Mapping the Sheltowee

[streetcop]

okay so i am on a health kick lately. on april 15th i weighed 293 currently i am at 243 and dropping. i decided to take up backpacking as a hobby. i had planned to do the trace in two trips starting each direction from mckee. my plans were thrown out of wack due to family and work commitments so i decided to take a quick weekend trip from exit 49 to mckee. i walk 9 miles every day and in prep i began doing it with the pack a month ago.

thought 1 walking with a pack on level ground is not the same as walking in the mountains.

thought 2 never leave your son and nephew alone with your pack prior to your hike. apparently my nephew felt the need to show my son how to adjust the pack to fit properly and spent the time to readjust every strap. both of them are now in witness protection until i get over being mad.

thought 3 i saw wildcat civil war battlefield in the guide book and thought "cool" that would be a great place to start. the guidebook fails to mention that this was the battle of wildcat MOUNTAIN. the key word being MOUNTAIN.

thought 4 the guide book other than the exclusion of the word Mountain was really helpful.

thought 5 there should be a season on 14 year old kids driving four wheelers wide open down the trail. you should be able to purchase a licence and tags and hunt them for sport.

thought 6 remember that the rockcastle river/indian creek is a navigatable waterway. this means there are people in small boats powered by oars and trolling motors. use caution when swimming in the all together. i will leave it at that.

thought 7 there is a raccoon on wildcat with a taste for shortbread cookies. he is easy to recognise he is the size of a panda and has crumbs around his muzzle. i really wanted those cookies you little #######.

thought 8 below wildcat there is someone with a loud truck and a pack of coon dogs that bark all night long. i will forgive these sins if they kill the above mentioned raccoon.

thought 9 placement of blazes and turtles thru this section was very helpful every time i got confused there was a turtle. just a thought but if someone hikes these sections on a regular basis it would be helpful to put milage marks on the sign with a sharpie to help follow the guidebook.

thought 10 my gps was essentialy useless without signal for most of the trip.

[jbd]

You are a very thoughtful guy. I enjoyed your musings very much!

[Traildust]

Thanks for the feedback. We just went through this section with blazes and glad it worked out for you.

[dradius]

I know I'm a little late but thanks for the post / laughs.