carry me past the wonders of the wild of Kentucky.
As it's still quarantine season and Red River Gorge is still closed, I planned a 65ish mile hike of the first section of the Sheltowee, from the Northern Terminus to Corner Ridge Trailhead on the outskirts of Frenchburg, just before the trace descends into the Gorge. This way whenever things got back to normal in the summer, I could pick up the trail at mile 65 going into Red River Gorge and spend 3 weeks exploring the last 268 miles of the sheltowee trace at a more leisurely pace. It'd be dope if i could walk the whole trace before I turn 19 and go back to school this August. But things don't always pan out as planned as I'd learn on this trip.
This time i was able to drag my neanderthal roommate jack along on the trail with me; we'd leave his whip at corner ridge and mine at the start, up 25 miles north of downtown Morehead. The first day, wednesday, we planned to get up early and get the gat by 8 am. But we missed all our alarms, woke up late, dawdled over breakfast, and didn't really hit the road to Frenchburg til 11:30.
I got to Corner Ridge Trailhead first because I drive like a veritable maniac and found that the trailhead was closed, which I guess was stupid of me to assume otherwise since it leads into Red River Gorge. Jack got there, we regrouped, and decided to leave his car in the parking lot of a downtown Frenchburg Family Dollar, off US 460, which the trail intersects near mile 62. After this hurdle we got to the Northern Terminus around 2 pm. About a half mile in Jack realized he forgot his keys in my car and had to run back to the whip then back up the first breathwrenching ridgeline climb of the trace.
When we got to the trailhead it was abound with yellow wildflowers on this somewhat rainy downcast day.
By two we were starting on a breakneck pace up along the ridgeline above these little mountain towns. The hills of rowan county stood tall behind the trees flanking the path either way you looked. We passed a couple of small ponds of stagnant water but no sources of flowing trustworthy water. Besides a little stretch of crunchy gravel forest road, the path our first day was all single track trail, mostly over ridgeline but at times meandering through treeless grassy meadow. We walked through a pasture with cute dopey-eyed cows mere yards away from us. To my surprise by 6 we had already wheedled 8 miles away south of the start.
moo moos on the trail! not even a fence to keep em in their lil grazing area!
pretty much how most of the trail looked wednesday afternoon
About 9 miles in, the trail dropped down into a little holler home to the famous Clark Park I'd read about in my guide and in so many trail blogs. Just a little family park next to a babbling stream set up right along the trace by whatever wonderful folks live on the property. It was a nice place to sit down beneath a tree and chomp on trail mix and catch our breaths before we tackled the last few miles of the day. Permission to camp here isn't explicitly given in the guidebook, but hikers are welcome to stock up on water from their pump and use their shelter to chill or make lunch under.
This sweet ole fella came up to us friendly as hell demanding pets and belly rubs while we took a breather at Clark Park. <3 :D
Soon after we were relatching the red gate guarding the trail and heading back up on a ridgeline, crossing over a dry creek bed, through one more open field host to underground pipelines, and settling down for the night in the woods just off of Holly Fork Rd. We chose the first flat spot in the woods we saw after leaving Clark Park, but right down the hill and adjacent to the road was a already established campsite with a fire ring of rock and a pile of firewood. Oh well. At least our site was right next to a stream, contaminated by road runoff or not this was a pretty convenient first campsite of the trip.
By 8 I'd devoured a dinner of boxed pasta and was settling into sleep with dreams of downtown morehead and cave run lake ahead jostling around in my dome. We were here in the quiet of the daniel boone national forest again, disturbed only by the rare passing of a vehicle on a nearby country road as the sun set on a glum dreary hump day.
hills of rowan county in the distance whether u looked to ur right or left along the trail
we ended our day in the bottommost hollow in the land on this map on the first day, in the valley of holly fork.
