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| Daniel Boone and over 200,000 settlers passed through the Cumberland Gap between 1775 and around 1812. |
Mr. Fox should pass through Middlesboro around noon on March 16. Some re-enactors from the Park will be walking with him over the Gap and then gathering in the Visitors Center. Then he will proceed with walking through Middlesboro and northward in the footsteps of Daniel Boone. How cool is that?
The Trail Is Calling…
Or How I Wound Up On The Boone Trace
in the Footsteps of Daniel Boone
by
Givan Fox
The author, MacArthur Givan Fox has a resume that includes a degree in psychology and experience as a Black Hawk helicopter medic in Afghanistan. He is the son of Doctor John Fox, President of the Friends of Boone Trace. “This is a guy who can take you apart mentally and put you back together physically—a good combination to have on a 200 mile expedition. Givan will be joining me for the Kentucky portion, writes Curtis Penix, lead hiker of the Boone Trace expedition.
I have loved being outdoors since I was a child. I spent almost all my free time playing in the woods of Kentucky. As an adult, the jobs that I have enjoyed the most have taken me outdoors in some fashion or another. From running a camp for At Risk children in the Michigan woods, to working on the side of the mountain for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, CO, to the many places that the Army National Guard has taken me, I believe even more strongly now than ever before, any day outdoors is a better day than any other.
During college I had the opportunity to hike most of the Virginia sections of the Appalachian Trail, and I grew to more deeply appreciate backpacking. The ability to move far, through remote areas, carrying all that I needed to live, was a challenge that I greatly enjoyed. Through the years, I have backpacked trails not just in Virginia, but also in Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois, South Dakota and Ireland. Just over a decade ago, I moved to Colorado to be in the mountains that I had read about and seen pictures of for so many years. Since then, my love for the outdoors has only grown. I have found healing from life’s hurts and a better understanding of myself in the middle of nowhere.
Shortly after my first deployment to Afghanistan in 2011, John Fox, my father, shared his growing passion for Boone Trace or “That Little Road,” as he has taken to calling it. As we were traveling along the back roads of Kentucky, I began to think about backpacking the route from Martin’s Station, Virginia to Fort Boonesborough. How amazing that would be to walk in the footsteps of Daniel Boone and his men and at least two women! To understand the challenges and hardships with the terrain, weather, animals and native people, even if in only a small degree, I felt would better enable my father and me to find other sections that might have been blurred by subsequent development.
I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind as a second deployment came into my world. I would get to fulfill one of my Army dreams, that of being a flight medic and do the job for real in Afghanistan. It can be difficult when the reality of our dreams does not match the hopes and expectations that we have. Needless to say, it was one of the most frustrating and challenging years of my life. I love doing the job, but I found that I could no longer align myself with the organization that allowed me to do that mission.
Somewhere in the midst of the pain and frustration, my dad said he had talked to a guy named Curtis who had an ancestor who had traveled “That Little Road” and been at Fort Boonesborough and he wanted to hike Boone Trace in its entirety. The desire to be outdoors and on the trail came back in an instant. I began to seriously consider the idea that I would take this walk.
It turned out to not be a difficult decision at all. Having helped my father find what we thought was one small section on my first exposure to the Trace and another section on a later visit just before my second deployment, I couldn’t conceive of not being involved in this expedition. I can truly understand the way this trail gets into your mind; under your skin, and you want to find and see it all. Dad always said there is something almost electric when you are on “That Little Road.” Having experienced it for myself, I want to see it through, from south to north.
On an even more personal level, I want to complete this expedition for my father since he cannot do it himself. The minor concerns of health issues and advancing age are the only things standing in his way. I know that he will be with us in spirit with each step and physically supporting us with resupply, guidance and smoothing the way through private properties. His unflinching work to preserve Boone Trace deserves nothing less than my exertion to walk “That Little Road.”
This expedition began as a simple route finding trip. The major challenge, I thought, would be to try to walk as closely as was possible and reasonable to Daniel Boone’s original Trace. While I still believe this will be a major challenge, I see now that this will not be enough. The bigger challenge will be to raise awareness of the need to preserve Boone Trace and share the compelling story of Curtis and his ancestor in the founding of Kentucky and the nation’s western expansion. I feel deeply moved by the level of interest and excitement that has grown as people have become aware of the Trace and what Curtis and I are attempting. What I thought would be a simple walk in the woods has turned into something far more monumental.
I feel very privileged to be a part of this expedition, to be making history the way we are, and hopefully to help preserve this amazing piece of history, and, I am especially privileged to be Curtis’ hiking partner on the trail. On one hand, I feel almost as if I fell into this whole experience without realizing what it really meant. But when I think about it, I whole-heartedly believe that my military training and experience, my medical background, and my impassioned history with the outdoors have, somehow, all led me to this point. There is no other place I could be than on “That Little Road” next to Curtis.
To paraphrase the words of John Muir, “The trail is calling and I must go!”
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