Early Summer Part 1

I was on the Sheltowee beginning May 17th up until yesterday, May 22nd. I got about 78 miles in and made it from Morehead, the northern terminus, down to the suspension bridge in RRG.

My friend Martin and I started at the northern trailhead, where yellow primroses dotted the grass.

 

We crossed a few streams that seemed to signal that at least we'd find some reliable sources of water along the way. And then made our first climb up onto the ridgeline that we'd be following all day. 

Martin brought his binoculars and saw a bird he'd never spotted before--a scarlet tanager. Our afternoon was spent in a wooded landscape, paralleling a gravel road for a bit. Once in a while the canopy would open up a little to the side and you could spot the hills of Eastern Kentucky in the distance. That first day we made 10 miles and camped at Clark Park, where the resident dog could be heard genially sniffing outside our tent as we tried to catch some shut-eye.

The next day I got up a bit late, maybe 9, tired from our first day of roaming Kentucky's hills. We began our day's hike at maybe 10 in the morning, and climbed away from the holler of Dry Branch, up onto a ridge bare but for grass that was home to a cow pasture. We re-entered the woods and emerged at Holly Fork Rd, where we filled up our reserves of water just before the suspension bridge. I knew from experience that this was the last reliable source of water along the Sheltowee Trace until Eagle Lake on Morehead State University's campus, about 12 miles south. 

the pasture was full of fresh cowpats.

You follow a forest floor, full of tiny streams and small wildlife, (I saw an Eastern Box Turtle, mascot of the trail for the first time!) then climb back up to a forest road that takes you up to cross a bridge over I-64. After you cross over the interstate, it's a right onto a gravel road (Forest Road 977) that you will follow for about 8 or 9 miles, basically until you reach Morehead. Martin and I took a break a couple miles into 977 where he realized he had developed awful blisters, and at this point decided to cut his trip short and get our sweet pal Ethan to take him back home to Lexington.

The walk along 977 developed a monotony once I was alone, broken a couple times by views of Eastern Kentucky hills, lit by the hues of the setting sun.

I was cutting it close with daylight, and as I flew towards Morehead it grew darker and darker.

The hills near Morehead are challenging and by the time I was nearing Eagle Lake at MSU I felt like every step was an explosion of pain in my feet. I was dragging my carcass from the hills onto this college campus after dark, trying to find the least sus place to put my tent up for the night. 

The next day kicked my ass too. The dawn of the third day found me eating 4 mini vanilla moon pies for breakfast, washed down by a jumbo helping of chocolate nesquick. I made my way from Morehead's Allen IGA to Clearfield, on the outskirts of town, where I saw a little black cat scurry across a trailer park as recess was in full force at the elementary school across the road. The laughter and joy of the kids filled the bright early summer air, and I recalled the feeling of anticipation as the number of coming schooldays wasted away and the brightness of summer break called out to all of us. This year I finished my first full-time semester at college and just felt dazed. But the sounds of children playing fell away and I was walking further away from the city sprawl, deeper into a farming holler, an idyllic landscape dotted with cows, the earth tilled and fertile here, and after several miles on pavement from Eagle Lake the ST turned right, up and away into the hills once again. To Cave Run Lake I was bound. 

It was hot; the winding hills up to the lake made for a hard hike. On the left shadows fill the trail and on the right, high rock precipices (amburgy rocks?). This section of the trail is home to Limestone Knob, the highest point in Rowan County.

There was also no water to be found along the trail from Morehead to Cave Run Lake, about an 8-mile stretch. Last May when I hiked this section there was a natural spring near Limestone Knob right on the forest road, but when I came up to it this year it was dry.

When I got to the lake, I had to walk down the boat access road at High Bank picnic area to get to the shore, where I collected water amongst floating pieces of litter, infused by motor oil from the boats that sped around the lake. I sat on the shore for a while bleaching in the sun as I soaked my aching feet.

After a really late lunch at High Bank picnic area, I set off to cross the dam. On my left the lake was splayed out, framed by the hills I'd traversed earlier that day, and to my right was the spillway and a park, where families gathered against a background of trees and mountains.

    I turned into Stoney Cove Recreation Area, where more families were celebrating with potlucks and picnics, and headed towards the woods, turning onto the Caney Trail. Here the Sheltowee Trace has been rerouted to trail the shores of Cave Run Lake. This was also a shared-use trail with horses, and though horse season had just started a couple days before I hiked it, the terrain was destroyed and pocked by deep hoofprints in muddy areas. I hiked during a dry spell, but I could see this trail as being miserable in or right after the rain. 

    I was fighting the setting sun, racing towards the place I would make camp as the world grew dimmer and the light began leaking out of the woods. I settled in for the night along Cave Run Lake, and as the woods grew darker the soundscape of merriment and motors was replaced by the din of crickets chirping and whippoorwills calling into the night.

Morning along Cave Run Lake. Peep my Rakaia 2-person tent, super roomie when it's just me.