The Sheltowee Trace Trail extension to Rugby is expected to be completed by volunteers this fall.
Sheltowee Trace Association Executive Director Steve Barbour said volunteers have been working with the Parks Service at Big South Fork to extend the trail nine miles within the park down to Brewster’s Bridge to make Rugby the southern terminus of the trail. Barbour said extending the trail has not been easy and has taken a couple of years to reach near completion.
“We are excited to finally see the end of the trail coming,” Barbour said. “The connection to Burnt Mill Bridge and opening the trail before the ned of the year to new users.”
Barbour said the extension has a couple of miles of trail left to create into Burnt Mill Bridge before completion. Barbour said the extension will be a major accomplishment as the trail will then be an estimated 350 miles long, running through Kentucky and Tennessee.
“This is gonna enable rugby to see some new types of visitors, backpacking visitors, dayhiking visitors into town to take advantage of the facilities, the restaurants, and the lodging accommodations in Rugby,” Barbour said. “It will be the southern start point or the southern end point of hundreds of hikers who take advantage of the Sheltowee Trace throughout the year.”
Barbour said volunteers will play a key role in completing the trail.
“Well, we can’t do it without volunteers,” Barbour said. “Most of the work days are on Fridays, so retirees, people who have a day to take off vacation-wise, come help us. The more hands we have, the more trail we can create, the further we can go towards completing the trail.”
The Sheltowee Trace Association has six more dates this year for volunteers to attend and help finish the trail. Those dates begin in March.