Red River Gorge - Courthouse Rock

“Everything is tenative. I just want to get some ideas down in a trip before I forget this idea.”

“don't worry about the dates, mg. we can figure something out.

ppl climb in the gorge year round. these crags only get partial sunlight in the afternoon but i am betting they will be fine to climb in november if there is not a lot of rain.”

“COOL! If I came in late on a Sat. night I could camp along Tunnel ridge road, or there is a great little camp site on the right, a short ways down Double arch trail that is easilly reached in the dark, and I believe it is legal as it is on the OutraGis maps.
Then maybe we could getup and work our way out to Courthouse, then on Monday hike out, and maybe run up ravens rock before heading home. Just a thought.”

“Oh, hell. I guess I should have read your trip description first. LOL! I mean, "Ya, what he said!" LOL!”

“i'll have to work out some of the details. that saturday is one FULL day of exploring, hiking, and climbing. it really is a good blend of activities and with a lot of the easier routes and easier access to the walls (scrambles leading to the climbing areas) it's a great place for first-time climbers who are more backpacking types. it just won't be one of those "high mileage" backpacking trips... less than 5 miles the entire day.

there will be a lot of gear to hump about. we may want to do some gear caching (all the overnight stuff) for saturday night so we only need to lug climbing gear (ropes, cams, stoppers, draws, etc) and food on saturday.”

“Seems like that since I'm a Kentuckian I would know what a cat-head biscuit is. I know what red-eye gravy is but have no clue about the cat-head thing, please enlighten me.”

“well you will have to join us for breakfast at natural bridge to find out! hehe

(it's a flat bicuit as large as the head of a cat)”

“Meow...

Mmmmmmmmm...
Here kitty kitty...”

“Can i join and just do the hiking parts?”

“I don't see why not. There won't be much milage though.”

“for sure, but you will have to climb a little bit to get to the top of courthouse rock. not hard-core climbing, however, and we'll have a rope for safety.”

“Jimmy San,

Just how technical will this climbing be? I've wanted to do Haystack, is it a climb you have to do with gear?”

“all the routes except one are all 5.x rated so they are all technical climbs. this means that unless the climb is protected a fall would almost certainly be fatal. that's why we will be fixing a top-rope, wearing helmets, and tying into a belay with harnesses.

the "standard route" up courthouse rock is a class 4 climb. this means technical skills are not required to climb it but an unprotected fall would almost certainly result in serious injury or death. so once again we will be fixing a top-rope, wearing helmets, and tying into a belay with harnesses.

if you don't want to climb then by all means don't. the time will be just as fun. how can you go wrong in the red?

think of it this way. i'll be climbing in the red this weekend and any and all are welcome to meet me there to do whatever they want. :)”

“oh, i forgot to say. you asked about haystack. it's a 5.3 route so again technical climbing. it's a trad route so you need gear to fix protection to climb it safely. i'll have all my trad gear with me so we will be able to climb it safely. it's a 5.3 which is pretty easy climbing. the 8 year olds at the rock gym i work out at climb this stuff as part of their birthday parties. having said that i sure had better not take a fall on this route! ;)”

“so, you have the gear, is that what you're saying? physically, i know i can do this, this is just something new. i've hiked that area many times, but not climbed. where are you climbing this weekend?”

“If I make this I wont get there till nearly midnight on Saturday night. Are you climbing on Sunday at all Jim?”

“i have all the gear... major big-time gear whore here. i only have one helmet, however, and only one pair of climbing shoes. neither are required but the helmet is strongly recommended and the shoes to really help. if you can arrange to borrow either (esp the helmet) that would be a good thing.

per the trip page i wasn't planning on climbing on sunday (other than lowering down off courhouse rock). i can always be tempted, even if it's just few hours at left flank or the like.”

“Questions - are you going to be there Fri-Sun or Fri-Mon? There are a couple of us who are talking about doing some hiking while you are climbing and meeting up with you at camp. Could you let me know where you plan on camping Fri night? Also, is there a campsite near Courthouse Rock if there are those of us who don't want to climb and camp on top? What trails are near where you are going to be climbing that you would suggest us hiking on?”

“Double arch trial parallels Auxier ridge, and there is a connector. There are also a couple unmarked trails off of Double arch that look really cool with lots of overlooks. I have never tried but I'm sure you could find a decent place to camp on the lower portion of courthouse rock trail, or simply bushwhack out a good distance from the cliff base, and find a flat spot.”

“November 16-18 is Friday-Monday.

I'll be getting in very late on Friday and won't be setting up a designated camp site. I'll be heading to Auxier Ridge Trail (#204) in the morning.

There are lots of trails in the area of Auxier Ridge Trail. I am sure if you get a map you can come up with a lot of options for backpacking in the area.”

“There is a nice little campsite in the valley between Courthouse Rock and Double ARch - right beside the trail. There are also many campsites on the ridge top on the way to Courthouse rock on Auxier Ridge.”

“no shortage of camp sites in the red, that's for sure.”

“god i miss this place”

“I will get a hiking route planned sometime today and post it for anyone who is interested in the hiking, but not the climbing.

Crash - it misses you too. YOu can hear the echo of "crash where are you?" all through the place:)”

“windigrrl: create a seperate trip. it's fun if you have never done one before (i can't recall if you have of have not). also if i move the dates of my trip i can do so without impacting your plans. just remember that you can't email the people from the trip page because the people that run this site don't take care of it.”

“Thanks Jimmy san. I've posted a hike or two. :)”

“i wasn't sure. i sincerely apologize if that came off the wrong way. it was not my intent to be insulting or demeaning.”

“I was insulted and demeaned.”

“yeah, well... you sort of bring that sort of thing on yourself...

HOW THE HELL YOU DOING MAN!”

“I didn't take it that way at all Jimmy san, I meant my comment back as more of a laugh than anything. I have posted a few trips for some others who didn't know how to post a trip, that's why I thought it was funny. I appreciate the help. I think too many people assume that everyone knows how to do things or that everything comes easy to everyone. I would have better had you tell me how to do it, than not.”

“I'm not going to make this one folks. Sorry, but the sitter situation just isn't going to work. Have loads of fun, and enjoy the killer 360 views from the top. May the stars blow your mind.”

“that's ok. i am used to going it alone. actually i think i have a victim (ahem) i mean friend from chicagoland that may go with me. he would have signed up for the trip page but can't create a freaking account. apparently he emailed "elise" and was told his id he requested could not be created because it had the word "ass" in it. well i know i would have been offended! go figure. they won't fix the email functionality but they will implement an ad-hoc policy to protect me from the word "ass".
last edited: 11/02/07 3:58:28 PM”

“Jim, you ass clown! LOL! I never meant to abandon you dude. Seriously I am dying to climb, and will probably need the practice for the CO trip, but it just isn't in the cards this time. Shoot me an e-mail or something next time you head down that way and hopefully I can make the next trip. Thanks for the generous offer though.




ASS ASS ASS ASS ASS ASS ASS ASS ASS ASS ASS!




Ass Hoooooooooolllllle! LM ASS O!”

“careful... you'll get banned. it seems you can't put #&%!$ in a post but you can put ass in a post. you can't put ass in a login name and i a betting you can't put #&%!$ in a login name either. apparently ass is worse in the login name than in the post.”

“Fight the man!”

“rage against the machine”

“what if you had the word ass as part of a word? Would that still not work? Like assume? That has the word ass in it and it's just a spelling thing? I'm sure there's a bunch of words that has ass in it. Jackass, KissMyAss Club, etc. What then?”

“meangreen - you're not going to make it:(”

“Sorry, but the stars did not allign for this one, as much as I wanted to, it ain't going to happen.”

“Why don't you become a park ranger? Then you can hike all the time.”

“my friend and i are going to rig a zip-line from the top of courthouse rock. are you all sure you don't want to join us? haha!”

“i ordered a petzl trolly for setting up the zip line. i find it hard to believe we'll have enough daylight on saturday to do this but it's actually not that complex... just once you are the bottom you have to get back up again.

the trolly is rated to speeds up to 45 mph... how cool is that?”

“canned the order. like a dog that found two bones i now can't decide between a new trolley that cmi makes ("micro trolley") or the petzl speed trolley. the cmi has a redundant tie-in point that would add a little extra security to the setup. it's heavier (stainless) but i am not sure of it's speed rating.. a asked cmi but haven't heard back from them yet.”

“Might change and go to Mammoth Cave hiking instead of RRG.”

“we are leaving chicagoland at 4pm on friday.”

“Fire ban lifted, yeah!”

“sweet! it's going to be cold at night so this will be nice, but there is no wood on top of courthouse rock. :)”

“We have decided to head to Mammoth Cave this weekend. Have fun climbing!!!”

“packed up and ready to go. kind of disorganized but that's ok. it's going to be cold friday night! 28-33 it says... well not that bad. 30s on sat night but sat is pt cloudy and in 50s which is perfect for climbing. looking forward to a great weekend. won't be able to post a tr until two weeks after i get back but i'll have a few photos hopefully. i want to get one of our camp on courthouse rock!”

“Saturday
Partly cloudy. Warmer. Highs in the upper 50s. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph.

Saturday Night
Partly cloudy. Lows 33 to 38. Light winds.

Sunday
Partly cloudy. Highs in the lower 50s. East winds at 5 to 10 mph

GREAT weather report for a weekend of climbing or hiking.”