Hiked Tuesday, September 13. Today's hike would be a pretty short three miles, and probably only if I add the mileage walking to my office and back. Twice.
There's a steel fence that surrounds the South Range, although I suspect a motivated bison could break through. It's just that they have no real incentive to break through, since there's plenty of grass and water on their side of the fence.
This being late summer, the bison have a ragged look to them. From some angles, you can pretend they're free-ranging bison. From others, the fence is obvious.
I intended to walk entirely around the range, but as I approached the final stretch, the growth became too thick to navigate. The only clear path would have put me right on the fence, and I didn't want to draw that much attention from the bison. The photo here gives you an idea of how close I was going to have to get to them.
Hiked Saturday, September 10. This was my longest single day of hiking since moving to Kentucky. 13 miles, which isn't all that long compared to many southern CA trips, but was still plenty tiring.
Road #170 is a gravel road, but it's maintained for passenger car use. From the Trace, it's an easy .5 miles to where the road crosses the North-South trail. There's room for 1-2 cars to park off the road and near this trail.
Just on the other side of #165 (which is paved), there were a number of flowers. First, I saw a what looked like a purple aster. Then I saw a patch of yellow daisy-looking flowers. A bit further down, I came across a huge field, blanketed by them. It didn't photograph as impressively as they seemed in real life, unfortunately.
About 1 mile south of #165, the trail first shares a short segment with a jeep path, Road #356, then crosses to the south. After a bit of paralleling The Trace, the North-South trail finally crosses it.
On the other side of The Trace, I came to a gate with signs warning of danger and the fact that the North-South trail was temporarily closed here for logging. This closure was not listed on-line, and meant this would be the end of the hike for me today.
In one respect, it was a good thing I turned around when I did. Along the way back, the clouds kept building, and the sound of raindrops falling on leaves became more frequent. Before long, it was a constant pelting of large (but not too dense) raindrops. Even as the rain fell, however, the sun was mostly still breaking through. It wasn't a soaking rain, and it was still in the 70s, but walking in the rain for a longer period of time might not have been very enjoyable. As it was, when I finally saw my car in the distance, it was a welcome sight.
Hiked Thursday, September 8. My second trip to this area. There are enough trail miles around here to support at least two or three more trips, especially if I include the far southern end of the North-South trail.
To get to the trailhead, I took US 79 to Fort Henry Road. It's about a mile east of the bridge over Kentucky Lake, and there's a sign indicating the way to Piney Campground. It's also LBL Road #230. About two miles up this road, you pass the turnout for Piney Campground. To get to the Fort Henry trailheads, you do NOT turn there. Instead, continue an additional two miles to a signed junction that points left for Boswell Landing. Turn there, then turn left, again, when you reach the signed junction for the Fort Henry trailhead.
Although the map indicates just two trails here (Telegraph trail or to Pickett Loop), there are about four different trails on the ground. Many appear to rejoin the other trails a short distance away, but it's impossible to be sure about some of them. Nonetheless, if you head "south" (left, as facing the loop at the end of the road, you'll be on the Telegraph trail, heading south, and soon cross Fort Henry Road. If you head "north" (right, as facing the loop at the end of the road), you'll soon hit a trail where faded old magic marker lettering indicates you are on your way to the Pickett Loop. This trail will soon lead you across the road that leads to Boswell Landing. After .7 miles, you reach junction 23, the actual Pickett Loop trail. If you take the loop in a clockwise direction, there'll be a spur trail you'll run across in about a mile that will let you see Boswell Landing.
Withe the help of the map, I was always in the vicinity of the trail I wanted to be on. I managed to walk from near the "1" junction of the Fort Henry and Telegraph trails to the 23 and 24 junctions along Pickett Loop, then along the spur to Boswell Landing and back, then around the loop to junction 26, then junction 3. The last 1.1 miles was thus on the Telegraph trail rather than the Pickett Loop. I lost the Pickett Loop trail at junction 26. Approximately 4.6 miles total walking for the day (a little longer than the trail-indicated distances since I wandered around Boswell Landing some).
I also walked on down to the lake. At the lake, I saw a LOT of shells. Most seemed to be either small clam shells or spiral snail shells. Don't know which of them are native to the rivers and which might be invasive.
The water off of Boswell Landing was pretty choppy. Much less choppy was the water I saw when I walked along the a small inlet adjacent to Panther Bay.
Hiked Monday, September 5. Fort Donelson National Battlefield is located along the Cumberland River or Barkley Lake, just south of (and across the river from) Land Between the Lakes. It was a key early battle in the Civil War, in which the Union (led here by Ulysses S. Grant) won their first major victories. By capturing Fort Donelson (on the Cumberland River) and nearby Forts Heiman and Henry (on the Tennessee River), the Union had a clear path into the Confederacy's interior, including the major rail and industrial facilities in Nashville. Grant also made a name for himself here and would later go on to become commander of all Union forces and later President of the United States.
Today, the earthworks (really just long berms for the Confederates to hide behind) are still visible. Cannon are also deployed, though I suspect these are not the actual cannon that were there at the time of the battle. They do give an idea of their function at Fort Donelson, however.
There are several hiking trails here. I mostly stuck with the Donelson Trail, with the exception of taking the River Loop and the spur to the National Cemetery nearby. Many battle dead were buried there, but there are also many more recent interments of veterans and their families from the more recent era.
I saw a number of white tailed deer hightail it away from me. No pictures of them, but they're obviously present here, and probably skittish because they're hunted (not in the battlefield, but I'm sure adjacent to it). I also saw a number of large white water birds that I tend to think were egrets, although some had more orangish bills than I would have expected.
Some small amount of fall foliage color was present, as well. There was also a very picturesque bridge. I guess bridges are almost always picturesque, just because they're analogies for a journey and joining separate places.
Hiked Saturday, September 3. Man, was it hot, today. Forecast high of 97, but my car thermo-meter said 100 when I got back. And I felt pretty wiped by then, too.
Started from the Golden Pond visitor's center, again (same starting point as on Tuesday). This time, however, I headed south. Thought I might go 7 or so miles south, but by the time I reached LBL Road #170, I was feeling plenty tired. Turned around there, where a sign said it was 4.9 miles back to the Golden Pond. The sign also said it was .5 miles to The Trace, and the gravel road that is #170 looked very passenger-car friendly. Figure the next time I'm at LBL, I'll head south on the Trace and find this 170 road, again. It'll be easy for me to just add another segment south.
This was another mostly-forested hike. Good, because it was HOT. But, therefore, not a lot of scenery.
Hiked Thursday, August 30. This was an "exercise" hike, meaning I didn't expect to have much in the way of views. I just wanted to get on the trail asap. Also, having visited Golden Pond twice in the previous three days (once for some astronomy outreach, and once on my own, to view Comet Garradd), I like the idea of getting to my destination in less than 1/2 hour.
To get to the Golden Pond trail head from US-68/KY-80, exit on The Trace and head south. Go past the main planetarium/visitor center entrance, and turn left about 1/8 of a mile later, following an arrow indicating "Administrative/Law Enforcement." Almost as soon as you turn, you'll see the gravel parking area on your left. A porta-potty and vending machines are also here.
By late summer, however, the very small watershed of this particular hollow dries up. Many of the shrubs along the way looked stressed by the heat and/or lack of water. Red bud leaves were turning yellow, and what looked an awful lot like persimmon leaves were already red or orange.
At the end of my trail, I took a short walk a part of the way towards Dead Beaver camp-ground, and came across a field of soybeans. Corporate farmers have gotten permission to work some of the land in the LBL, which has annoyed the families of former landowners, which were forced out of the area when the NRA was created.
