Trails: Fort and Pioneer Forage Trails
Hike Location: Fort
Boonesborough State Park
Geographic Location: northeast of Richmond ,
KY (37.89573, -84.26756)
Length: 1 mile
Difficulty: 2/10 (Easy)
Date Hiked: June 2015
Overview: A short loop to reconstructed Fort
Boonesborough
Directions to the trailhead: In central Kentucky ,
take I-75 to SR 627 (exit 95). Exit and
go east on SR 627. Drive SR 627 east 5.6
miles to SR 388, passing the signed fort entrance on the way. (Aside: if the fort is open on your visit,
you could also start this hike at the fort by turning right into the park’s
fort entrance and parking in the blacktop parking lot in front of the
fort.) Turn right on SR 388. Drive SR 388 0.4 miles to the large trailhead
and picnic shelter #4 parking area on the right. The hike starts beside the picnic shelter.
The hike: The year was 1775 when Daniel Boone led 30
axmen in blazing the Wilderness Road , the famous pioneer
trace that passed over the Cumberland Gap and into the
Bluegrass region of present day Kentucky . The goal of the settlers that followed him
later that year was to found a fourteenth American colony in the western
portion of what was then the colony of Virginia . They planned to call their colony Transylvania . The settlers built a fortified community at
the Wilderness Road ’s northern terminus that consisted
of 26 log cabins. They named their
settlement Boonesborough after their wilderness trail blazer.
Over the
next 20 years Boonesborough became a center of pioneer life on the Kentucky
frontier. The arrival of additional
settlers caused the community to grow too large for Boone’s liking, so he left
Boonesborough to start more new communities nearby. Kentucky
became the fifteenth state to enter the Union in 1792,
and 20 years later growth of neighboring communities had reduced Boonesborough
to a small obscure village. The village
was abandoned in 1830.
Over the
next century the land was farmed heavily.
In the late 1950’s a proposed dam on the Kentucky River
would have submerged the entire area, but the construction plans were cancelled. Fort
Boonesborough State Park Kentucky
River . The original fort
was located right on the river near today’s park boat ramp; it is located
across SR 388 from this hike’s trailhead.
The reconstructed fort is open for tours April through October from 9am
to 5pm Wednesday through
Saturday. A fort tour costed $8 at the
time of this writing.
Unfortunately,
I passed through this area on a Tuesday, so I did not get to tour the
reconstructed fort. The parking lot in
front of the fort was also closed, so I had to hike to the reconstructed fort
from a picnic area using the route described here. On the bright side, approaching the
reconstructed fort on foot through the woods more closely resembles how newly
arrived settlers would have approached the actual Boonesborough.
 |
| Fort Trail trailhead beside picnic shelter |
From the
large picnic shelter parking area, pick up the signed asphalt Fort Trail, which
starts to the right of the picnic shelter.
The Fort Trail connects the picnic shelter parking area with the fort
parking area 0.3 miles away. The trail
climbs at a steady rate for its entire length as it gains nearly 100 feet of
elevation between the picnic shelter and the fort.
 |
| Climbing toward the fort |
The Fort
Trail ends at the fort parking area at the top of the hill. To get to the fort, turn left and walk 500
feet across the parking lot to the fort entrance, passing a stone monument to
early Kentuckians along the way. Built
out of 10,000 pine logs, the reconstructed fort contains cabins with period
furnishings and areas where craftsmen demonstrate period crafts. Because the fort was closed on my visit, I
could only peep through openings in the logs and imagine what it would have
been like to live here in the late 1700’s.
 |
| Stone monument outside fort entrance |
 |
| Peeping into the fort through the logs |
The only
trail out of the fort area is the Fort Trail you came in on, so after visiting
the fort you need to retrace your steps to the Fort Trail’s upper trailhead and
begin walking back down the paved path.
For a little variety and to get off of the pavement, I chose to return
on the Pioneer Forage Trail, which exits left from the Fort Trail about 200
feet below the upper trailhead. The Pioneer
Forage Trail connects the Fort Trail to the park’s campground, but it also
connects to the north end of the picnic shelter parking lot via a spur trail.
The Pioneer
Forage Trail starts with a steep descent over wooden waterbars to reach a small
drainage, which it crosses on a shaky wooden footbridge. The somewhat narrow trail curves right to
follow this drainage downstream for several hundred feet. The damp clay soil was slippery under my
feet, so watch your footing.
 |
| Descending on Pioneer Forage Trail |
Just as it
starts to flatten out, the trail surprisingly curves left and starts heading up
another small drainage. You can see the
final segment of the trail on the other side of the drainage, so you have to
choose where you want to cross.
Adventuresome hikers could cross on a log or a railroad I-beam that
spans the creek, but the official route takes you all the way up the drainage
to cross atop a concrete highway culvert.
Now heading
back down the east side of the drainage, just shy of 1 mile into the hike you
reach the signed spur trail to picnic shelter #4, which exits right. Turn right to hike the short spur trail,
which crosses the drainage on another shaky wooden bridge before climbing a
short distance to reach the parking lot.
A short walk across the hot and sunny parking lot completes the hike.
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