After moving from Pennsylvania to Indiana, we had learned to be wary of the weather during early fall hiking. Hot days on the steep segments of the KT will teach you that. But when the forecast for this weekend was for unseasonably cool weather, 15 to 20 degrees below normal, we were emboldened to get our hiking legs back for the upcoming fall. The closeup JPG map for Leota to Elk Creek doesn't really show detail well, but it seemed to indicate mainly ridgetop hiking after ascending from the lake. So we were wrong ...
It had rained briefly in the morning prior to beginning the hike. As we began on the 1/10 mile access trail and turned left on the main KT to head toward Leota, we kept running into spiderwebs across the path. In a short time, that problem subsided as the sun came out strongly (not predicted) and began to bake the moisture out of the ground and into the air. By that time, we had discovered that the apparently flat shoreline walk of the topo map, upon closer inspection, ducked a few hundred feet inland and scaled then descended about 200 feet to drop back to the lake. We passed by mile marker 31 en route. The last view of the lake near mile 30.8 is one of the nicest from the KT at lake level.
At this point, the trail does begin to ascend to a ridge, reaching it in the vicinity of mile 30. But instead of staying up high, the trail again drops into Monroe Hollow, then ascends to ridge top again before mile 29 is even reached. Look at how soaked with sweat Mike is in the mile 29 photo at right -- and that's after reaching the top and beginning, yet again, to steeply descend. We had just stopped for the photo when a group met us from the opposite direction, proving we were not the only ones crazy enough to hike this segment on a humid August day. (We and they were the only ones!) The leaders reported it had taken them an hour to complete the mile from 28 to 29 -- it must have taken ten minutes for their stragglers to catch their leaders.
The descent from mile 29 was extremely steep, and then we finally stayed level in a valley for a quarter to half mile. But before reaching mile 28, we did ascend a bit again, finally passing the marker before a short but steep descent to a stream bottom where we had stopped coming the other way from Leota on our previous hike in June. After a well-deserved lunch break, Maria got her chance to prove what a hiker she was, at the age of five years and one month.
Maria not only hiked out of the stream bottom, but down, then back up the awful ascent to mile 29, down again, then up the nearly as bad ascent to mile 30 where she finally requested to be carried. Her total distance was 2.2 miles, probably including around 500 feet of total elevation gain, and her time from mile 28 to 30 was an hour and forty minutes, a 50 minute per mile pace. That beat the adults in the hiking group we had encountered earlier!
Dad had to carry her the last 1.7 miles, and as we climbed the last hill around the bottom of the lake, Mom pulled further and further ahead. This perturbed Maria, who first kept kicking Dad in the side as if he were a horse that was moving too slowly. Then when Mom got so far ahead she was out of sight, Maria fussed at Dad for losing Mom, and worried that Mom would drive off and leave them in the woods. But eventually all returned to the car where they took off their boots, put on some shorts, and starting drinking Cokes! The other hikers were just pulling off in their last car shuttle as we returned to the parking area, meaning that we had covered 5.1 miles in the time they covered 2.7, less a half hour car shuttling time. But if Maria hadn't risen to the occasion, for all we know, we might still be climbing to mile 29!
On September 30, 2000, we planned to make a final warmup hike on the KT before our fall break trip to Pennsylvania in mid-October. Starting again at Elk Creek, we followed the same access trail into the woods then turned right on the main KT, toward Oxley and Spurgeon Hollow. The trail began climbing, first moderately, then more steeply, past mile 32, until it reached a ridgetop and crossed a paved road.
Right after crossing the road, the trail reentered the woods and a detour route was indicated. Following the detour, we began winding down a hill on a narrow path, then followed a woods road downhill, finally turning off onto another steep path. When we reached the stream bottom, mile marker 33 was indicated just before the crossing.
Dowling Hollow was your typical KT creek, rocky, about three feet wide and at most two inches deep. With Maria in the carrier, Mike didn't want to jump across -- although he was capable -- so with the intent of keeping his boots dry, he took a step onto a flat stone. Starting to slip in one direction, he tried to catch his balance on a large stone that protuded from the water. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite flat enough nor dry enough, so he fell completely sideways to the left, banging the index finger of his right hand on a rock in an attempt to catch his fall, and slamming the carrier and Maria sideways into the rocky stream.
Maria turned out to be OK, but for the rest of the day and most of the fall hiking season of 2000, she implored, "Daddy, please don't fall!" every time we approached a stream crossing, no matter how small. Dad wasn't quite as OK, he sprained his finger badly enough to hurt for weeks, though not so badly as to take it to the doctor to see if it was broken.
We carried on uphill hoping to find mile 34. For some reason, the Elk Creek to Oxley closeup JPG map does not indicate the positions of mile markers 33 and 34. We eventually crossed Old Route 56, and climbed a bit more before finally hitting the marker. After that, there were some small ups and downs, mostly downs, until we reached SR 56 at mile 34.7. The stream following the road -- I assume it's Rutherford Hollow -- was not easily crossed, especially for Dad who was carrying Maria and trying not to use his right hand.
Dad was so disspirited that he didn't even want to try doubling back on the trail. Instead, he suggested walking along the highway to the Elk Creek access road. After crossing to eat lunch and follow the rule of always walking against traffic on rural highways, we began the circle trip to return, doing our best to keep Maria away from the occasional, but high speed, traffic. It was actually interesting to see some of the details of the landscape, buildings, and farms from a walking pace. After about 2.2 miles, we reached the Elk Creek access road, crossed the highway, and Dad carried Maria the last two miles, which seemed long and hot. Mom enjoyed seeing some cattle in a field though!
MARIA'S HIKING ON HER
OWN TWO
FEET:
August 19: 2.2 miles
covered
on the KT. She hiked from our lunch turnaround at mile 27.8 back
to mile marker 30, including two steep uphill segments out of the
stream
hollows, averaging 50 minutes per mile. The church group hikers,
all adults, had told us the same segments took them an hour per
mile.
September 30: None on
the KT,
approximately 2.2 miles along SR 56 on the return to the car.
After
falling, Dad wasn't up to carrying her back up and down the hills a
second
time!
 |
| Here's what Elk Creek Lake looks like from the back side. The trail winds around the south end of the lake, mainly from west to east, and this photo was taken near mile 30.8, just before the trail begins its final ascent away from the lake. |
 Dad
and Maria stop to catch their breath (Dad's at least) at mile marker
30. Although we had hiked less than two miles at this point, it hadn't
been
easy, as the stretch along the south end of Elk Creek Lake included a
bit
of a rise instead of following a totally flat path along the shore.
That was followed by a dip back down to lake level, then a second rise
to a ridgetop which was reached near this mile marker. The weather
was not as unseasonably cool as had been predicted for this late August
day. We were expecting temperatures in the 60s; instead we got dew
points in the 60s with much more sun than expected and temperatures
pushing
well into the 70s, probably not far from 80. No wonder we hadn't
seen any other hikers that day! |
 |
| Here's where all the other hikers were! Just after finishing another drop into a hollow followed by a tough climb, Mike and Maria stopped for a photo at mile marker 29 just after beginning another descent. Before Aimee could take the picture, a hiking group from the First Christian Church in Scottsburg approached us heading uphill. It took the group about ten minutes to all make it to this point, beginning with the guy in the white shirt and Mary, the group leader, in the red shirt. They had begun at Leota Trailhead, mile 24.8, and several of them were quite exhausted by this time. So they were happy to hear they were nearly to the top of the hill, not quite so happy to hear there were two more like it before reaching Elk Creek. |
 |
Two views of Maria: left, in the streambed which marked our turnaround point and lunch stop; above, at mile marker 28 just after beginning to hike on her own two feet. |
 A
pair of happy smiles not long into our September 30, 2000 hike.
The
weather was a lot cooler and this uphill wasn't nearly as bad as the
ones
in the other direction from Elk Creek that we did in the August
hike.
Look, Dad's not even sweating on the uphill! |
 Here's
a happy view of Mike and Maria just after a steep descent from a ridge
to a stream which was just steps from the mile 33 marker. You can
see the double white blaze on the tree just above and to the left of
Mike's
head, indicating a turn in the trail after the stream crossing. The
remainder of the September 30, 2000 hike was not as happy -- Mike
inexplicably
slipped on a wet rock crossing the adjacent stream, falling onto more
rocks,
slightly injuring his hand, and scaring though fortunately not hurting
Maria. The truly unfortunately thing about our worst accident in
over 15 years of rugged hiking was that it was so unnecessary -- the
stream
was at most three feet wide and barely an inch or two deep. Crossing
through the water would barely have wet Mike's boots. |
 Dad's
putting on a brave face at mile marker 34 -- which we thought would
never
come -- even as he holds his banged-up finger at a strange angle.
Maria's not attempting to look brave -- she looks terrified at the
thought
that Dad might slip again, plummeting her all that distance to the
ground
which she seems to be measuring with her eyes. OK, so this wasn't
our greatest hiking trip ever, but there have been no apparent lasting
effects. Eight months later, Dad's finger is fine, Maria's not scared
that he'll fall with her in the backpack any more, and in fact, she's
hiking
more and more on her own two feet and less in the carrier. Even on
this afternoon, the return hike along roads provided some interesting
farm
and landscape scenery that would have flown by had we been in a car.
Mom really loved the field of grazing cows -- what a small town girl!
Dad gave them thanks for ice cream. |