This blog will follow my very personal attempt to hike the Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail section by section through 2026, one imperfect step at a time. It is about choosing to be uncomfortable on purpose, learning backpacking skills, and creating space away from everyday noise to hear myself.

Why the Sheltowee Trace

The Sheltowee Trace is Kentucky and Tennessee’s long trail, a roughly 343‑mile (currently being expanded) National Recreation Trail that winds through Daniel Boone National Forest and the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. It passes my alma mater, Morehead State University, natural arches, lakes, and quiet stretches of forest that feel a world away.

For a hiker who already loves local trails, camping, and time on the water, this path offers a chance to string those individual days outside into one bigger story. It is long enough to be a real challenge, but close enough to home to be tackled in sections across a year instead of in one massive thru‑hike.

A Beginner Backpacker On A Big Trail

Although there is experience with hiking, camping, and kayaking, backpacking itself is still new territory. This blog will be honest about mistakes, gear experiments, nerves before a section, and the small wins that only another new backpacker would notice. Each post will aim to capture what it feels like to move from day‑hiker comfort into the unknown weight of carrying home on a back.

Learning To Be Uncomfortable

The heart of this walk is simple: step away from the constant pull of modern life and into a slower, more intentional space. Choosing a long, sometimes muddy, sometimes lonely trail is a deliberate way to practice discomfort in a healthy, semi-controlled way. Out there, blisters, wet days, and long climbs become teachers instead of inconveniences.

By coming back to the Sheltowee Trace month after month, the goal is to notice what changes: in fitness, in confidence, and in the ability to sit with hard feelings instead of distracting them away. This blog will document not only where the trail goes on a map, but also how it quietly reshapes the mind that keeps following it.

Community And The Sheltowee Trace Association

The Sheltowee Trace Association, a 501(c)(3) non‑profit, works to protect, preserve, and promote the trail so that people can continue to experience it. The Hiker Challenge helps turn a line on a map into something actually hikeable for people like me.

This space will regularly point readers toward the Sheltowee Trace Association for up‑to‑date trail conditions, ways to support the trail, and opportunities to get involved beyond following along online. If this journey inspires someone to lace up their own boots, the hope is that they will also join in supporting the organization that keeps the Sheltowee Trace alive. Sheltowee Trace Association