Cumberland Gap Road Trip
By Andrew Aughenbaugh, 4 min reading time
In 1750, a young Daniel Boone traveled with his father and the rest of his family from Pennsylvania to North Carolina towards more fertile farming grounds and a more game enriched wilderness. The trip took years, including an extended stay in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia before settling in the Yadkin River Valley of North Carolina in 1752. Today, in an interest to follow Daniel Boone's footsteps across the Cumberland Gap, I covered most of their trek in time marked in hours - not months or years.
Weekend road trips keep the traveler’s soul awake when the obligations of making a living keep one close to home. However, a quick 2 or 3 day road trip can satisfy the itch. Even a single day out in the car exploring new areas close to home can work wonders to freshen up the adventurous soul until the next big thing. Unlike the travelers of the 1770’s, our modern vehicles, road systems, and available food along the trail, allow us to cover great distances in a shorter time than the old travelers could ever have imagined.
My plan was simple: After my last work meeting on Thursday, I would jump in the 1997 FJ 80 Toyota Land Cruiser and drive 2 hours for some sunset fishing and a quick camp in the George Washington National Forest. Then, using some of that saved up leave time, I would skip the office on Friday and drive southeast along an Appalachian valley trail - loosely following the travels of the Boone family - with the final destination being the Cumberland Gap. Saturday I would hike the Gap and explore the mountains once explored by Daniel Boone.
From the time when European settlers arrived in North America, the Appalachian Mountains served as a wall keeping explorers from moving westward. The Appalachian Mountains are the oldest mountains in North America and some of the oldest worldwide. What they lack in total height from millions of years of erosion, they make up for in ruggedness. Steep rocky ridges run north and south, limiting east-west travel. Even today, the local convenience store may only be 6 miles away as the crow flies, but will take 15 road miles to get there.
Friday’s drive consisted of no interstates. I stuck to the state and county roads following the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail, including stops at cover bridges from the 1800’s & sites of Indian battles. To not invoke ethics and values of today onto those of that period, I focused on the difficulties of life during that period: reflecting on how much has changed from then to today. I worried my can of soda was getting warm in my truck, while I took photos of the sign marking the location the Boone family was attacked by Native Americans and Daniel’s own son was killed.
Before the sun broke the morning fog on Saturday, I donned my backpack filled with protein bars and a full water bladder to hike the Gap. The Cumberland Gap began as a footpath over the Appalachian Mountains used by mitigating buffalo and Native Americans. Later it became the Gateway to the West. From the European perspective, Dr. Thomas Walker is credited with discovering the Gap. Then Daniel Boone and friends blazed the trail with axes in 1775, thus opening the door for over half a million pioneers to migrate westward into Kentucky and the Ohio Valley. There is much more to the history of the Gap, but the focus on my mini adventure was to walk in the footsteps of Daniel Boone. I hiked to the Gap and continued up the mountain to the Tri-state point and gazed down upon the Gap that opened the West.
The afternoon included a visit to an Art festival in the Town of Cumberland Gap, a visit to Pinnacle overlook, and general exploration of the area once inhabited by Daniel Boone and his family and friends.
Closing the short road trip, the evening was spent over a campfire with whiskey in my cup and reflective thoughts in my mind; lighter thoughts of ‘how would the traffic be on the drive back home tomorrow?’, to deeper thoughts of what it must have been like to travel for months and years via wagon and horse with the whole family in pursuit of a better life.
That’s the thing about these short weekend adventures, even a couple of days out on the road exploring what intrigues you can provoke the same reflective thoughts as a big adventure. Just as we like to say, Experience, Reflect, Repeat.
Happy Wandering.
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Cumberland Gap Road Trip
In 1750, a young Daniel Boone traveled with his father and the rest of his family from Pennsylvania to North Carolina towards more fertile farming ...
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