Day 9 Ends

8:20 p.m.

After 21 miles of grueling blacktop, we made it to Raccoon Springs with scalded feet. This should be our last high mileage day as the remainder of the trip is only 12 – 14 miles per day.

We are blessed with luxury accommodations, thanks to Sue Westerfield, the landowner that owns the property next to the springs. She has a small cabin with a wood stove and two soft cots to sleep on.

When we set out this morning, Givan and I had made the same navigational error. We turned left when we should have turned right.

Doug Bargo from the Knox County Historical Museum had been looking for us on the road that we should have been on, but couldn’t find us. He gave up and headed toward Barbourville. He came across us on that road and asked if we were lost. We said no, because we didn’t think we were, but he pointed out Raccoon Springs was in the other direction. We had only gone a mile off our course so we hopped on the tailgate of his truck and he took us back to where we made the wrong turn.

He then proceeded to drive his vehicle to a friend’s house and met us up the road. He walked with us the remainder of the way to Raccoon Springs. He was very proud of himself because he hadn’t walked that far in a long time! His trip was about 16 miles. He was a great tour guide as he knew many details about the history of the properties we were walking past in Knox County

Givan and I are going to crash now in our little cabin by Raccoon Springs

We got here after it was too dark for pictures. I’ll try to remember to take some in the morning

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Walk on,

Curtis

Givan and Curt filling their water bottles

Photo Credit: John Fox