Mapping the Sheltowee

Ascentionist · Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 10:16 am Post subject: Throwing Down the Gauntlet

First, I’d like to congratulate Matt Hoyes on his FKT running attempt. It was a worthy effort and has definitely inspired me to begin working toward my own thru-bike (and maybe eventually thru-run) attempt.

Matts Hoyes and Johnson are credited with the first thru-bike of the Sheltowee Trace in the early hours of 2000. http://biowheels.com/our-unprecedented-journey-across-kys-sheltowee-trace-trail/ I applaud their bold ride and think they should be recognized accordingly. In no way do I mean to diminish their effort with what I’m about to say, but…they didn’t complete the Trace in the best style possible.

We’re still waiting for a truly unsupported end to end single-effort thru-bike of the Sheltowee Trace. Or, at least, we're waiting to hear about it.

What I see as the main obstacles to a successful thru-run or thru-bike right now is that the trail is not consistently and equally maintained. Some sections are typically neglected, or not maintained for biking at all. And then there is the fact that there are no well-established (vetted and marked) cycling detours around closed sections. It wouldn’t take much to identify the best detour routes, but they’d ideally be signed as well. Since I’m dreaming big…

There are two ways to complete the Trace: supported or unsupported. Then choose your method of conveyance: feet or wheels? (Wonder if anyone has horsed the entire route?) For the sake of this discussion I think we need to take section hiking off the table. Since we’re talking about speed records and in doing it in the best style I don’t think that strategy can be considered. That’s not to say section hiking isn’t a valid way to enjoy the trail…we’ve all done it.

So in the end what we should seek are records for:

Fastest supported thru-hike/run
Fastest unsupported thru-hike/run
Fastest supported thru-bike
Fastest unsupported thru-bike

For a better idea of what is meant by unsupported see Rules/FAQs from the Colorado Trail Race page. http://www.climbingdreams.net/ctr/ctr_rules.html

And I would also add a fastest bike/run thru-effort. That means that you bike the rideable sections until you reach a section closed to bikes (by policy, not by trail conditions) and then have someone shuttle your bike ahead to the next bikeable section. What about a relay team either full bike, full run, or split running and biking? A strong team of two switching off might be able to pull off the whole shebang really fast. Like, maybe in 2 -3 days.

As my beautiful wife likes to say: Go big or go home.

Traildust · Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 11:35 am Post subject:

Great ideas here. There has been a few horseback folks who claim to have ridden the entire Trace some years ago. There is an effort this year to do sections of the Trace by horseback but they have found that the roads are an issue so they are mostly skipping the roads and working on access points and services for the horse riding community.

Maintenance is an on-going issue. Neglected is a pretty strong word that is not justified by reality. There is no section that has not been touched or maintained by the STA in the last 4 years. Yep it is not maintained for biking but hey if folks want to maintain more for biking then let us know. It is in great shape compared to 4 years ago and we can do more with more help to the STA.

Biking around less than ideal spots for bikes is no problem. Give the STA a call and we can give you alternate routes. We hope to have a suggested bike plan on our webpage this fall.

We welcome someone else to try and bike the entire Trace, run it how ever you want to make the trip.

PR · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 8:15 pm Post subject:

Whoo boy. Any mtbrs/adv racers out there???

Ascentionist · Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 8:56 am Post subject:

There should be a designated road detour route for mountain bikes. Maybe we could get some grant funding for signage.

Of course ideally there would be a continuous singletrack route along the entire Trace. That may be a few years off though.

Traildust · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 7:28 pm Post subject:

Agree. We just don't have the staff at this time to get this done. I am hoping that we can get a grad student at EKU in Rec program or some other college to help with this idea.

Saxman · cub Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 5 Location: Lexington

Maybe a thread to keep track of FKT's? I'm sure more people will attempt the trail in the future.

I.B.Me · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:02 am Post subject:

I didn't see this thread until now but I will throw up 224:24 as an unsupported thru-hike time. See my post in thru-hikers section for more details.
Rick

Saxman · cub Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 5 Location: Lexington

Anyone know Matt Hoyes' total time for his run? He says 8 days on his blog but I never saw an exact total time.