1 trip left on the Sheltowee before its finished. When I began the ST I knew that the Pinhoti and BMT would follow behind it. After spending the majority of my hiking efforts on the AT in New England prior to the ST, I was ready for some mellow terrain this is why I went after the ST. Now that I have my fill of long road walks, unchained dogs and every condemned mobile home in central Kentucky I am ready to pursue more strenuous challenges. However I have learned that part of the monotony for me is continuously having to commute the same route over and over to get to the trail of choice.
Between that, and learning that these short trails have a personality of their own, along with having a bit of a better pick in weather forecast....I think I have decided to tackle the Pinhoti and the BMT at the same time rather than pick one and stick with it till its complete. I typically try for 1 trip a month, 12 months a year. However in my recent years of hiking I have become somewhat of a fair weather hiker, if the forecast looks grim, I have no qualms on pulling the plug on it before I leave home rather than slog thru the rain all weekend. So the plan is to finish the ST in February, and head down to springer in March to start the first official leg of the BMT completion. I have already completed about 50 miles of the BMT on 2 prior trips and 1 trip on the Pinhoti early on in the ST completion.
Currently between the 2 trails I have about 547 miles left, resulting in aprox 22 trips (I have made my first alteration to my hiking calculations: I use to divide total miles left by 30 miles per weekend to calc how many trips state of the AT, or a remaining trail will require for completion....however now I have altered that estimation to 25 miles a trip....first hiker sign of getting older ) remaining to complete both trails. However, trips get canceled, statistically my weekend trips are becoming more successful the older I get, less quitting in me. So not sure how many years the PT and BMT will take to complete. But I will estimate it taking 4-5 years to complete.
Oh and in other short news, I am starting the CdT in April at the southern Terminus for a 1 week stroll!