Mapping the Sheltowee

[chester]

Preparation:

In preparing for this hike, I trained for a year. I had attempted to thru-hike last March and was off the trail in five days for a number of reasons. My navigation skills were not up to par with the route finding challenges the Sheltowee presented. My body was not up to par with the physical demands that came with thru-hiking. Tornados were busting through Kentucky and in the end, I chickened out both mentally and physically by day five. With my tail between my legs, I went back home to the cabin in the woods my husband and I call our home. Located just a mile from Nada Tunnel, the Red River Gorge is my back yard. I hike its rocky spine as often as I can, admiring the cliff lines and beautiful greenery it provides.

It was here in “The Gorge” that I spent the last year training for my thru hike. Last March, after my injuries healed, I started doing yoga, riding my bike, hiking and trail running. I also gave up sweets and breads for six months. As a result, I lost over 30 pounds.

Since I knew at this point my knees might be a problem, I started extensively researching ultra light hiking techniques and gear. I spent the year slowly acquiring new, lighter gear, researching freeze dried food and actually learning how to use my trekking poles correctly. With every new piece of gear, I took it apart and removed any unnecessary parts such as tags and buckles. Titanium replaced my aluminum cooking gear. I bought carbon fiber stuff sacks to replace the manufacturers heavier nylon stuff sacks for my tent, sleeping pad, cookware, and sleeping bag. I never was able to afford a new carbon fiber back pack so I cut off just about every strap on my Osprey pack and removed the top flap compartment, reducing it’s weight by two pounds. In the end, my fully loaded pack was over 10 pounds lighter than the year before.

Physically, my training involved hiking in three-day increments. I would choose my trails wisely. One day would be hills, the next would be flatter terrain with the third day being a longer hike that combined the two. I almost never hiked more than 8 miles each day. But just a few weeks before I was to leave for my thru hike, I decided to hike a whopping 16 miles. The next day I felt it and decided to hold off on the longer distances until I worked up my strength. My thought was to actually do this on my thru hike. The first three days would be 10 miles of hiking and slowly add more miles until I reached the Red River Gorge and hike 20 miles in one day, my longest planned day of hiking. Until this thru hike, the longest I had ever hiked was 14 miles in one day and that was only because I was extremely lost.

I planned my trip into five sections that spanned over 26 days with an average of hiking 13.5 miles a day.
Section 1: Southern Terminus to US-27 in Whitley City (6 days planned)
Rest Day in Whitley
Section 2: US-27 to KY-80 in London (4 days planned)
Rest Day in London
Section 3: KY-80 to KY-11 in Slade (6 days planned)
Rest Day at home in Slade to rest before the whopping 20 mile hike
Section 4: KY-11 to US-460 (one day planned) (20 miles)
Rest Day back home in Slade (figured I would need it after hiking 20 miles the day before)
Section 5: US-460 to Northern Terminus (5 days planned)

Of course the actual trip went nothing like my carefully composed plan.

In the days preceding the hike, I carefully tallied each days miles and marked them in my guide book which I had scanned and reduced to four pages on to a letter sized document. Next, I printed them double sided on a light weight paper that I could fold up to fit in my pocket. With eight original guidebook pages on a single sheet of paper, I was able to get it down to five sections of hiking that correlated with my five planned hiking sections. I only carried the needed one double-sided page at a time with a back up copy in a waterproof bag with my back up maps.

In the end, I did not follow the schedule that I had so carefully planned out. It turns out I was in better shape than I thought and finished the trail in 21 days (17 hiking days/4 rest days) rather than the planned 26 days. Section one was completed in five days. Section two was completed in three. I used my extra 4th day to continue forward to gain more ground. Section three was completed in three days. Section four (the Red River Gorge) took less than a day. Section five was completed in three days.


In addition to the guidebook, I used the Big South Fork’s map published by National Geographic for navigating through the new southern terminus, a set of the outrageGIS maps for the southern section of the trail and a full set of the Forest Service Maps covering the entire Daniel Boone National Forest. I only carried the maps that I needed for the section I was hiking at the time.

For additional navigation I carried the Garmin Dakota 20 GPS. This guy was small and lightweight and had one very important feature…a touch screen. I used the eTrex 20 last year and the non-touch screen drove me crazy. I spent more time fighting my GPS than navigating. Using an application for the Mac, I was able to combine multiple GPX files of the Sheltowee and Big South Fork to create a usable trek of the entire trail. I added waypoints at pivotal intersections. This proved time and time again to be the most reliable navigation tool on my trip.

I allowed myself one splurge and that was a lightweight weather radio. Considering my problems with the tornados last year, I thought this would be a useful tool. It would be good to know if a tornado was in the general 300 miles. Weather radios actually aren’t really that lightweight (mine was a Sangean DT-400W) and to help with that, I did not carry batteries in it. If I would need it, I’d simply use my GPS backup batteries. My logic was that it only took a minute or two to listen to the weather so the juice used would be minimal.

I did not carry a gun. I am not properly trained in shooting (although I have shot a gun or two) and, through a lot of previous experience traveling the world alone, feel I am more than capable of getting myself out of danger using my brain rather than a weapon. Another reason, guns are really heavy.

I did carry bear mace. I knew I could never shoot a bear since, in my opinion, this is morally wrong. After all, I am walking through his home. Of course he’s gonna be upset. So bear mace was the protective measure I chose to use against any bear or human. Bear mace is also lighter than the gun I would have brought.

Also for my safety, I carried the Spot Tracker which is a tracking device I clipped onto my backpack. My close friends and family could then track my progress live. At the end of each day I would send a message through the tracker stating that I had reached my destination for the evening and all was well. This brought peace of mind to everyone involved.

[Ewker]

You are not the first to lay out your plans only to see them fall by the wayside. As the saying goes Hike Your Own Hike and you did..congrats to you.