RRG ECT II

“The idea of a return trip to Red River Gorge has been bouncing around since before the first trip ended. The suggestion of doing it in mid/late Oct. was brought up on another thread. Any earlier than that and it will still be hot and humid. I figure if it's gonna happen now is the time to start talking about it.

I personally would like to do a two or three day trip covering around 8 miles a day. That would be enough milage to see a good chunck of the area and still leave time for side trips or fire side social time. It would be fairly easy for people coming in for just a part of the trip to catch us by coming in on a side trail.

Does this sound like something y'all would be up for? C'mon speak up.

BTW; this one will be backpacking and will not mutate into a slackpack trip. The first trip was great but let's put some trail behind us this time.”

“I'd be up for that.”

“Coolness. Have you got a route in mind?”

“Could ya post some links with the location, maps and whatnot fer us to contemplate plausible logistics on attending...if'n anyone's got any!”

“Possible. Would like it. Set it up and I'll see if I can make it.”

“I'll do my best!”

“Working on links now... I was just reminded why I should save my progress more often. Opps. Dang those summer thunder storms.

I'll have 'em up by the eve.”

“I just wish we could do it early so WB and I could come . we really had a good time there last year. One of our favorite places now. but we will be leaveing forFlorida Sept 23rd. Have a great trip though. Well be thinking about ya.”

“Count me in..SOrry you cant make it MOM..Lets get together before you leave for Fla..ok?”

“Evergreen!!
Your Alive!!!!!”

“id love to evergreen Im available anytime to hit the trails just let me know when and where”

“OK; I couldn't get this up last nite due to a thunder storm/power surges.
But here we go;

These are a few RRG sites, many of them have links to even more info. about RRG


USDA Site

KYWilderness.com, good info on RRG

Trail Volunteers' Page

Gorp's RRG Page

weather, enter "Slade,KY" in search

This RRG site we hijacked to chat on about the trip

Wanna take a trip down memorey lane or just check out how the last trip went?


The RRG ECT I Trip report Thread

My RRG Pics

Evergreen's RRG ECT I Pics

Skiracer's ton o' RRG ECT I Pics

Walkindude's RRG ECT I Pics


Mom's RRG ECT I Pics

Hopefully that will be more than enough to get y'all started.
Anyone else have some good sites to suggest?”

“The following is the hike that I recently suggested to Buddabear on another thread. I would also humbly suggest it for an ECT trip too;


Okay, here's the best long loop I can think of that is all developed trails.

From Mountain Parkway(Slade exit) turn left, go under bridge to stop sign. Turn left on KY 15 go 1.5 miles to Ky 77. Turn right on 77 and go 3.2 miles, passing through the Nada Tunnel, to Martins Fork Parking Area. Trail begins 100 Yards southeast of parking area.

Hike Rough Trail(#221) to Koomer Ridge Trail. 6.0 miles.

Follow Koomer Ridge Trail(#220) to the Koomer Ridge Parking Area. 2.9 Miles.

Do the Silvermine Trail(#225) round trip. 1.5 Miles.

Do Hidden Arch Trail and rejoin Kommer Ridge Trail. 1.0 miles.

Follow Koomer Ridge Trail back to the Junction with Buck Trail(#226). 0.8 miles.

Take Buck Trail to Pinch'em Tight Ridge Trail(#223/100). 1.5 miles.

Hike Pinch'em Tight Ridge Trail to Tunnel Ridge Road. 1.3 miles.

Road walk to Gray's Arch Parking Lot. 0.2 miles.

Follow Daniel Boone Hut Trail(#209) back to Rough Trail. 0.6 miles.

Descend Rough Trail back to the Martin Fork Parking Lot. 0.75 miles.

Total milage 16.55

I got the milage from "Hiking The Red" (Harmony House Publishers). Milage figures in the book occasionally contradict each other by a few tenths of a mile so take them with a grain of salt.”

“Great job Crow!! That sounds like a plan.
Thanks for posting all the good resorce info too!”

“Rolex and I might be interested IF we end up having an extra day or two of vacation and IF y'all end up doing this towards the end of October. We saw ski's pictures from the last trip and it looked like a wonderful place.

When is Om's full moon hike planned...isn't that an October hike as well?”

“i dunno, but i'm a goin' where OM is goin'!”

“I'll out of the picture during the 3d week of October but if it's after that I'll probably make it.”

“Damn, how do those typos slide by? Should be "I'll BE out ..."”

“swiss miss and rad....
full moon hike at shining rocks....the full moon is on tuesday oct. 16th. I have that entire week off, I will open a thread...yawn...tomorrow with details, probably should include the previous weekend..for those that cant do a midweek thing, almost a full moon is good too..just more folks out then......
hope that helps with your october hike scheduling...”

“Count me in for sure!!!!

Might be heading that way one of these weekends anyways. Full moon sounds like a good time.”

“how far away from Asheville is RRG? Has a date been set yet? ...if y'all did it the weekend of the 20th... i could come out of full moon at the rocks on the 17th and head up to rrg....if it wasnt too too far....
i am being selfish here....jus wanna do all the ect's!”

“i-am-om; from ashville, NC to Slade, KY(RRG) is 259 miles or 5 1/2 hours. There is no good interstate route so you would spend most of the drive on US 23 and KY 15. Look at it as the senic route.”

“thanks walkincrow....
i do not take interstates....i love the scenic routes!...long as i have some good tunes on the stereo....i can cruise for hours...
so....have you decided when the RRG ect II will take place yet?”

“I wish I would have hiked crow's route. After hiking bits of it, I realize that it would be the perfect two day trip down there.”

“OK; the general idea seems to be October 19-21 with a couple votes for the next weekend.
Let's get a quick show of hands for which weekend y'all prefer. Then we'll trade e-mails and also get the trip on to Phils trip page. He's on the Llama Rama so we've got a few days.

Personally I vote for Oct. 19-21.

I'd like to try and make the Mt. Rodgers ECT reunion trip also and that's Nov. 2-3. A weekend off in between would help.

Speak up.”

“hey crow you gunna make up to the White's in September?”

“sirpete; I'm afraid I'm not gonna be able to make that one. Probably have to skip the Penn Grand Canyon trip too. Between a trip every couple weeks, trail maint. one weekend a month and trying to have a family/social life I got make some sacrifices. The Real World $uck$! Kinda a bummer, I gather you moved so your ECT trips are gonna slim down I'm guessing. Hopefully we'll meet on the trail again.”

“Oct. 19-21 is probably better for me than the following weekend, but I have a potential schedule conflict for the week of Oct. 14-20 and won't know if I can make it till shortly before.”

“19th - 21st Is it for me.”

“Coome onn steve hiker. The temps up here should be about perfect around then. Hope to see ya there.”

“OK, who's tentatively in for now?”

“ME!”

“i'm tentatively not!”

“I am tentatively in. 19-21.”

“I am interested in this trip. Will you begin on the 19th. (morning) or just gather and begin as everyone shows up in the afternoon. It's a bit of a drive for me, so I plotting with my vacation time.

Skiracer-since you've done this trip and know where I live, what would you estimate the drive to be. Thanks for the help!”

“SHE LIVES! Welcome back girl, where in the H have U been! I know beauty pagents!Howd she do?”

“Oh, pencil me in for this trip, I should be able to make it. WILL NOT be at the Mt rogers I will be in ZION NP, hopefully. Yo bear”

“50/50 for The Dude. Depends on if I go back to Zaleski. Gotta save some vacation time for the REAL cold days.”

“yeah what's that like 30 degrees ya wimmpie @ssed southerner!!!




J/K”

“You don't wanna have a freeze out contest with me. I live for cold!”

“SirPete weren't you all wrapped up in Gore Tex and down slippers against the wimpy ass "cold" at Savage Gulf?”

“LOL!!!
You tell him Steve!”

“Creekjumper- It was about 7.5-8 hours for me. I checked Yahoo Maps and it appears to be about 7 hours and 370 miles for you. Lucky for you, most of it is on the interstates. Look for Slade, KY as the destination.”

“Hey all: I crashed my hard drive so I won't be able to check in daily for about a week.

Creek Jumper (and all) my thought was to meet at the trail head/ Martin's Fork parking lot friday evening(19th), 6 pm or so and try to hike for about an hour. That should give us about an hour of light to make camp.
Return to cars Sunday evening, a couple hours before sunset.

That's my suggestion but let's see what the majority wants. If others want to leave earlier/later it would be easy to all be in the same place Friday nite/ Saturdy morn.

I think we could do seven to ten miles on saturday. If anyone needs to hike in Saturday morn we would be able to wait a few extra hours an still not stretch it too much.

People could also meet us a the Koomer Ridge Camp Ground early Saturday afternoon. I'll volunteer to shuttle back to Koomer ridge on Sunday eve.

If you look around on the links above you can find a trail map. There are a lot of jump/bail points on this hike.

Let's see when people want to meet on Friday eve and we will be able to figure when and where to meet others.

Sooo... Question #1; Does Friday at 6pm seem like a good time to gather at the trail head? (b.)Who plans to be there when? (c.)has Crow answered more questions than he asked?”

“Thanks for the answers. I do beieve I'll try this one. It's been way too long since my last TT fix.

Thanks Ski--I hope to see you on this trip!

Walkincrow--The time will work for me. As time draws nearer, I may need a bit more in the directions department.

Jerber---Hi guy! She didn't win, but came out very well. I'll bring photos to RRG. Actually I'm trying to figure a way to get her to come along. Can't wait to see ya'!”

“With the RRG trip just over a month away I thought I'd bring this thread up. Here's a list of people interested so far. Everybody still on board for Oct. 19-21?

Walkincrow
Skiracer
Evergreen
Walkindude
Budder
Bpbaby
Swiss Miss/Rolex?
I-am-OM?
Rad?
Brier Rabbit
Buddha Bear
Spam
Creekjumper
Jerbear
Sirpete?
Steve Hiker

Anyone else? Walkincrow is everything together on this?”

“i'm tentatively not!”

“Just a reminder: Permits are now required for overnight parking in the Gorge.

And camping in rock shelters is no longer permitted.”

“Overnight parking permits were required last year, too.”

“Overnight parking permits will prolly be required next year as well.”