Great Trails and Road Walks on the Sheltowee Trace Section Four

Section Four of the Sheltowee Trace Hiker Challenge

The Heidelberg March.  Road walk.  Uphill both ways.  Vicious dogs will bite your legs.

Veterans of the Sheltowee have been telling me all kinds of horror stories about this section, which if you're southbound like we were, runs basically from the Natural Bridge to about three miles south of Heidelberg,

Kentucky, a little river community in Lee County.

I wasn't looking forward to it.  I got new trail runners with good cushion. They actually do call it the Heidelberg March, like a section of that Stephen King movie that came out last year, The Long Walk.  I imagined that movie, but with dogs.

A funny thing happened after I got home, on Monday and on into Tuesday - I missed it.  On Monday I felt a longing for the air and sun and trees and moving my feet all day,  for the conversations on the trip, and the Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies.  I felt like I was missing someone that I just met and I was falling in love with her.

Don't believe what people tell you.  This was the easiest section of the challenge so far.

We flip-flopped our trip, starting south on Saturday at Natural Bridge, then staying that night at the Lago Linda campground, a really nice little place outside Beattyville with a restaurant with a great cheeseburger, cold beer, and friendly staff.  I actually car camped at Lago Linda on Friday night, and left everything there, so I got to slack pack the entire weekend (again because of the fear of the Heidelberg March).

Saturday morning was gorgeous and cool, down in the 50s.  We made our way up to the Natural Bridge on the Original Trail because the Balanced Rock section is still closed because of forest fire or something.  It's been closed for at least a year at this point, but that's on Kentucky State Parks.  Up to the top of the Bridge for a brief view, the trail is a ridge walk for basically the next 7 miles.

This section is pretty flat, with some young-ish trees growing from the last forest fire, whenever that was, up until White's Branch Arch, which is not visible from the trail, but can be accessed down a short rock scramble.  Some of the challenge hikers brought rope and climbed down, but I headed on.

This section of the trail follows some multi-use, some single-track, and then you get to the narrows, which is classic rock ridge walking like you see in the Gorge and areas around it.  In March there were still plenty of migrating warblers coming through and I heard prairie warblers all day long, spotting a few of them when they felt brave enough to land on low limbs close to the trail.

Popping out on a road, we had some trail magic from one of the STA board members (and the Little Debbies I talked about), then began the road walk for the next six miles.

If you have to road walk, I would recommend it in Kentucky in spring.  The roadsides are full of wildflowers that need that break in the forest canopy coverage to pop up.  Trillium and wild geranium, dwarf crested iris, pink lady slippers, all were coming up along the trail.  There were no dogs on Saturday.  At all.  And the largest section of the road walk was along an old county road by a creek with cool old houses and a school and lots of daffodils, ghosts of the houses and communities that used to be there.

Off the road, the next section is one of those that makes the Sheltowee

incredible.  Following a rocky, mostly dry creek bed, you pass a large cave with a creek running out, that is a perfect spot to stop for lunch or explore a bit.  There are other caves and springs that run out along the trail under the cool cover of hemlocks and other trees.  This small section would be so crowded if people knew about it and then could find it in their cars.

At Big Sinking Creek, the creek ends at a large overhang with a wide creek crossing that looks like it came out of a landscape painting.

Ok, I said this section was flat and easy.  I lied.  One of the last sections is a forest service road that went straight uphill, for what felt like 4 miles.  I got legit Appalachian Mountains vibes from the elevation.  Really it was 500 feet over one mile, according to Far Out, but it felt steeper and feelings are all that matter.  Top of the hill, it's back on blacktop and you stay on it until you get back to Lago Linda, just about a mile.

That's a total of just about 17 miles (plus the one mile from the road to camping at Lago Linda down their road).  No dogs, road walks were actually really enjoyable, a big old arch to start it off, and lots of birds and flowers.

Sunday we loaded onto the shuttles like we were headed off to be sentenced.  They were still talking about how tough the Heidelberg March was going to be, and even harder because of the flip-flop, because we were now hiking north, UP the hill from Heidelberg from the Kentucky River, and uphill the rest of the way.  15 miles.

This turned out to be the easiest day of the whole Sheltowee Trace for me. 

We had to flip-flop to make it easier for the shuttles.  We camped in the middle of the two sections and so we got dropped off south and walked north to our tents, another slack pack day. 

Starting on a small county road again, you follow the road beside a creek about two miles until you get to Route 399, a wide blacktopped highway that takes you into Heidelberg.  There's a really cool metal bridge over the Kentucky River with the view of a dam upstream and a little park there, but other than that, it's just walking uphill for a few miles, then past some houses, then you're back to Lago Linda before you know it.  I was done by about lunchtime.

First thing - dogs.  There was one house at first along what I think is called Todds Road that had all the dogs. Big ones, little ones, old ones, puppies, definitely more than 10 but less than 20 came running out barking.  Here's the thing.  They were all excited and happy dogs.  None were even nippy.  There's that thing that dog trainers tell people - no eye contact, no talking, no fast movements.  Do that and you'll be fine.  There were no dogs the rest of the way.

Second thing - and this is real - you are on a road for a good 12 miles passing by people's front yards.  There are no places to pee and no water sources.  Good thing I didn't need to do the one and I barely drank any water at all.  It was maybe 60 degrees that morning and I had a jacket on at first.  If you walked this section in hot weather, this might be different, but on the day we did it, it was perfect.

Oh, and that massive hill that we had to walk up, it was about 500 feet, but spread out over 2 miles or more.  We kept telling those crusty veterans that the hill before was worse, and we were right.  About twice as bad because it was the same elevation in half the distance.

This road walk section wasn't great.  There was traffic and blind curves, and not much to look at other than the houses along the way.  It wasn't nearly as nice as the ones on Saturday.  Still it wasn't bad.  I like drives through the country and this was just like a slow drive with bad tires.

Oh, on the way home, no McDonald's this time.  It was BBQ in Slade with Anthony, Nimmo, and Billy.  Good stuff and good company.

Southbound, 2 days (with a flip-flop).

Natural Bridge trailhead to Lago Linda Campground

17 miles

Todds Road, Lee County to Lago Linda Campground

15 miles

Earlier hike:

Farther Along - More Section Hiking on the Sheltowee Trace

Brian Privett lives in Paris, Kentucky and is ok with road walks in the springtime.