The John Helm Trail: Elizabethtown, Kentucky

About 30 minutes south of Louisville, Kentucky there is a small town called Elizabethtown. I spent quite a few of my formative years living here, but I haven't been back in a long time.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite places to hang out was on the John Helm Trail. Other than an paved sidewalk added to about a section of the trail, it has remained pretty much the same as it was when I first walked it at age 11.

The trail begins, oddly enough, at the back of a department store parking lot. Over the years the stores have changed many times, but the trail remains relatively the same.

A years back, I went to visit my mother in Elizabethtown and thought I'd take a walk down the trail with my little sister. The following photos are taken with my phone by either me or my sister, Randi.

I'm not really sure what it is that I'm doing here. Probably looking at some of the random graffiti on the pavement.

I spent so many hours after school, all the way to sunset playing in this stream. For some reason I was fascinated with flipping over the rocks and finding craw-dads (crayfish as some call them). I was always trying to find an even bigger one than the previous.

I used to sit on this bridge and throw sticks over the side while daydreaming about God knows what. I really miss that presence that I experienced at that age.

Here I am goofing off in a rotting fallen tree. I think I may be getting on my little sister's nerves at this point.

There are plenty of squirells around here. Very often you will see possums hanging from branches right over the path. I've had to walk around them more than once to avoid running into them.

A lot of old memories come pouring in when I stand at this spot. It is a strange feeling to see something that you haven't seen in so many years as if it were frozen in time.

This particular tree has been broken like this for many years. Every time I come back, someone has carved or spray-painted something new on it - usually something vulgar as you can see.

This was very surprising! I came across a Mexican family who were fishing in the stream. Firstly, I have never even seen a Mexican national in E'town, let alone an entire family fishing on the trail.

They were very friendly but couldn't speak English so I switched to Spanish and asked them about the fish. I could not believe that they had caught these fish in this extremely shallow water!

I just could not understand how this was possible. You learn something new every day!

This is the 6 inch deep water where they fished those monster fish from. Certainly there are spots that go a bit deeper, but not much. You can walk along the entire length of the stream and it never gets far above your ankle.

We are getting toward the end of the trail at this point.

This is where the trail opens up to a field. There is a spill-out here which empties out into a large body of water called Freeman Lake. This lake supplies the water for the whole town as far as I am aware.

You can see one of the water reserve tanks in the above image.

The bridge in the above image was there in my 20s, but not there when I was a kid. I remember walking across the pipes like a balance beam. Only once ever did I fall in. It had recently rained and there was a slimy surface on the pipe. I didn't make that mistake again!

In the above picture we are standing at the end of the trail in the field. you can't see it, but the hill behind us is actually a large dam. Freeman lake is just on the other side.

I call this photo our 'album cover', as if we had a band. My sister just rolls her eyes at me. Well, thanks for joining me on a trip down memory lane! Perhaps I will go back in another 10 years and take a new set of photos.