I must be mad- a trip report // June 2-4, 2025
Tonya and I on the Sheltowee Trace Trail
First things first- here’s my gear list with highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s:
Link to my gear list on lighterpack!
A few days ago I got on the 343 mile Sheltowee Trace Trail to finish what I started in 2023. I had 50 miles left, walking north from the southern terminus. I had hoped and planned to do this stretch earlier this season, even adding on an additional 50 for training… but things change.
It was a terribly rainy spring and a tornado ripped through towns near the trail only a few weeks prior. I waited for a weather window that worked for me and it was too close to summer for my taste, but I was determined to finish the damn thing.
Paired with an overgrown trail and an already noticeably heavy tick season, it made for some high alert hiking. Not to mention keeping an eye out for copperheads and bears- only one bear was spotted on this outing.
Last minute I decided to bring Tonya, Tabor’s dog, who has taken to me. She was the buffer between the ticks and I, collecting them like souvenirs in her fur. God, there were so many. I would stop every few minutes to pick off ticks crawling up my legs or trying to burrow into her fur. See slide for how many were latched. Now double… no triple that for totals.
Astonishingly I was only bit by two.
Half of those 50 miles were shared with horse trail. Shit soup is the nicest way to put it. Some was gravel which was pleasant comparatively, but it’s downright dangerous at times. Slippery as hell and mud sucking your shoes right off. A vile smell at times.
I camped 2 nights and took a little over 50 hours to hike 50 miles.
The heat and humidity gave me some very uncomfortable chafe in multiple places, a heat rash on both my lower back and where my backpack straps sit. Sand in my shoes gave me blisters on the balls of my feet- a new one for me. Noseeums ate me alive on the last day.
I only saw a few people camping on trail, no one actually hiking. A group of three men made me feel uncomfortable and it made me hate being a woman having to always be on guard, to feel this unwanted fear. I was thankful to have Tonya with me.
It was a new experience taking a dog with me on this type of hike. I wasn’t sure what she could handle, but she was a beast. We hiked 13.6, 22.2, and 16.8 miles.
I must be mad. Never again will I brave the hell of a Kentucky summer.
But somehow, I still had fun.
