I did my first section of the Kentucky Adventure Tour in November in my truck (anybody with an XR or WR motorcycle out there hit me up...). I live in Morehead and the KAT reaches up to just southwest of Cave Run Lake so I decided to hop on at Pumpkin (Punkin on the Powell County side) Hollow and head south in a counter-clockwise route. I think this is the way the KAT is intended to run, regardless, that's the direction I took.
A decent bonus for me, coming out of Morehead, would have been to hop on Lockegee Road down to Cave Run Lake but that road is under construction due to a slip last year.
Punkin Holler was a fun little welcome to the KAT. Starting right off the pavement was a decent section of ruts that had me engage the rear locker but was otherwise a nice, scenic trail in and out of a few creek beds. Overall it was a fun segment. Pumpkin Hollow is also part of the Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway. If you're not familiar with the DBBB, there's quite a few groups that help develop and maintain this route, which is an 4x4 route that's centrally located around the Red River Gorge area.
From Punkin it was a bit of an asphalt run to the next section of trail, Hard 1/Sandlick Road. This was the first hard section that I attempted but ended up turning back at a nasty looking section of mudholes. The pavement in Sandlick stops just before a creek bottom in quite a pretty holler. A couple of the creek crossings looked intimidating but weren't actually any problem. The trail starts to climb out of the creek bottom and along where the bench levels out is where I turned back.
Hard 1, didn’t quite make it.
From Sandlick, the KAT follows some one and two-lane country roads around the south side of Slade and the Natural Bridge area. You'll pass by Hollerwood Park. I bypassed Hard 1A because I've seen the pictures and videos of buddies wheeling the trails in this area and there's no way I'm considering any "Hard" section on this part of the KAT in my daily driver. So, onto Fixxer-Leeco Road for the next bit of trail. I'd actually wheeled Fixxer-Leeco Rd (also on the DBBB) a couple years ago in my older F150 and knew this was a fun section of trail. Fixxer starts high on the ridge and immediately winds down into a creek bottom. You'll hop in and out of the creek a couple times but nothing too intimidating here.
These pictures are from February 2017 in my 06 F150:
You'll pop out just below a reservoir dam and follow the dirt road passed some well-known (World-renowned! No, seriously..) rock climbing routes. This is a cool area to license plate watch. There were vanlifers from as far away as Washington state the day I went through. Awesome to see so much hype around something so close to home. Eventually you'll find the county road and make your way to Beattyville and have a chance to break for lunch.
The dirt roads pick up right outside of Beattyville. Nothing serious, it's a graded county road but is still a pretty interesting drive through White Ash Road. You'll hop on the blacktop and cross the Kentucky River at Hiedelburg. Take the time to drive down to the boat ramp and down to the river just as you cross the bridge, it's well worth it.
Hard 2 was next on the route and I chose to give it a shot. This segment is a long, committed section with no escape route on the map. It started out pretty laid back and actually really enjoyable but turned into quite an ordeal by the time I got out the other end. The gravel road eventually gives way to dirt and then mud. A lot of mud.
The trail gains elevation and gives way to some open fields on top of the hills and then dives back into the woods where things get dicey. There was only one trail wide enough for anything wider than a 4wheeler, so you can imagine what kind of shape the mud and ruts were in. Also, it was getting dark by this point, which didn't help anything. At one point I had to fill in a deep rut with tree branches and limbs because I was concerned I would bottom out. The trail got so narrow and wallowed out that I eventually had to take a chance weaving through the trees on a track that definitely was not made for pickup trucks. Folding mirrors in to squeeze between tress and driving over small stumps after dark, without knowing how much further you had until were literally out of the woods, just adds to the Type 2 Fun factor that I seem to be attracted to.
Somehow I got out without any body damage. After breathing a big sigh of relief you realize, "Damn I had a hell of a time." Celebratory beers and chicken wings at Madison Garden in Richmond capped off my first time on the Kentucky Adventure Tour.
I'm hoping to explore some of the southeastern KY sections when I'm back home sometime.