Mapping the Sheltowee

jamie hale · cub Joined: 03 Nov 2008 Posts: 13 Location: Winchester Ky

I plan on hiking from Red River Gorge to Cave Run Lake within the next couple of weeks. My understanding is the trail is approx 38 miles. Is that correct? I plan on hiking a large portion of the trail this spring. Maybe the entire trail. I plan on writing a series of articles on the trail. I write on nature, exercise, science, nutrition, logic and combat sports.

I recently discovered this forum. I have been impressed with the photos and the information provided on the forum. I look forward to learning more about the trail and commenting when I have something useful to add to the discussion.

Has anyone here hiked the Red River Gorge to Cave Run trail lately? What was the trail conditions? Another question. If I were going to hike the entire trail this spring should It been in April or May? Does it matter?

Jamie Hale

Chilton · Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 10:50 pm Post subject:

Much of the trail north of RRG is road walk and private property. From Corner Ridge RD where the ST comes out of the RRG the road walk in that section is a fairly narrow and curvy 2 lane road that locals and tourists to the gorge plain out just fly on. You may want to skip that section if considering it as a starting point and start where the trail goes back off the hardball at the 460 and 1242 intersection just south of Frenchburg. The intersection that I am talking about is on map 25.

This section tends to be a less used section of the trail until you get up to white sulfur horse camp then the trail is very used by horse traffic and is sometimes a bit messy especially in the spring and wet times.

I.B.Me · Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:14 am Post subject:

Jim and I did the 1242 to Cave Run Dam section of your trip in July and the trail had just been sawn by the USFS. There was one fresh large tree down but otherwise it is in great shape.

The road walk is a bummer but not impossible. Jack (my yellow lab) and I did it last year and the folks on porches were all very nice. In most places there are spots to get out of the way of traffic. There is actually only 3.8 miles on hwy 460 and hwy 77. These are the roads that Chilton was refering to where people are driving too fast for the narrow road. There are other paved parts like Corner ridge road and KY1242 but the traffic is not too bad on them.

Good luck,
Rick

jamie hale · cub Joined: 03 Nov 2008 Posts: 13 Location: Winchester Ky

Thanks for the information.

Jamie Hale