Rock'in Out In The Gorge - a TR

“Pink Fleece, Rock Monkey (PF's son) and I got back from, hands down the most spectacular trip I have ever been on. The trip was a simple one: Red River Gorge Friday night - night hike in to a campsite near the Auxier Ridge TH and camp, then the next day we hike out to Court House Rock, camp on top, then hike back out Sunday.

Friday: There was a band of ugly little Thunderstorms running across Indiana, and Kentucky as I left work and headed for Dayton to pick up my hiking partners, and we were all worried about how miserable making camp could be that evening. Somewhere around Cincinnati we caught up with the storms. Crap. This means we will be back in front of it all when we get to the Gorge and may spend the night riding out some ugly stuff. The rain was coming down really hard, and traffic on the interstate was slowed, due to very poor visibility. We finally get throught it and make Slade. Parking pass purchased and we are on our way again. Going down Tunnel Ridge Road was interesting. A short ways in we are flagged down by a couple hikers asking us to help them get a ranger as they have locked their keys in their car. It was nearly totally dark and I didn't have the number for a park ranger, so I told them that I aould get my partners into a campsite then come back for them, and we could go into Slade or whatever needed done. About a mile past them we came upon two park rangers on their way out and told them of the situation and they said they would take care of them and we went on our way. Now, my maps of RRG are generally very good, but they are a bit decieving when it comes to the layout of the road at the Auxier ridge parking lot, and we cast about for a couple minuites trying to decide if we were in the right place or not. The the Rangers showed back up and confirmed that the road does continue on but it is gated, and all civillian vehicles must be left at the Auxier Ridge lot. That was cool with us. The plan was to hit the first camp site on the left just past the gated part of the road. Well I am pretty sure I found the right trail going to the site but since it was completely dark I decided that it wasn't such a good idea to lead my partners off on an unmarked trail in the dark when I had already found one drop off that the trail ran along and we really didn't have a good idea where we were going. The trail was quite over grown too, so we decided to continue on to the next site. We found it a little further down on the right and the trail was very plain and we made camp with no trouble at all. I finished off the last of my Subway and we hit the sack with no fire, as it was already about 1030 or so.

Saturday: "Up with the sun, gone with the wind" Yep, Rock Monkey and I were up just as it started to get light, but when we tried to wake PinkFlc she said "is there a sun rise?" and I said "no there is too much cloud cover" she said "then what are we up for?" and rolled over. LOL! Well it wasn't long and wew were all up and fed and back on the trail. We made a quick stop at the car to shift some gear around and then headed down Auxier Ridge trail. The clouds quickly burnt off and left us with a spectacular saphire blue sky, and nice temperatures. If you have never hiked this trail I would recomend you put it down on your "must hike" list. It has unbelievable views nearly non-stop and they just kept getting better, and better as you go along. We set a very slow pace as we only had 4 miles to do that day, so we spent a lot of time running off the side trails and taking in every view we could. I was right there with the camera clicking away, and burning up film like I have never done before. We had lunch about half way to Court House Rock at the end of a side trail that stopped at a rocky point straight across from Ravens Rock. It was beautiful. Fed, fat, and sassy, we mosied back down the trail. It wasn't long before we reached Auxier ridge and had our breath taken away. Wow. What an incredible place. 360 views, and hundreds of feet above the river bottom. Incredible. We could see our goal off in the distance. Court House Rock. When we finally got close to the base we came across someone resting in the shade and asked him if he knew the best way to the top. he tells us to just stay on the trail and eventually it will go up some rocks and wind around to the back side where there is a crack that you have to shimmy up. Well the look on PF's face said "forget it" but we pushed on , as I was thinking "well lets just go see how bad it is, I think I can talk her into it." I was leading and the trail went two directions and I chose the wrong one. RM and I dumped our packs to scramble along a very narrow ledge and scout things out, that was when we hit a dead end. The ledge was so narrow we had to turn sideways and our heals were hanging off the side, as we scooted along there was about a 50 foot drop below us. Um, I think we need to go back and look for another way... Back on the trail PF spotted the way to the right and up we went. We ran across 3 or 4 kids by themselves that looked to be about 10 years old climbing around and I though "WTH are kids that age doing out here by themselves". They didn't seem out of place though so I left it alone. We continued on for a short ways then the trail just stopped at this crevice that ran jaggedly up the side of the rock to the top, and there were some college kids standing there looking at their friends up top. Well RM and I dumped out packs and headed up to see how hard it was before trying to get our gear and PF up there (she's not so crazy about heights). We made it to the top just fine, and what a pay off! You could see forever in any direction. Absolutely incredible. We walked around for a few minutes and chatted with the co-eds as we were waiting for them to all go back down. Then the real work began. RM and I went back down and we dumped the packs and divided up the gear so each pack was only about half full and headed up again. As soon as we got to the top we dumped them out and went back down for more. We made three trips up with packs on and by the last time we had PF talked into going up with us. She did great, and decided it was worth the effort once she got to the top too. If you have been there then you know what I'm talking about. We watched some buzzards circling on thermals below us for a while, then made dinner and waited for mother natures daily light show to begin. There were still nearly no clouds so it was spectacular. Then the stars came and were just as impressive. We crashed out pretty early as the climbing had us all pretty tired.

Sunday: We woke at first light again to find fog filling the river bottom. The effect was unbelievable! Tht ridge tops tooked tike they were coming up out of a sea of white. Then the sun broke the horizon, and we all just stood there with our mouths hanging open. All anyof us could manage to say was "wow". The sun lit the fog and I have never seen anything like it in my life. I lack the words to properly describe it. Eventually reallity started setting back in and we remembered that we needed to break camp and get out early. The Trip out was quick and uneventfull, though we were all a bit sad to have left so early. I don't think I have ever left the Gorge and not had that feeling though. What an incredible place and what an incredible trip. I will always have fond memories of that weekend.


p.s. Hopefully Pinkflc will be able to get some pics posted for you all soon. You wont believe it was in Kentucky, guaranteed.”

“Sounds like you guys had a great weekend. Can't wait to see the pictures!”

“cool, ive never been on top of court house rock”

“Hey Meangreen!!
Thanks for the report!! I am tying to get JoAnn to go there in July, maybe to hike and rock climb!
See ya later.
randall”

“are you sure she can handle it? shes such a delicate flower”

“RANDALL!!!
The hike to Courthouse is quite easy and climbing up isn't as bad as it looks. The payoff is definately worth it. I'm trying to post pics now.”

“Ok Here's the link to the picks:

http://thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/f2vtm31w,1.php

This is less than half of what I took but they are the best ones.”

“Great pictures!”

“Those pics are pe-imp.

I've never seen that kind of fog at the Gorge. I was thinking I don't know if I'd be shimmying up that rock until I saw the view from the top. Definitely worth the effort.

Did you have to carry water from the car?”

“Thanks guys. It really was amazing. SOOOOO worth the climb, even if you got so scared of heights you peed down your leg, it would still be worth it!

That is the only downfall Ductape. There is Zero water on this trail, and up on that rock in the 3:00 sun was hotter than he11's kitchen. We started the day with 9 or 10 liters of water between the 3 of us, and by Saturday night I was beginning to get mildly concerned about running out before we got to the car on Sun. We ended up with one liter each for the hike out which was about perfect. We still bought 3 liters of Gatorade as soon as we get into Slade, and chugged them down. Then we hit Miguels for spicy sausage, tomato, garlic, onion, and bannana pepper pizza's and Ale 8. We were their first pizza's of the day as it was only about 10:30.”

“Your pics of the fog are so cool! What an awesome thing to experience. Looks like a once-in-a-lifetime event. Thanks for sharing. And I'm glad you had no car troubles. ;)”

“Meangreen,
The pics are killer!!! I think the RRG is becoming one of my top five!!
See ya later.
Randall”

“The Gorge is da bomb as long as you can keep away from the mobs.

It's just not right to go to Kentucky and not have an Ale 8, is it?”

“Nice pics and TR! Thanks for sharing!”