Ductape got a bag night?

“A friend of mine from work and I headed to Red River Gorge on Thursday night after work. We got a bit of a late start so we decided to buy some wood and find an easy campsite right by the road for Thursday night. The guy selling the firewood was only selling it in bonfire amounts, and having no intention of using even half that much or paying for wood we weren't going to use, we passed.

We found a parking lot with a field right by it to stay in on Thursday night. After a couple beers (well, maybe more than a couple) we decided to hit the sleeping bags. I was probably sleeping soundly in the back of my truck before my friend even had his tent set up.

The next morning we woke up and headed down to Koomer Ridge campground to park and start the hike. We took the Koomer Ridge Trail for a ways and then turned on to the Buck Trail. This is one of the few trails in RRG that I had not been on before. We soon got down to a creek crossing that my dog had an absolute blast in.

I had drank all my water the night before and started the hike with none, so I got my filter out and pumped some water. When taking the inlet hose back off to put it away, the little piece that the tube goes around broke off, which is kinda sucky. More on that later.

The creeks were moving pretty good with the recent rains, and we had a few fun crossings before heading up for a decent climb. As we were climbing up the hill, which was pretty steep at times, I started feeling like it had been a long time since I've been backpacking. My shoulders were feeling the weight of the pack and the quads were burning. It actually felt pretty good.

We continued on and stopped at the big campsite by Hanson's Point for the day. After setting up the tents we collected some firewood. Then we took a walk to collect some water. My filter was still functional, but there was no way to attach an inlet tube to it. I took along a pot that we filled with dirty water and pumped by submerging the inlet hole of the filter. It was not the most efficient method, but my friend seemed to enjoy the whole improvising thing.

After getting back to the site, I took a freaking awesome nap. It was one of those naps that was only about an hour, but I woke up not really knowing where I was for a minute or two.

My dog had been napping with me and I noticed that he was still moving pretty good. This trip was a test as to whether he was still up for hiking trips. He's got arthritis in his hips and was basically locked up after a previous hike. I've got a couple kinds of medicine for him, and am happy to say his hiking days are not over.

After the nap, we headed down to Hanson's Point and had dinner. This a rock that sticks out and has a great view of the surrounding area. I had pasta with pesto sauce and chicken. I followed it up with some white chocolate covered pretzels. Dinner is one of my favorite parts of a backpacking trip.

After taking the short walk back up to the campsite we spent a little more time collecting wood. This site is used a lot and we had to spread out quite far.

My friend is into this Magic card game and convinced me to give it a try. We played for a while and I quickly realized why people who play Magic do not get laid.

After the sun started going down, I impressed my friend with my firemaking skills and we watched wood burn for a while.

I went to bed a little earlier than usual and woke up this morning to clouds rolling in. My dog seemed to be feeling pretty good, though I could tell he was still a little worn out from the day before. We ate some breakfast, packed up, and headed out the way we came in.

We saw one person the first day, and saw a group of people the second day right before we got back to the car. Other than that it was a nice quiet weekend. It started to rain just a bit as we were heading out, but it didn't last long. I think my friend will come backpacking again, which is nice because I don't have many friends who like to hike that live around me.”

“Its probably good that magic players don't get laid since there was only the two of you ;)

Nice report, thanks”

“Gawd damn dude. That's my idea of a perfect trip report. When I read a TR I wanna know what ya ate. where ya slept and how it was. I don't give a rat's ass what it made ya feel like or how it made ya realize how you fit into the larger scheme of things. Simple. To the pint and honest. The kind of TR that makes yaq wish you were there.

BTW- let yer Magic the Gathering buddy know that the OG D&D is where he owes is elegance to.”

“What the hell is magic card game?”

“mtg ... very addictive”

“Maybe I was a little harsh about the Magic thing. I just don't really see why Magic people get as excited as they do.

I just realized that I didn't make a big enough deal in my TR about how many people we saw. We literally saw one guy when we got down to the first creek crossing and then no one until about 200 yards from the car on the way back. I never get that kind of solitude in the Gorge.

As we were lounging around camp, I was thinking about how great it was, half expecting a Boy Scout troup to come through our campsite. That didn't happen though.”