Driving access to the Spurgeon Hollow trailhead is from the same road that leads to the Delaney Park trailhead, about a mile or two south of Delaney Park, marked by a KT post on the east side of the road. The route described in the trail guide is fine. We made two hikes beginning at this trailhead.
For our final hike, we accessed the loop from a gravel road that crosses the linear section of the KT at mile 40.3. The easiest way to get there is from State Route 56 between Salem and Scottsburg. At the point where you would turn south to go to Elk Creek, turn north instead, then turn left almost immediately on a road which ends in a few tenths of a mile at a corner with a church. Then turn right on this road (Rutherford Hollow) and follow it about a mile until it ends at Banes Hollow Road. Turn right on Banes Hollow (left would take you to the Oxley Trailhead) and follow it about a half mile as it curves around to head north. Turn left there and go about a half mile, then turn right. Follow that road about a mile, then turn left on Pull Tight Road. After passing an auto salvage yard, the road degrades to gravel. Keep going and after climbing a hill, you'll enter state forest land and cross the KT at mile 38.9. Don't stop there -- keep going out of the state forest land back onto pavement and start to pass houses. Make the first possible right onto an unsigned gravel road just beyond a house with a fenced yard. (Ignore the "Private Property" sign which refers to the house and yard, not the road!) You will reenter state forest land shortly, and the trail will cross in about 2/3 mile, at KT mile 40.3. If you go another 0.2 miles, there is a gravel pulloff for parking. In addition to the KT, there are also several state forest roads numbered in the 700s which are gated.
For our first KT hike of 2001, we drove to the Spurgeon Hollow trailhead and parked at the end of the access road next to Spurgeon Hollow Lake. The access trail begins by running roughly parallel to the lake, though slightly inland from the shore, in the same direction the road had been traveling. After about 0.3 mile, we reached the Spurgeon Hollow loop of the main KT at mile 43.3 (west). At this point, we turned left (uphill) to begin hiking the loop in the clockwise direction. The climb is moderately steep for about the next 1/3 mile. At the top, there is an overlook with a nice vista of the lake if you turn around. We continued along the flat ridgetop past mile marker 44 (west) and began to descend into Clay Hill Hollow shortly after that. At the bottom, we crossed a small stream and began following an old woods road for about 1/4 mile until we reached the junction with the Delaney Park loop.
Since we had hiked that segment previously, we turned around and began doubling back, although we stopped almost immediately on a convenient log where we ate lunch. This was in the area of the stream crossing. After lunch, we spent a few minutes investigating an unusual stand of daffodils growing just off the trail in the vicinity of the stream. There were so many that it seemed unlikely they had seeded there by accident. Sure enough, we found evidence of an old homesite, including foundation stones, some metal cans and pans, and an area inside the daffodil beds where all the trees were relatively young where the home had stood.
Continuing on, we crossed the stream and stopped for a few minutes so Maria could play by tossing stones into it. We then ascended out of the hollow to the top of the ridge. Dad was hoping Maria would complete the entire roundtrip on her own feet, since it was only 3.2 miles. However, after reclimbing the hill, she was a bit tired, so Dad began carrying her just as they began the descent back down to the lake, and they returned to the car in less than 15 minutes.
The following weekend, we returned with the intent of completing the more difficult of the two remaining segments. Dad attempted to navigate by road to the KT crossing near mile 40.3, and we thought we had found it along Pull Tight Road, but when we began hiking, we encountered mile marker 39 within a few hundred feet. This was actually fortunate, as it prevented us from wasting any additional energy on hiking. We returned to the car, and drove around for about a half hour trying to find the starting point, passing the unmarked road several times, but not turning on it because we thought it was a driveway or private road. Finally we gave up and drove to Spurgeon Hollow trailhead to hike the easier segment.
Including the access trail, the roundtrip was 5.8 miles and it was entirely flat, much of it on old woods road. I don't remember any other KT segment that stayed flat for more than a mile or maybe a mile and a half. Dad carried Maria to the turnaround when we reached the Oxley fork. Shortly after starting, we encountered a pair of local hikers who were able to verify that the road we had driven past was not a private road but was indeed the road we were looking for, thus enabling us to properly plan for our final hike in the future.
After lunch, Maria hiked the entire 2.9 mile distance back to the car. About halfway, there was a stream crossing, and as we did the previous week, we stopped and let her play, this time for about 20 minutes. Shortly after resuming our hiking, a bit before mile 43, we saw another stand of daffodils, and as we had done the previous week, stopped to investigate the former homesite artifacts. When we returned to the car, a family fishing group was just pulling their boat in from the lake.
On the warm windy Saturday of April 21, 2001, we hiked our final segment along the eastern part of the Spurgeon Hollow Loop to complete the Knobstone Trail. We had decided it was best to do it before the weather got any warmer, and the day was warm in the 70s, but a strong wind kept us relatively cool except when we turned around a sidehill or into a hollow out of the wind.
Following the directions the hikers had given us the previous month, we had no trouble finding the KT crossing on the unmarked road, and continued about 0.2 miles further to a parking turnoff as they had suggested. We walked up the road and began hiking down on the segment we had done the previous fall, from mile 40.3 to 40.7, to reach the fork of the Spurgeon Hollow loop. Forking right, we climbed uphill though we took a break part way up to talk with a hiking couple who were descending along with their dog. Mile marker 41 (east) was just short of the ridge top, and when we hit the top, the trail turned left on an old woods road. (A few dozen feet to the right, there was a gate.)
The KT continued along the ridge for more than a mile. The only confusing part occurred about mile 41.8 or 41.9, where the woods road appeared to fork left, but the trail turned right. There was a double blaze just before the turn, but no good indication at the fork of which direction the trail was turning. Following a slightly muddy area, and mile marker 42 (east), the trail continued along the ridge on an old woods road about 1/4 mile before turning left and descending steeply with some switchbacks. The descent ended with a stream crossing in Clay Hill Hollow, a little under a mile upstream from the crossing we'd encountered two hikes earlier at mile 44.2 (west). The ascent out of the hollow did not include switchbacks, as it followed yet another old woods road, but it was a steady moderately steep climb, as steeply as an old woods road can climb. The top was reached near mile marker 43 (east), and the trail continued along the old woods road most of the remaining distance to the Delaney Park fork at mile 43.9. It turned off the road for the last few tenths of a mile, but did not change elevation significantly.
Dad should have packed a bottle of champagne for us to celebrate the completion of the KT, as we had on the Loyalsock and Black Forest Trails in Pennsylvania. But after hiking 3.8 miles including two descent/ascents, we were better off with plain water with our lunch!
Maria hiked the
entire distance
back to the car on her own feet,
tying her personal
best.
Dad told her that she should be especially proud because not many
five-year-olds
have completed the KT. He estimates that she covered 15 to 20
miles
of the total distance on her own feet -- including virtually the entire
Spurgeon Hollow Loop -- and the remainder in his backpack
carrier.
We did stop for a lengthy spell at the stream crossing, about a half
hour,
while Maria tossed stones in the water. The subsequent uphill was
not too bad at Maria's pace. Just before reaching mile 41,
instead
of turning off the old woods road to the right, we continued straight
through
the gate and turned right on a gravel road. It turned out to be
the
road where our car was parked, so we were able to skip the final
descent/ascent
and also to cut about a half mile off the distance of the return
trip.
In fact, from his inspection of the trail map, Dad suspects that this
same
road continues around to the vicinity of the Delaney Park loop fork
where
we turned around, at mile 43.9. If true, the return trip would
have
been even easier following the road -- except that Maria would have had
nowhere to toss her stones in the water!
MARIA'S HIKING ON HER
OWN TWO
FEET:
March 24 -- 1.3 miles
covered
on the KT and a total of 2.2 miles hiked. She did the whole hike
to the lunch turnaround and about half of the return, including uphills
in both directions.
March 31 -- 2.6 miles on
the
KT and a total of 2.9 miles including the access trail to the
trailhead.
She did the entire return trip after lunch. This is the only
completely
flat hike on the KT.
April 21 -- 2.8 miles on
the
KT and a total of 3.2 miles hiked. She did the entire return trip
after lunch including a major uphill. We all were happy to skip
the
last 0.8 mile descent and ascent, replacing it with 0.4 miles on the
gravel
road where our car was located.
You don't expect to
see big
groups of daffodils growing wild in the woods. Assuming that
someone
must have planted them there, we looked for clues and found several --
old house foundation stones, an area with younger trees than its
surroundings
where the house had stood, and other artifacts such as old metal cans
and
pans. This site was near a small stream -- Clay Hill Hollow --
and
the trail was following an old woods road. These flowers were
near
mile 44.3 (west), and on subsequent hikes we found similar stands of
daffodils
in two or three other locations along old woods road segments of the
Spurgeon
Hollow loop, all with the telltale signs of former habitations.
Our traditional lunch
stop on
the KT was a log large enough to sit on in some comfort. We found
a good one near mile 40.7 on our March 31, 2001 hike. You can see
our hiking supplies and the white/blue blaze indicating the Spurgeon
Hollow
loop, doubled to indicate the upcoming junction where the loop forked
left
while the linear trail forked right to head toward Oxley.
 After
lunch, Maria hiked the entire return trip on her own two feet, a total
of 3 miles. Here, she's posing at mile marker 42 (east), about
halfway
from our lunch stop back to our car. Shortly after this photo was
taken, the trail crossed the stream (Spurgeon Hollow) near mile 42.5,
and
Maria stopped and played for almost a half hour, throwing stones into
the
water to watch them splash.
|
The junction of the
east side
of the Spurgeon Hollow Loop with the Delaney Park Loop marked our
completion
of the Knobstone Trail on April 21, 2001. Maria posed in front of
the sign marking the junction before beginning the return hike to our
car,
which she completed in its entirety on her own two feet, a distance of
3.2 miles.
Once again, we
encountered some
flowers which were probably not native wildflowers, but were leftovers
from cultivated gardens near former habitations. These purple
flowers
were an example we found near Clay Hill Hollow, around mile 42.5.
Dad discovered a great strategy to keep Maria hiking on her own two feet. Just make sure she hiked across some small streams, let her stop and toss stones into the water for fifteen minutes or so, putting her into a happy mood for the remaining hike. It worked at several points on the Spurgeon Hollow loop, including this one at Clay Hill Hollow near mile 42.5 (east).