Last Day at Diamond Caverns RV Park....

Park City, KY      High:  57    Low:  32

(Time to get a move on, Sparky! says Eldo....It's too dang cold around here!)  We head for Nashville, TN, for three days tomorrow. For our last day here, Eldy watched football...And Sparky headed out to finish the Mammoth Cave Railroad Hike and Bike Trail all the way from the campground to the entrance of Mammoth Cave National Park.

The first leg was up and down the big hills for about the first mile...then onto some more level ground. Sparky got distracted with all the beautiful leaves and the little details....like the water droplets on this leaf and no other ones nearby.....Sparky was too busy looking at the ground so she didn't spot any deer on this ride....

Sparky had to stop and take a photo of the red carpet...The leaves were really this red in this section of the forest!

Sparky kept going...no threat of rain today but lots of clouds...the trail split in two directions, Sparky didn't know which way to go. She took the left fork and ended up at a VERY old cemetery. Coming back out of the cemetery, you retrace your steps back to the fork, and the trail goes down VERY steeply. The trail map tells you to get off your bike and WALK it, and Sparky could see why. There are a couple of sections on this 9 mile trail where the trail guide says, "Get off and walk it!" A wise choice....With the loose gravel, you wouldn't walk to get out of control going down a steep descent!


It's very difficult to capture a photo of a steep hill and get an idea of how bad it is, but if someone were to be stupid and try to ride down it, they are taking their life in their hands...There's a deep rock pit on the right side of the curve heading down the steep hill from the cemetery.  Sparky had a hard enough time just walking the bike down the hill without the bike getting away from her...Onward, Sparky!

The trail crosses a couple of wooden bridges with views to the small valleys on one side or the other.....

As Sparky started getting closer to the park, she started seeing the deer. They hang out near the campground and are quite tame. Shame on the people that feed the deer! But it's makes for nice photos as they let you get pretty close, like within a few feet. The one above is standing right next to the bike trail.....This one below was a little farther away but you could still see his white "sox" on his front legs....

Then Sparky saw a buck and just managed to catch him walking through the woods alongside her and then he crossed the trail right in front of her! Darn camera setting---too dark and a little blurry for this shot, but at least he was seen trotting on camera.

And then two tom turkeys, at least Sparky thinks they were toms...their feathers were quite colorful, but just as Sparky went to take the photo, they flew across the road to the other side. No poultry jokes needed here....  :-)

Sparky was pooped by the time she got to the campground store in Mammoth Cave N.P. She was too whipped to do another six miles back, it would have been mostly uphill....Eldo to the rescue! He came in the car to get his Sparky, and on the way back, we saw LOTS of deer and they were all hanging around the trail Sparky had just come from! About a dozen in all....

The literature and online says the trail is a total of 9 miles, but Sparky racked up over 10 miles on the bike odometer by the time she got to the park....Even though it was a dark and dreary day, the leaf color was outstanding, and nature views were wonderful.....Don't miss this beautiful trail if you are here in the fall. Not the best trail for skinny tires, the wider ones on hybrids and mountain bikes are better...Time for a nap! Bye for now...... Tomorrow, we leave for Nashville, TN.......

But before we forget......

Sparky's a Drowned River Rat!

Cave City, KY  Park City, KY...It's all about the same....   High:  60   Low: 44

Sparky decided to bike the Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike and Hike Trail today, despite the threat of rain.....And, she even was going to go all the way from the Park City Diamond Caverns trailhead to Mammoth Cave National Park, a distance of about six miles...The actual mileage of the trail from beginning trailhead to ending trailhead is nine miles.

Eldy kept saying, "It's gonna rain, it's gonna rain....It's coming...Sure you want to go?" Yep, Sparky did. Eldy declined, he saw what was coming...Sparky started off....Up and down those BIG hills right there at the beginning...Get off and walk the bike a few times...Keep going....

The weather got a little darker out..the clouds a little thicker...Sparky rode on...she was too busy looking for deer and acorn caps for a craft project...Deer spotted up ahead! The deer looks like a skeleton, she's so grey and blends in with the woods and Sparky had to ZOOM wa-a-a-y in. But Sparky spied with her little eye....the doe is there. Darn, a biker coming from the opposite direction, somebody seriously into biking, he was bogeying. The deer bolted. Of course!

Can you see the skinny little legs?

The trail was beautiful, and after the first rough part, it actually leveled out quite a bit. There is a place, a parking lot where you can pick up the trail a little further west from Diamond Caverns RV Park and avoid the worst part of the hills there at Park City. There are placards along the way that tell you more about the history and geology of the area. Cool!

Sparky was within 2 1/2 miles of the park entrance when she stopped for more photos....PLOP!  PLOP! PLOP! Sparky had not heard the raindrops on her helmet with the bike tires rushing through the carpet of leaves.

Leaf covered trail

(Good girl, she wore the helmet today!) Yep, after reading some reviews of this trail and the loose gravel causing kids to spin out and crash, Sparky got smart and put it on for today's ride.  By the way, Sparky's 2012 Trek, with the skinny tires, did OK on the loose gravel, she had decent traction, but you still have to exercise caution--some areas are packed much harder than others, and the sides of the trail are very loose. This trail is described as more of a mountain bike trail online at Traillink.com

Uh-oh, raindrops...PLOP.. PLOP..PLOP-PLOP-PLOP! It started coming down harder now...Sparky turned around and went back to the last spot where Eldy might be able to see her on the trail, the junction at highway 70. Phone call to Eldy....Signal not working well. Text to Eldy...."COME AND GET ME, PLEASE!" The rain came down harder...Sparky sought refuge under a big ole pine tree...Pretty soon, Eldy arrived....just in time...Sparky was thoroughly soaked thru her windbreaker that was supposed to be water resistant...After a bit, it just keeps coming through...Note to self: Next time, throw a little poncho in the bike bag! No photos of Sparky, the drowned river rat, but she's back home now, drying out!

Sparky highly recommends biking this trail, picking it up a little closer to the park than right at Diamond Caverns. Continue just a bit further west, watching for a small parking lot where you can get on a more level section of the trail. It's mostly level from there to the park, a few small hilly areas, but it's absolutely gorgeous. The trail follows the contour of the hillside which makes for a curvy trail but more level than the road going into the park. Sparky did five miles today, despite the rain!

It's gonna be a cold two days coming up, temps no higher than the 50's...We'll see what's up with Eldo tomorrow!