Mapping the Sheltowee

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Day Four – Peter’s Mountain Road to Cotton Patch Shelter (16.4 miles Fords: Rock Creek)

Our goal for this day was to get to Rock Creek and cross it before the rain set in that evening. I knew if it rained, the faster flowing water would be deep and muddy. This was our first major creek crossing and I would feel more comfortable if I were able to see the bottom.

So we woke up with the sun, quickly packed and set off. About a mile into the hike, we had breakfast and headed down the path once again. Since we had hit the trail three days ago, it had been overcast. But today the sun was out and it was nice to finally feel some warmth and to hike without all our layers on us.

We forded Rock Creek with no problem and quickly continued on down the trail to warm back up. Once we crossed the Yamacraw Bridge we started hiking down the path with the river to our left. There are numerous ATV roads crisscrossing with the trail through this section. The blazes were few and at one point I decided that as long as the river was still on my left, I knew I was going in the right direction. This theory held up, for down the trail we reached our destination…The Cotton Patch Shelter. This meant we were going to have a dry night despite the rain.