Trek Dirty to Me: 41 days until trail life consumes me, and I'm considering warming up with a thru-hike of a portion of Indiana's Knobstone Trail.
First of all, please consider donating to my American Lung Association's Fight For Air Climb of downtown Indy’s Salesforce Tower to raise funds for healthy lungs and clean air. You can read all about the event and fundraiser by clicking here! Then….
Now that we have that out of the way, I am strongly considering hiking a portion of Indiana’s longest footpath - the Knobstone Trail - as a tune-up (or ‘shakedown') hike to figure out how my gear and food will hold up on my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. The 160-mile trail is often called a mini-Appalachian Trail and is often used as a warm-up for the AT. I am looking at doing the 50-mile Tecumseh Trail portion that is located closest to Indianapolis.
The KT is fairly rugged and has significant elevation changes (for Indiana) and goes from southern Indiana near the Ohio River to just south of Martinsville. The Tecumseh Trail portion of the KT should take between 4-5 days (averaging 10-12.5 miles a day, depending on how I decide to hike it (spoiler alert: most likely opting for the longer of the options).
This is a prime opportunity to do a little backpacking and camping with me before I head to Georgia to begin hiking the AT at the end of March. It will require some logistics (a ride to the trailhead down south of Bloomington and another ride from Martinsville back to Indianapolis) or perhaps a fantastic excuse to hang out in Bloomington for a minute and/or run through Martinsville, where I imagine The Inside Scoop might just be open by then.
Depending on weather and availability, my two windows to do this are March 10-13/14 and March 23-26/27. Anybody interested in joining or have thoughts or input on the trail?
And here is another link to donate to my fundraiser, in case you forgot. :)
Also: Definitely check out the excellent website put together by the Knobstone Hiking Trail Association, and consider a hike in the future, if not with me!
-AJ
A short walk in the woods…?
My first Father’s Day.