Lexington’s First-ever 2008 Bike Prom!
September 6, 6:00 PM
Fundraiser for The Living Arts and Science Center

Dress up and Dance your bike around downtown Lexington during the 2008 Bike Prom. Ride stag or bring a date. No prior prom experience required, just bring your bike, share your fun-loving attitude, and promenade your style in the city.

What will you do on your special night? You will ride to selected destinations with a provided map and stamp your dance card at each location. You will asked to perform prom activities at each dance stop, such as be fitted with a supplied corsage, primp at the glitter station, partake and properly toast from the magic punch bowl (adult and child versions provided), select just the right tune, take a whirl on the dance floor, and have your photograph made with a backdrop of stardust and rocket ships.

While prom activities will be easy and fun to complete, you might find a few bike-related challenges that will spice up your night. All destinations and activities will be provided on the map and dance card.

Prizes and Afterparty. In the euphoria of the evening, maybe you’ll get lucky and the win the coveted crown of the Prom King or Queen. As you grace us with your cosmic moves on the dance floor, remember style is more significant than speed. Prizes for best-dressed couple and best-dressed male and female. We reserve the right to offer mystery prizes too. Prizes will be awarded during the afterparty at Molly Brooke’s Irish Bar with drink specials and DJ music by local mix-meister Mick Jeffries.

Start Time and Place. The prom starts at the Living Arts & Science Center, 362 N. Martin Luther King Blvd., Lexington, Ky. Registration begins at 6:00 PM and the dance starts at 6:30 PM. Rain date is the following Saturday, September 13. The event is $5.00 and all proceeds benefit the Living Arts & Science Center. The event is open to the public.

Sponsors. Proudly sponsored by following local businesses: Isle of You, Pedal the Planet, The Morris Book Shop, Molly Brooke’s Irish Bar, The Hive, and CD Central.

If you couldn’t make it out and still want those deep discounts, just register for our newsletter and you’ll get a new round of superb coupons and map specials the first of September.

Hope to see you there!

A postscript on the event: Thanks for all those trail lovers who showed up and visited our booth. We met many outdoor enthusiasts with great trip stories. For folks who walked away with great coupons and discounts, the store is open. If you couldn’t make it out and still want those deep discounts, just register for our newsletter and you’ll get a new round of superb coupons and map specials the first of September.

Once again we are participating in the Woodland Arts Fair in Lexington, Kentucky. The event runs typically from 10am-6pm on Saturday and 12pm-5pm on Sunday. We’ll back in the shady section, the bottom of the U, in the Woodland Christian Church Annex.

We’ll have all of our maps, which will include special, one-time free downloads of the GPS data packs and discount coupons only available during the fair. We’ll also have a cotton candy machine and free lama rides, no we won’t!, but other booths will have said treats and activities. Nearby our booth is Cricket Press, who makes some of the most attractive screen printing ephemera and t-shirts you’re gonna find in the Bluegrass.

Hope to see you there!

Great Smokies Trail Atlas
Distance: 9 Miles round-trip from trailhead
Difficulty: +++
Scenic Views: +++
Elevation Relief: 1,800ft ^^
Ownership: Great Smoky Mountains, NPS

Great Smokies Trail Atlas: $16

As you drive from the Sugarlands Visitor Center on Newfound Gap Road, you’ll catch glimpses of the Chimney Tops, a summit outcropping of tough, erosion resistant metamorphic rock. Originally deposited as sedimentary rock, such as shale, sandstone, and siltstone over 500 million years ago, the rocks that make the mountains here first experienced metamorphosis becoming a hard, slate-type rock, and then mountain building forces to form the folded and faulted Appalachians, with peaks as high as the Rocky Mountains. Today, after 200 million years of erosion, Chimney Tops stands at 4,800 feet and roughly a 1,400 vertical foot climb from the trailhead below. As you walk and climb along the last quarter-mile of the ridge, you’ll clearly see the bedrock tilting down to the right, evidence of the great tectonic forces that thrust up the mountains that you’ll admire around you from this inspiring prominence.

The name the Cherokee Indians gave Chimney Tops, was Forked Antler. As you scan the ridge from valley overlooks, you can easily imagine the shape of a deer’s antler. The first 3/4 mile of this hike follows Road Prong, a stream that reaches the crest line of the Smokies. If you continue up Road Prong trail, you’ll hike one of the oldest trails in the area. Long used as an Indian path through the mountains, the path was expanded during the Civil War to move troops through the Smokies connecting Smokemont, North Carolina with Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The road was called the Oconaluftee Turnpike and it passed through Indian Gap at the summit. Today the summit is marked with the Appalachian Trail and Indian Gap is called Luftee Gap.

A note about climate and slope in the mountains. The high mountains in the area form steep, thinly soiled slopes, which are historically prone to landslides after extended periods of heavy rain. You’ll see many scars and debris fields from previous landslides as you hike to the summit. And the Smokies know plenty about rain: the summit line receives on average more precipitation anywhere east of the U.S. mountain west coast.

Because of the elevation, the temperature is similar to Canada, but because of the relief (over a mile above surrounding foothills), the precipitation pattern is more typical marine, creating colder and wetter conditions. Because of the proximity to Gulf and Atlantic tropical air masses, summer storms, especially remnants of hurricanes, can produce torrential rain events. These storms increase flash flooding and landslide hazards. In the late winter, polar air masses from the north can create an upslope flow forcing up moisture rich air and produce heavy snowfall. With an average of 5-8 inches of rain per month, streams can be difficult to cross anytime of the year. Please contact the park service before any backcountry trip.

Cave Run Lake Trail Guide
Distance: 6 Miles round-trip from trailhead
Difficulty: ++
Scenic Views: +++
Elevation Relief: 500ft ^
Ownership: Daniel Boone NF, USFS

Cave Run Lake Trail Guide: $12

Imagine the scene around Clear Creek Iron Furnace in the 1830’s, the trailhead for this hike. Scores of men were clearing old growth trees by acres a week, cutting limestone from the creeks, and hauling iron ore rock from neighboring hillsides to fuel one of largest iron furnaces in Kentucky. Iron was produced roughly nine months out of the year. The process was a laborious affair, but the profit was great, until much larger deposits of iron ore were found in the southern Appalachians and around the Great Lakes.

The cut wood was slowly burned in dirt covered pit to make charcoal. The furnace was ‘charged’ from the top in layers of ore, charcoal, and limestone and when full, the furnace was stoked with forced air until the charcoal was white-hot and the whole furnace roared tremendously and blasted heated air, flames, and a shower of sparks from the top. That’s when the furnace was in blast and slowly molten iron would flow from furnace bottom and fill trenches of sand to make pig iron ingots. The iron ore found in rocks is basically rust and is rendered as elemental iron in series of chemical reactions in the furnace.

Today you can still see many aspects of the furnace operation. The hand-cut limestone furnace still stands. Glass and slag are found downstream. The fuel for charcoal of course grows around abundantly. The limestone outcrops as you ascend the trail south from furnace. The Sinks is a sinkhole in the limestone bedrock produced by the slow process of erosion. Atop the southern extent of this trail, you’ll find the same rugged sandstone the produces the great rockshelters in the Red River Gorge. In fact, if you continue hiking the Sheltowee Trace south, you’ll travel through the heart of the Gorge.

Furnace Arch is a low broad arch that resembles the iron furnace in shape. The sandstone outcrops in the area offer a few campsites, though no water along the ridge top. The scenic quality of this area, with blooming rhododendron against craggy boulders, is worth a day of exploration.

On July 4th we released a trail lover’s and backpacker’s atlas for a wild & historic national treasure, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our trail atlas was designed for the modern trail user equipped with a GPS, but we focus our cartography on showing the rugged, historical, and ecological character of the park. These maps are beautiful, easy to read, and provide a pleasure as you wander over the pages and discover a new Smokies.

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