Red River Gorge Trip Report

“Hey all.... I thought I'd post my trip report for my shortened Red River Gorge Trip.

The plan was to do a loop in two days starting at Koomer Ridge to Sheltowee to Rough, and return via Pinch em Tight and Buck in 2-1/2 days.

Plans change. On the way down from Ohio, I learned that my hiking partner just bought her hiking boots, didn't have a rainfly for her pack, and had never hiked with a pack before. It was raining hard with thunder and lightening when we arrived at 2:00, so I decided to pitch the tent at he campground and convinced her to day hike the Koomer Ridge to Sheltowee to Buck trail. I figured I'd give her a good taste of moderate hill climbs under !$%&ty conditions to see how she'd hold up. We did fine, eventhough the whole hike was through a downpour. There were some decent creek crossing due to the rain, and we had a lightening bolt come a little too close for comfort, but all in all it was a nice challanging hike. We camped at the grounds, and she seemed to be holding up pretty well, with only 1 potential blister forming from her new boots (thank God for moleskin).

The next day's plan was to overnight pack the rest of the original loop - about 10 miles day 1, and 2 miles today. We started at the Daniel Boone Hut Trail. There were some beautiful views and cliff formations, but the hut was kind of a disappointment. Gray's Arch was beautiful, and amazing. There was a plaque dedicated to some guy who fell to his death on the Gray's Ridge Trail, and we wonder if he fell from the Arch itself, of some part of the trail. My parner was doing pretty will with a full pack, although we had only hiked mainly ridges or easy ascents up to that point.

Anyway, after coming off the Gray's Arch Trail, and hiking on the Rough Trail, things started to turn. The hills, alough moderate, were eliciting moans and graons from my pard. By the time we got to Rush Ridge, I knew it would be best to turn back. We took rush ridge back to my truck, and decided to camp on a nice site we passed on the Gray's Arch trail. After a two hour nap, she suggested to head back to Columbus. I figured, heck, we aren't hiking tommorrow, why not. So we left and I arrived late last night.

The place was really cool, and we ran into a few nice folks, and a couple of rangers. There are some terrific views from the ridges we hiked. i wished that we could have met walkin'crow, and I could have hiked according to plan, but I had a good time, and so did she becaue of the fact that I didn't push her too hard.

There it is - I hope you enjoyed it.”

“Things don't always work out as planned. That's good that you had a good time though. Rain is always a bit of a bummer. One of my personal peeves is when things I can't control ruin my plans. The two big ones are illness and the weather. I try to continue with my plans regardless of the weather (unless it's so bad it's dangerous.) Sounds like you did pretty much the same, and have a good time to show for it.”

“Right on Trailbuster, if you don't change plans based on your enviroment, people could get hurt.”

“The Rough trail is pretty cool. Gray's Arch is good too.”

“Glad you had a good time anyway, and I respect you for not pushing too hard. Maybe you can make another trip later with some of the hard core hikers.”

“Better to change plans than ruin a trip. I've seen people push thier mates or children too hard on a first trip and never be able to get them on the trail again. Puts me to mind of the time I shared a camp with a father and his two teen sons. He didn't get to see them much(divorce+distance) and wanted to go hiking to bond with them. They were newbies and he pushed them too hard. Rather than bond the teens were starting to hate him.

Glad to hear that wisdom prevailed and hopefully her imagination is now primed for another trip.

Maybe we can get a group together for an ECT trip to the Gorge this fall...”

“Which this time Crow, Backpacking or Slackpacking? hehehe”

“It seems that all TT trips to the Gorge start as a backpack trip and then change to slackpack. It's the rule isn't it?”

“Maybe we'll get a trip there to cover some distance instead of basecamp & day hike. I enjoyed the hell out of it last year but I'm ready to do some REAL miles out there!”

“BTW, I'm completely open in October for BPing. November is about to fill up.”

“buddah,
you were wondering about the plaque at greys arch.
the man fell from the arch itself
where their party was camping and built a bonfire.
a flaming log rolled,and he tryed to save it from going over the edge.instad he went over the edge.what a way to go|”

“Well the idea was actually brought up on the last trip of having a RRG-ECT II trip. October is a great time there. I think the 16 mile trip I suggested to Buddah would be a good one. Columbus weekend?

I'll start a thread about this tomorrow and see who bites.”

“Oh no! Not Columbus day, I will be on the AT then! I'll never get to meet you guys. LOL”

“Yeah, bpbaby is pretty cool. Let's aim for another weekend.
What about the weekend of the 13th?”

“That's kind of you, dude. Thanks.”

“Would anyone be able to do the 26-28?”

“That would be kinda tight for me cause I've got two trips back to back in November (1st & 2nd weekend). That would be 3 weekends in a row. If I did that Susan would...........Well, I don't wanna think about it.”

“I like to hike in the rain, but this past weekend I had to wear raingear because of the mosquitos, and it was hot & humid out. We bailed out a day early because of bugs and rain.

Just got the photos up. Had to put it in two albums, since webshots only allows 36 photos in each album. See my webpage:
http://home.socal.rr.com/snownymph/
go to SoCal Hiking, and click on the two newest thumbnails.
You can click on "view album slideshow" and set the time for 2 sec, 4 sec, 7 sec, etc.
Enjoy!”

“Nice pics Snow Nymph. You sure get out quite often!”