Kentucky's Red River Gorge

[Wild One]

Well, while the west has been enjoying some powder turns and extended winter, we took a full dive into spring this month.

This past weekend 4 of us (including my buddy, a co-worker and his buddy and me) made the 4 hour drive south to Daniel Boone National Forest, just east of Lexington Kentucky. DBNF has the largest concentration of sandstone arches and rock shelters east of the Rockies and is one of the mid-west's only climbing meccas. While we weren't there to enjoy the vertical world, we had a good time hiking on the what the Forest Service calls the least visited trail in the forest.

Inside the forest is an area called Red River Gorge. Just next to the gorge is an area called the Clifty Wilderness area. The trail we opted to hike was 6.7 miles one way with an optional 1.3 mile loop at the end. The trail is named Swift Camp Creek trail and is truly one of the coolest trails I've ever hiked. At time I felt like I was in the northwest with the intense moss covering and muggy air quality. At other times we could've been in a jungle, then a pine forest to rival the Uintas. It was a very diverse place and one trail really had all of that to offer!

The plan: drive down after work on Thursday, hike in about a mile at night camp and hike the remaining mileage and back up canyon a couple miles on Friday. This would leave a fairly short hike out for Saturday morning.
The Reality: all went according to plan until we got a couple hundred yards down the trail. A thick layer of fog had sunk down into the area making visibility to a couple feet only. Then we began to experience some of the aftermath of the horrible ice-storm the area suffered this past January. Unbelievably large hemlocks and various other pines were down all over the trail. The only thing I can relate the hiking conditions to is a cave. It was literally like to trying to backpack through a cave of downed trees. I've never hiked a trail that was so poorly maintained in my life--anywhere. I'm not sure if the forest service just hadn't gotten to the trail yet or if they were abandoning the trail completely.

After hiking for a little over an hour we ended up about a mile down canyon where we found a very nice campsite to use. This was my first try with a Hennessy Hammocks http://hennessyhammock.com/. Let me just say HOLY CRAP what an amazing product! These things are truly awesome. They replace a tent and weigh a minimal amount. To spare the lengthy commercial talk here, let me know if you want more info, but right now they're having an awesome special online (buy one get one free!)

We were on the trail around 8 Friday morning and due to hiking over, under and through the ridiculous amount of downed trees we were only able to hike another 3 miles down canyon in 3 hours. We were originally expecting to maintain at least 2 MPH but our pace was diminished by the trail conditions. We found a great place to sit for lunch for 45 minutes then decided to turn around. We hiked the 3.5 miles back up the ridge line and stopped at a well established camp site to make out next move.

One of the guys had a NOAA radio so we jumped on to listen to the weather report. They were calling for damaging winds, lightning and hail so we opted to cut the trip short by a day drive home that day.

All in all it was a great time to be out, but a little disappointing to cut it short. I didn't bring my camera because I knew it was going to be a wet weekend, but another guy had a point and shoot, so I'll post up some pics when I get them.

Bottom line: if anyone plans on doing any hikes in the Daniel Boone National Forest this year, it would be a good idea to call ahead and find out the trail conditions.

[Wild One]

finally got the pics from the dude who had the camera. They definitely left something to be desired, but...eh what do you do?

This shows the typical obstacles on the trail. 7 miles of this got pretty old




couple of dirty, wet backpackers (me on the left)






the fog and clouds finally lifted long enough to get a few views.


All in all pretty fun trip.

[TreeHugger]

I love Red River Gorge! When I lived in MI we went down a couple of time a year to backpack, camp and climb. Your pics bring back some very happy memories! Thanks!

[TreeHugger]

I love Red River Gorge! When I lived in MI we went down a couple of time a year to backpack, camp and climb. Your pics bring back some very happy memories! Thanks!