Survival of the Sheltowee

The beginning of the trail.

We successfully made it the 144 miles to McKee, KY and have been home for nearly a week.  Twelve days in the woods went way too fast.  The day before we planned to leave, I found out my bank account had some fraudulent charges so I had to cancel my debit card.  I took some cash with me and a credit card that I would later learn was expired.  Along the hike at one gas station along the way we debated if we could afford a hamburger and still have enough money to buy gas for the way home.  We ended up getting two double cheeseburgers.  When we got home I had $0.81 left in my pocket and less than 1/4 tank of gas!

The trail in Pickett State Park.

 Overall the hike went relatively well.  We tried out some new gear, taste-tested some new backpacking recipes, and tried to remember what it was like to have nothing to do but walk.  The trail was easy compared to the AT, but had several areas with challenging blowdowns, the biggest challenge on the southern half of the trail.  The latter part of our hike contained more road walking and following ATV trails.  Other than one confusing section north of Cumberland Falls, the trail was well marked.

Wander demonstrates proper fording technique.

 We had to ford four streams along the way, not to mention the dozens of smaller streams that we could walk across.

Shakedown Trip Planning

Preparation.  We are getting ready to do a section hike on the Sheltowee Trace in Kentucky.  Actually it starts at Pickett State Park in TN and ends north of Morehead KY for a total of 280 miles.  We are only doing the southern half of the trail, 140 miles or so, ending at McKee, KY.  Using every last minute of vacation time I have left we have arranged to spend 12 days on the trail.  That means we have to average 12 miles per day.  Hopefully not too ambitious for this trail.  We have not been hiking for awhile.

We are starting this hike with six days of food.  Today I mailed another six days worth ahead to the Holly Bay Marina where we will pick it up on our way through. We have never mailed food to ourselves before, so I hope this works.

Only 171 days until we start the AT!