Mapping the Sheltowee

[I.B.Me]

Day 4 Tuesday 7/3/07
I awoke at 6:30am but I let Jack sleep in to hopefully heal up for the days hike. We broke camp at 9:36am and continued our Southerly trek. The trails in this part of the Clifty Wilderness are in great shape and there are many established campsites. It is obvious that this section gets more use than any point up to now. At 70.7 trail miles we encounter Natural Arch. This arch made for a prime photo opportunity. I was not carrying a tripod due to weight restrictions so I noticed several of my photos were as skewed as the objects I used to rest the camera on. We stopped for lunch and water pumping under the suspension bridge spanning the Red River. A quick push up the Rough Trail and we are out of the Red River Gorge. I passed a father and son hiking into the gorge as I was leaving it and it caused me to reflect back to 2000 when Ryan and I hiked this section. I hope they had as much fun as we did on our hikes. When I arrived at Natural Bridge State Park there were several signs stating that Jack was not welcome on the trails inside the park. Not about to turn around now, Jack and I marched up hill toward the arch at a rapid pace. We did not go to the arch itself for fear of being sited but turned onto Sand Gap Trail and continued south. We made an early dry camp at 7:19pm beside a gravel forest service road. To press on would take us onto private property and thus no place to camp. Several vehicles traversed the road during the night. The first was a hunter in an old Ford truck complete with dog box. I don’t know any season that is in on July 3rd but maybe that doesn’t matter as much there. I slept easy because I made my camp some distance from the road and therefore was not noticed. The day was less rushed than previous days and Jack seemed to heal up a bit. Data for day four: 18.2 trail miles hiked, 0.9 extra miles hiked, moving time 7:11, stopped time 2:12, average moving speed 2.5 mph, total average speed 1.9 mph.