Red River Gorge, Kentucky: Climbing til our arms fall off

We’ve been here at the Red for nearly five weeks now; leaves and wildflowers are busting out everywhere, we had a week of sunny weather with temps in the 80’s (bliss!), and we just keep climbing on this crazy steep rock! Our days start off in a leisurely way, I roll out of bed around 9:00 (Mike is up early as always, usually inside chatting with Miguel), we have breakfast, and make the rounds of friends’ tables to see what the plans for the day look like and what everybody is in the mood for. It’s rare that we leave for climbing before 10:30, but since it stays light out til 8:30 or so a late start doesn’t really matter! There are hundreds of crags scattered throughout the region, with thousands of different climbs to do. With so much climbing available, the dilemma is how to keep ourselves off the rock when our bodies need rest! Most days we end up climbing with some permutation of the long-term crew who are here from all over : Bryce (Texas), Cristin (Penn.), Eric & Kyler (Alaska), Jenny (Wyoming), Chuck (Quebec), Malek & Steph (Ontario), Dave (Ohio, now lives here), and some assorted others. It’s a pretty fantastic life! Our worries are limited to whether we have any strength left to climb, and what the weather looks like!

This area of eastern Kentucky is in the heart of Appalachia; it’s a land full of steep hills and ‘hollers’, tiny churches that look like they might hold 40 people, and winding roads without guard rails that threaten to dump you into a ravine. Our favorite thing here is the ‘Tradio’. It’s a local radio show where people call in to sell or trade things. And boy, do they have a random assortment of stuff to get rid of! Lawnmower engines, goats, childrens’ clothes, car parts, old appliances, rabbits….we’ve seen the yards and can imagine folks just looking out the door and thinking “Hmm, maybe we should get rid of some of this stuff….let’s call the Tradio!” It’s a great piece of local color, fun to hear the accents! On Sundays that station plays bluegrass gospel music; good stuff! It’s certainly an interesting corner of the world, we really enjoy it.

We had initially planned to be leaving here around now and heading back West, but we’ve decided to stick around a while longer. Well, actually, I’m leaving on Friday for a week at home; I’ll visit friends and family, pick up my dog, then meet Mike back down here. And then…..we’ll see! We may stay in Kentucky til the heat chases us out, but we’re pretty sure we’ll be in Colorado for June. We’ll keep you posted!

Til next time!

RedRiver Gorge 2