No doubt by now you’ve come across an awesome
article published in last month’s Kentucky Living Magazine that has me touting 5 places across the commonwealth as must see destinations. A “bucket list” stemming from an actual KFC tub I used to carry the paper around in. Dave Shuffett was kind enough to give me some airtime, well, page time and help plug Cumberland Falls as the top pick. Then came four other destinations across the state. As I had to be fair and pick locations from all points of the compass, I feel as though now I need a bucket of apologies for those that were left out of the pile.

Put yourself in my hiking boots for a minute. 158 hikes since April 2009. Yeah, we both read that right. Some places across the country, but most of it right here where the grass is blue and the horses are fast. How the heck am I supposed to narrow all those experiences down to just five? Or get west of the I-75 corridor?

Kentucky is not like West Virginia. There, the entire state is mountains until you get around Huntington. I mean it. In Kentucky, however, they evaporate into farmland about the time you get west of Somerset. Then the mountain fan that I am can get a little lonely wondering why the rest of the state isn’t as elevated with its landscape. Of course, we still have the lakes and rivers and forests that make the other two thirds a paradise still, but where’s the beef, er, elk? Still in that mountainous one-third.

And so, most all of my favorites are ultimately scattered about in Kentucky as noted, but my really favorite places are the mountain locales and especially those that feature a hemlock tree or a thousand.

For example, I left out the Daniel Boone National Forest and Big South Fork. I left out Pine Mountain. I left out Carter Caves and Greenbo. I left out Bernheim, Buckhorn, Kingdom Come, and Otter Creek. Natural Bridge (and Arch). Dale Hollow and Duke Cumberland’s Lake. And I left out my secret place, Shanty Hollow Lake along with several others, not to mention our nature preserves and such. Looks like the bucket is a little bigger than we thought. Next time, I’ll ask for an upsize in article space. For now, I’ll reach into my bucket and pull out an olive leaf of peace and beg forgiveness of my park manager friends and fellow hikers across the nation. I know better.

Kentucky as a whole is in the bucket, how about that?

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Off to an eagle tour on Kentucky Lake this weekend. If you have never taken part in this, there’s no better chance than now. Bald eagle populations are at an all time high in Kentucky, and you are pretty much guaranteed to get your money’s worth for a day on the water being inspired by our national symbol. For information on the tours, visit www.parks.ky.gov. Hope to see you there!