Red River Gorge Trip Report

“THE RRG TRIP ACCORDING TO WALKINDUDE

I got there Thursday about 11:30 AM. MOM & Whispering Bill showed up about 15 mins. later. Soon after JerBear (Yo Bear) pulled in, then Colorado Dreamin. We shuffled on down the trail and hooked up with jmGardner & Peggy. We had made a wrong turn lookin for camp and so we went back to the first junction and met walkincrow, CowPatty, & Nancy. So now walkincrow flags the route and leads us to camp.
We set up and as it's about dark, Brair Rabbit & Jezabelle (How do ya spell your dogs name?) show up. About 11:30 PM Ski Racer pulls in. After everyone was finally asleep it started raining. Rained up until just before sunrise.
Since we felt Base Camp was too far out to have access to the cars we moved back closer to the cars (a little over a mile). Spam showed up by now and people are moving to the new area. I head back to the parkin lot for some more water and Rad & Jennifer are there so we walked to camp together. Everyone moves to the new area except for jmGardner, Peggy, Cow Patty, & Nancy. They decided to hang out and enjoy some peace and quiet.
Meanwhile at the new camp: Colorado Dreamin, MOM, & Whispering Bill take a day hike to Double Arch. Me, Rad, Spam, JerBear, Ski Racer, walkincrow, and Brair Rabbit sit on our @ss and socialize. Jennifer is crashed in the tent. Oh yeah, If your in Red River Gorge and you crave pizza, Just call JerBear's Pizza Delivery Service. That night was total hysteria. We laughed and cut up pretty late. Spam played the harmonica and Rad jammed on the kazoo.
The next morning Gojo & Sarabelle showed up. (I won't tell em about the the cooler loaded on the hand truck).
O.K., So now we gotta go day hike so we can say we did something. Walkincrow took us to the Gladie Creek area and Half Moon. Great places. Thanks again Crow!! Oh yeah Ski, Tell em about the Worlds luckiest camera!!
That night jmGardner & Peggy were staying in camp with the main bunch. While sitting around the campfire, we sat around and told everyone about ourselves. About the time we had mad the entire round, Zen Hiker finally showed up.
The next morning Everyone slowly started leaving out. It's tough to say good bye but I know I'll be seeing this bunch again.
When it was my turn to leave out I went the opposite way from the car and headed back to finish a loop in thr back. I went down and up the Rough Trail and around to Gray's Arch. BEAUTIFUL hike. Just as I had made it to the arch MOM & Whispering Bill showed up. They day hiked it from a parking lot about a mile away. I hiked back with them and they gave me a ride back to the truck.

I had a Total Blast this weekend!! I can't wait to see everyone again. You are some of the finest people I've ever had the pleasure of camping & hiking with!!!!!”

“Hmm...cooler on a hand truck, Pizza Delivery. And Strider called our PNW trips "slackpacking"? LOL

Sounds like you all had a good one. I look forward to seeing the pictures.”

“What a crowd!!! I hope you got pictures.”

“Dude,
That sounds like fun!
It also sounds like a hike I could have made. Maybe next time!
Happy Trails!”

“Slackpacking in an understatement. LOL! We did get some hiking in but It was mainly a big social gathering. Good times in a Beautiful area.

Bigfoot
Wish you'd been there bro.

Phil
There was flash bulbs poppin everywhere so there's gonna be LOTS of pictures.”

“Hey Folks!

I just wanted to say I had a great time. It was terrific meeting everyone! From the moment I stepped into camp you all made me feel right at home.

I hope everyone made it home safe and I look forward to the next trip!”

“Kudo's have to go to Walkincrow for showing us some awesome sites.Now the secret is out!We did actually do alot of hiking on Saturday and some of it was close to being technical hiking LOL!The dogs got along fairly well (while asleep) LOL and so did everyone else.A much bigger turn out than expected.Jerbear as always dazzled us with his ideas and inventions for the trail,Walkindude ended up with all the gear that others wanted to get shed of,Skiracer almost lost his brand new camera to a 100 foot drop,we gave a trail name to newcomer Peggy (Space Blanket),Mom schooled us all on Herbology 101,GoJo showed us a new style of backpacking,Radagast IS the same guy with his wife around,Briar Rabbit IS the Firemaster,Crow IS the Trailmaster and Coloado Dreamin talked so much that none of us had a chance to get a word in LOL!!And yes the Spam and Egg Burrito's were fantastic!!! I had a great time meeting new folks for the first time and seeing the ones that I've already had the pleasure of meeting.We definately had HAPPY TRAILS!”

“i had a wonderful time getting to meet you'll and playin the gorge. my master does not know how smart i am, he thinks i am just a stupid old dog that don't hunt. he is away at the moment so i thought i would stop in and say hi. sniff! i got along with that other belle purdy well. that dog is one brazen young hussy. She had a purdy butt, but a really cold nose. I hate cold noses. hey it looks like the couch is talkin back and it wants another piece of me. looks like i will have to save my master for the couch once again. if only he knew the good i do for him all day long.”

“What a TriP!
It sounds like you guys and gals and dog pals had a Hoot! I haven`t seen a picture of it yet, but the ones you`ve painted for me. I like them very much, I hope the ones you post turn out half as good!
Thanks for sharing!”

“Great trip, guys and girls. We'll definitely hafta do it again real soon (this fall!). I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet and spend time with a group of pros - I picked up several new ideas.

Special thanks go to Crow and Jer for the work they invested in organizing the trip.

An additional thankage for the invitation! I had a great time.”

“What did you guys do to Rad? Did you tie him up and leave him there, or what? I haven`t seen a post from him. You don`t think he had to come home and do some work do you? No, what was I thinking? So, when are you going back up there an untie him? Sounds like you all had way too much fun, I`m sorry I missed it.
It did sound like my kind of trip!”

“The Radamonster is probably still asleepI LOL”

“Spam,
I liked your post and dude`s too. You both paint pretty pictures!”

“Oh dog!
Whatta trip me and gojo took.
We went to this place - I think in Iowahoma - where a woods dog lives. She's a wild dog that eats bears! Her name is jezabel, which is Indian for "wild dog that lives in the woods and eats bears". She taught me how to smell bears and how to fight them. She would show me how to rip out their throats. Sometimes we would take turns pretending we was a bear so the other one could practice bear fighting, but gojo and everybody would start screaming and hollering and crying like a bunch of babies so we didn't practice fight much. So, one night we saw a bear coming down the trail with a flashlight so we got to our positions just like we practiced and just when we were ready to attack we saw that it was a lost person trying to find their dog. Whew, that was close!

There was a lot of people visiting jezabal, too. It was a woman named MOM and all her children - man, she sure has lots of kids!

One day we were walking down a rock called Indian Steps and I could see MOM waaaaay down below me almost about to go the wrong way where she might fall if somebody didn't help her. So, I slid real fast because walking would take too long. I slid and slid down to MOM and bumped reel hard into her and knocked her over to where she needed to be so she wouldn't fall. Whew, another close one!

All the people were very nice to me and didn't seem to mind me staring at them while they ate. Mr. Spam had some reely cool meat that I got to eat some of. I don't remember what the meat is called. It was nice to finally get a whiff of Mr. Rad's butt - but it was perty regular smelling.

It was lots of fun the day we took a long walk in the woods and on some rocks. We were reeeel high at some spots! There was one place where I decided to stay down below to catch people in case they fell, but nobody fell.

Dog! Jezabel is soooo lucky! I wish I lived in the woods like that...”

“As always Gojo, your humor is priceless and I always look forward to reading Sarabell?s adventures! Almost makes me wanna go out and get a dog?almost but not quite. =)”

“Hey Folks ,whispering Bill and I made it home today with a brief stop off at a real nice hotel,some real good home cooked food and a trip to Cumberland Falls Ky. we still have a house and all the children are still alive and kicking. we had a great trip with everyone , just awesome really.I still think we should make this an annual trip for TT'ers. the best part for me was comming down the Indian Staircase and the OM Bowl. whispering Bill said the best part was getting to know all these great hikers. Hats off to the planners of this trip.Cant wait to see the pictures Hurry everyone.”

“Hey did everyone forget about the Tarzan wanna-bees????

I thought we would be picking little pieces of Spam off the embankment..

Give men a grapevine to swing from and the testosterone starts pumpin...lol

All they needed was some really short loin cloths... WOO HOOOOOOO”

“What of all of us that swung that vine and I'm the one ya gotta pick out to fall !!! Shame! Shame!”

“Its the name man..all in the name..hehe..

;oÞ”

“Man!
What did you guys and gals do to Rad-A-Dude?
If he`s not tied up, someone needs to shake him awake! I haven`t seen a post from him all day, he must be sick. I know how he feels, I`m sick that I didn`t make that trip!
No pictures yet? What a sleepy bunch of campers, but a happy bunch!”

“Are we still going to hit the chat room tonight? I'll be there. Maybe Rad will be awake by then. LOL”

“Here's a few RRG pics
Hope you enjoy !”

“what time Dude??”

“9:00 your time.
Great shots CD. You must have done the 1 hour thing. I turned mine in today.”

“finally found the other roll after I unpacked..
Hopefully I will have some good ones tomorrow”

“whoo-hoo! what a blast! beer, women, and canned meat! hot damn!

i was three sheets to the wind when some blond started lickin' me, and rubbin' all over me. what a honey! but the next day, she just got up, sniffed my butt and ran off before i could thank her!”

“He lives!!!!!”

“LOL Rad. I saw her. She was shakin her tail as she was leaving you.”

“http://www.redrivergorge.com/

Time to hit the chat room”

“whew..I thought he was talking about me..didnt think I was that in coherent...lol”

“LOL!!!! almost scared you to death, didn't it!?!?!?!”

“I've posted a bunch of RRG pictures.

I'll tell you how lucky I am to still have my camera tomorrow.”

“Great shots Ski!!!”

“Sounds like great fun! Nice pics. I'll try to make a page with links to the PhotoPoint pages soon.”

“Great pics skiman,the finger didn't factor in that much!”

“OK, this really should have been called an ECT slackpacking trip instead of a backpackign trip. Sometimes, these trips are more about the socialization aspect than the backpacking.

Our final campsite was 1.5 miles from the parking lot instead of the site which was 3 miles in. Some people wanted to be closer to their vehicle. One night Jerbear brought some pizza back. We also brought in beverages, complete with Litefoam (no CFC's)cooler and ice. Yes, we packed out all the trash, plus a lot we found already there. It turns out we didn't really need the ice as it was pretty cold both Friday and Saturday nights.

Walkincrow showed us some spectacular views and knows the area well, as does Briar Rabbit.

OK...the camera story. There's this overhanging cliff, maybe a couple of hundred feet high. It doesn't really matter, after 40 or 50 feet, you're still not going to make it if you fall. There were 4 guys rappelling off the cliff and I wanted to get a picture. I also wanted to get a shot of this formation called Frog's Head right at the edge of this cliff. I've got the camera in my hand and the trekking pole strap still around my hand. I go to jam the pole into the ground and the camera gets jarred out of my hand. It's one of those Canon Elph's, so it's pretty light. It just sort of bounces over the rock, slides some, bounces some more....I just know it's going over the edge. There's only one chance...a slight one at that...that this rock formation called Frog's Head might stop it. I keep thinking that it might hit Frog's Head, go to either side and then fall off the edge. Luckily, it stops precariously on the verge of sliding off. I went down there and snatched the camera, snapped a pic and thanked my lucky stars. I had seen whispering bill go out there and said to myself....no way you'd get me to go out there...just to dangerous. Turns out I had to go out there anyway.

Spectacular views, great company, wonderful area to explore. I'd like to go back there sometime and really backpack. I really enjoyed getting to know everyone. TT has some outstanding people!


I've added some more RRG pics.”

“Yo bears, Great t rip! I enjoyed meetin all the newbees and seeing my ole buds! Nice pics! Yo bears, lets do it again and again and again!ECT LIVES!”

“jeez....maybe I should have used a spell checker for "too dangerous" and "backpacking"

I think I've got one of the luckiest cameras in the world! The corners are scratched, but it's working just fine. Once I can get my finger out of the pictures, they'll be fine. Those were the first pictures I'd developed from that camera.”

“Those are some nice pics!!!! Let me just say again I had wonderful time meeting you all. It will be awhile before I have access to a scanner but I should have the film back by the end of the day.

It looks like scanning takes alittle away from the quality of pics. Talking about the crispness. What/why is that?

All that aside I'm planning in the near future to get a my own scanner so I can share some of my photos from past expeditions.
Shots from Italy to England and Ireland and from Alaska to Nicarugua.

Thanks again for the memories.”

“Nice pictures, Mr. Ski -
but me and the wild dog that lives in the woods and eats bears weren't playin'! We were practicin' bear fightin'!

Hey Mr. Rad -
Wuz it as good fer you as it was fer me? BOL!
do:3”

“Nice pics ski! I sure am glad you didn't lose that camera!”

“ski,

if you weren't passed out, drunk, so much, and stood up to shoot, more of those pictures would have been right-side up.”

“Just wanted to get them up there quickly, rad. Wanted to give everyone the chance to view them right away. I may go back and play w/ them, but you get the idea.

I just snapped a pic everytime I woke up.....remember, beer and cliffs don't mix.”

“Once they got to drunk I had to take their boots so they wouldn't go walkin to the bluff tops. LOL”

“Holy Cow, so many posts already (or maybe 'alRaddy')! But many were back home b4 I was to my Great Lakes State. Another good trip to the Gorge for both Cousin Nancy and me - to visit with friends & meet new ones, leave footprints on new trails & revisit favorite creek sites and trails & have super weather after all. Thanks, Walkincrow, for the panoramic view - it grew on us & five of us had an enjoyable "girl's night" around the campfire; ZenHiker, if only you had hiked along that ridge far enough to find the camp!

Colorado Dreamin and Skiracer - what super pics! CD - you have an eye for views! And Ski, backpacking thru the Gorge is definitely worthwhile & you'll see more photo ops.”

“OMFG!! Cow Patty just did a TT post! LOL!”

“Once upon a time there was man that had his very own Elph.The Elph was a good Elph , it never did anything to it's owner except do it's job. One day the owner flung the Elph to the ground for no apparent reason at all.The Elph bounced almost over the edge of a cliff until miraculously a Frogs head pops up and saves the Elph.The Elph, after all that abuse still continues to obey it's Master, can you imagine that? Well I don't have to because I have a picture of it!

Just got my pics back at lunch and I got some great photos. Too bad that I don't have a scanner.

I also got a picture of some fool on the trail with some handtrucks! LOL!!!!!!!!”

“Oh yeah, the only finger in my pics is the one that WalkinCrow slipped me in one by the campfire pics. You Cheeky Bugger you!!!!!”

“Oh I almost forgot I got email from Bagless N KY and she said that jmgardner is looking for a new trailname, any suggestions?”

“Not a handtruck -
a beer truck ;)

Holy cow,
I don't think I could have put up with that racket for another hundred yards.”