Mapping the Sheltowee

[I.B.Me]

On Thursday night March 10th my son Chanse and I camped out at the Northern Terminus to get an early start on our thru hike. Chanse was on spring break so we only had 10 days to get as far as we could on the Sheltowee.
The weather had been unusually warm with nighttime lows in the mid 50's. The mild temps allowed us to lighten our packs with thinner sleeping bags and less clothing. We carried homemade backpacks and minimalistic gear to allow for a faster pace. Our packs weighed 26 pounds each including food and water.
The trail was in much better shape than when I last thru hiked it in 2009. The first day we started at 05:20 and made it just past Cave Run lake before calling it a day. That first day was 38 trail miles and set the pace for the whole trip. Chanse set the pace on day one. He had injured both feet a couple weeks before by wearing too small of boots for a 45 mile prehike.

[I.B.Me]

Rick and Chanse's Sheltowee thru hike (Dubbed "Insanity 2016")
Summary: Northern Terminus to Southern terminus 319 miles in 9 1/2 days (224 hours and 24 minutes to be exact)
Started at 05:20 3/11/2016
Finished 14:44 3/20/2016
Rick finished but Chanse did not.
753,080 Fitbit steps total (note the steps are hard to assign to specific days due to hiking past midnight on several occasions.)
Trail conditions were mostly good. Much better than my 2009 thru-hike.
Rain during the early days of the hike contributed to the blister problems that ended Chanse's hike and slowed my pace drastically. I did learn a lot more about blister care on the trip.

Day 1 Northern terminus to Cave Run lake.
38 trail miles (mm0-mm38)
0 bewilderment miles
1.5 extra miles to pump water.
5:20a-10:20p minus 1 hour lunch and 1 hour Supper at Wendy's.
86,987 Fit bit steps
Trail conditions very good to excellent.
Reroute through Moorehead was a welcomed change.

Day 2 Cave Run to Gladie .
28 trail miles (mm38-mm66)
0 miles bewildered
7:12a-1013p
64,840 Fitbit steps.
Trail conditions couple dozen blow downs between clear creek and furnace arch. A few afterwards. A lot of mud from horse traffic. Otherwise trails were good.

Day 3 Gladie to big sinking creek
31 trail miles (mm66-mm97)
0 bewildered miles
1 extra mile (Miguals Pizza👍)
5:49a-11:20p -4 hours wash up and pizza.
73,738 Fitbit steps
Trail conditions very good. Soggy day...

Day 4 Big Sinking Creek to Resurgence Cave.
29 trail miles (mm97-mm126)
0 bewildered miles
0 extra miles
7a-11p
70,432 Fitbit steps
Trail conditions good except Todds road to resurgence cave overgrown. Half dozen blow downs to negotiate.
Soggy muddy day.
Blister control stage 8. A few miles off of our intended pace. Should be able to make them up when the rain stops.

Day 5 Resurgence Cave to Hwy 490
36 trail miles (mm126-mm162)
0 bewildered miles
0 extra miles
7:30a-12:30p
~78,000 Fitbit steps
Trail conditions very good but muddy near S-Tree.
Dry day. Made up a couple miles.

Day 6 hwy 490 to Holly Bay
40 trail miles (mm162-mm202)
1 bewildered miles
0 extra miles
7:30a-2a
~89,500 Fitbit steps
Ice damage but otherwise good trail conditions.
Chanse succumbed to blisters at Hwy I-75 (mm174)

Day 7 Holly Bay to Hwy 27
35 trail miles (mm202-mm237)
0 bewildered miles
0 extra miles
7a-1:30a
~82,000 Fitbit steps
Trail conditions good. Ice damage between Hwy 700 & Hwy 27. Below Cumberland falls worst conditions so far on trip. Hurt feet worse climbing over and through many blow downs.

Day 8 Hwy 27 to Peter's Mountain
28 trail miles (mm237-mm265)
0 bewildered miles
0 extra miles
8a-12a
~70,500 Fitbit steps
Trail conditions much improved. Some ice damage Hwy 27 to Yahoo Falls. Blisters not going away.

Day 9 Peter's Mountain to Bandy Creek
32 trail miles (mm265-mm297)
0 miles bewildered.
0 extra miles
5a-11p
78,101 Fitbit steps
Trail conditions great. Slow pace due to blisters.

Day 10 Bandy Creek to Burnt Mill Bridge
22 trail miles (mm297-mm319)
0 bewildered
0 extra miles
2a-2:44p (early start because temps dropped into 20's. If you get cold, get up and walk.)
58,441 Fitbit steps
Trail conditions great. Pace down to 1 mph as day progressed due to blisters.

Fitbit data for (224:24):
752,573 steps
90,350 calories
9,292 active minutes
365.07 miles walked

[I.B.Me]

Chanse and I started out with minimalistic gear including a fresh set of maps from Boyd and the gang at outrageGIS mapping. The first time my older son Ryan and I section hiked the Sheltowee (1998-2001), we used the USGS section maps to navigate. The maps for the whole trail weighed about 5 pounds and only had approximate locations for some of the trail. We were bewildered a lot. This trip the 5 pages of maps all fit into one plastic ziplock (provided with the maps). We were very familiar with the trail and only referred to them for the mileage markers and a few times for actual navigation. We did not carry a GPS but the maps are marked in longitude and latitude so you would always be able to locate your position accurately if you would couple the maps with a good GPS.
Our tent was an Appy Trails tarp tent with a Tyvek ground cloth. Note when Chanse discontinued hiking, I simply carried the Tyvek ground cloth for the rest of the trip.
We started off with hiking boots and running shoes. We used the running shoes for the long road walks. Chanse had severely blistered his two little toes by wearing new boots that were two sizes too small for a prehike two weeks before our big hike. I can't explain how he did this (ask him. Lol). The blisters that caused him to stop hiking were just continuations of these same two blistered little toes that he had walked on for 45 miles in the prehike. It rained on days 2,3&4. Our feet both took a beating trying to bang out those big miles in wet boots. In the photos I will include later you will see how I use duct tape to combat blisters and hot spots.
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[I.B.Me]

I wore my Fitbit HR for the entire trip. Prior to this hike my maximum number of steps in a day was about 63,000. This hike was nicknamed Insanity 2016 because of the shear number of steps required each day. The total steps was over 750,000 in just 9 1/2 days. I really wanted to hit 100,000 just one time to see how the Fitbit would handle the extra digit. Too bad my 52 year old body couldn't pound out a 45-50 mile day to determine this.
My heart rate stayed in check most of the trip. There was one occasion where I checked it while climbing a big hill at a rapid pace just after consuming a GU pack with caffeine. My heart rate was 135! I tried to use the GU packs with discretion afterwards.

[I.B.Me]

Chanse and I started off carrying more food than we needed to. We were not sure what items the stores in Moorehead carried.
Resupply options in Moorehed MM26 were the IGA and Save-a-lot. These stores carry a very good selection without walking any additional miles.
The second resupply is Bear track grocery about MM99. It requires 1.5 extra miles so we did not choose this as an option.
The Conviently Country market is about MM104 and requires no extra walking. The selection is not the best but we made due. Martha fixed us some amazing turkey sandwiches.
The next resupply option is McKee but this requires walking an extra 7 miles so we chose not to resupply in McKee. Hilltop pizza however did deliver a large meatlovers and some Dr. Peppers trailside. (:
The 49er diner is at MM174 and has good food. The selection of trail food is not very complete.
Holly Bay marina has a good selection of food in the summer but when I went through, there was only pastries available.
Stearns can be a resupply point but it requires walking an extra 7 miles so I chose not to walk that far for a dollar general selection.
Yamacraw grocery made me some good tenderloin sandwiches and has a small amount of hiking food. I should have stocked up better here. I thought the Charit lodge had food to sell. I was completely wrong. This caused me to run out of food with 22 hours left to hike.

[Ewker]

Thanks for sharing your trip report.