Red River Gorge

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May 17, Sunday

Everyone was up fairly early and packing up, so I figured I'd do the same. One the road after a quick rather blah breakfast of biscuits, gravy and egg casserole, skipped the donuts. I decided to back road it up to the Red River Gorge, also in Kentucky to see if I could meet up with my two sons, Eric and Steve. RRG is a climbers mecca, and everyone in my immediate family are avid climbers except me. I would if I could, but sadly my shape is not that of a climber at this time. The roads were marvelous between Burkesville and the RRG, but as I approached the area, I realized I didn't know specifically where the boys were camping nor climbing. There are literally hundreds of places to climb in the area, and all I knew about the camping was that they were set up behind a pizza place, where the owner lets climbers camp for $2 per night per person. I was hoping that I could ask someone in town where to find the pizza parlor. Instead, I rounded a curve, and saw about 60 little tents set up in a field, with Miguel's Pizza just off the road. Cool. I found the my boys tents, and paid my $2, responding to "are you a climber?" with "No, but my two boys are camping here and they are" which apparently was close enough for a one night stay. After setting up my Big Agnes, I set off in search of where the guys might be climbing. First area was about 10 miles south, back the way I had come, with a long detour. The road went to gravel, then mostly dirt, and a little hand carved wood sign indicated the turn off for parking. Up the hill I climbed, switchbacks included, and eventually found parking areas along the edges but not Steve's car with the Arizona plates. Back at the bottom of the mountain, I noticed that Sheila ( my GPS ) was telliing me that the gravel (?) road continued north which would save me from the long detour. A mile later, the road went under the creek. I climbed off, and walked through the the 6 inch deep wash to see how firm the base was. It was good, but further along the road went under the creek again, then again, and it didn't look passable. One Austin Powers golf cart turn around later, I was headed back to the main road. This time I went north of Miguels and road along the top of the gorge. Beautiful views, but no luck finding the car. Eric called at that point, and we rendezvous’d for a chinese buffet supper, then back to the campsite for a good visit.

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