Tom Grundy's Kentucky 2009 Travels Page
Back to the Red River Gorge in the fall for some more steep sandstone climbing fun. The first order of business was to get settled at Miguels, a fine pizza and climber camping establishment. Then we had to get our endurance up to speed for the many long overhanging sandstone climbs. Due to the fact that mostly it was either dark under the overhangs and also just Julie and I climbing I don't have many climbing photos to post yet, but I still saw some other things worth reporting on...
distorted image of the natural bridge
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roots and trees on a rock
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Creation Falls
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Rock Bridge - a real natural bridge over a creek
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tiny treefrog- I think it is a young ...
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... Cope's Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)
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here is my finger for scale
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Nashville? Warbler
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Tufted Titmouse
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I managed a weird finger injury, it seems like the skin next to my fingernail pulled off from the nail and a bit of my finger squirted out through the gap. It felt like I should be able to pop it, but that wasn't the case. It hurt, but not all that much. I tried to shove the flesh back in and tape it, but it kept squirting back out. Hopefully it heals up ok. [later edit - it did heal up fine]
odd finger injury
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Julie crosses a stream to go to the zoo
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We also both got a bit sick... It happened shortly after we got flu shots, so at first I thought it was just a reaction from that, but then I got a runny nose and a throat tickle and a cough. Julie got the runny nose and felt more achy than I did. The worst of this coincided with a lot of rain, which wasn't much fun, but we'd have probably rested most of the time anyway.
When not climbing we have done some hikes to various scenic places as well as cooking (I have been working on my baking with an outback oven rig).
The weather in November was mostly excellent, with lots of warm and sunny days. We got lots of good climbing in, although I still managed to not send my last 2 projects "Wild Gift" and "Harvest". The last 2 tries on "Harvest" I skipped the last bolt to try to save a little strength and energy for the top, but my fingers stopped holding on a bit past the last bolt and I took a big fall. Then the next go I did the same thing except I got a few moves farther, in fact I touched the final hold but couldn't hold on so I took an even bigger fall - maybe 40 feet or so. Luckily I was about 80 feet up on a route that overhung pretty much the entire way, so it was more like bungie jumping than anything else. Still, that is about as far as I've ever fallen and ever would really want to fall.
Rick belays Kim on "wildfire"
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Bruce on "Harvest" - I fell from the top to about where he is
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Non climbing activities included getting up early to take photos of the foggy valley, visiting arches, and excursions to Winchester and Lexington (and the Parkette drive in diner). I also bought a new laptop and began transferring operations over to it. The screen resolution is higher, so I think the image sizes will probably go up on my web page.
Princess Arch
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cliffs above the fog one morning
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Parkette drive in sign - classic
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Later... Well, We finally left the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I headed East and North to Boston, and Julie went the other direction towards Dallas. We spent nearly 2 months at the RRG and got in lots of great sport climbing. My endurance was way up. Now I'll fritter it away before next year.