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Re: [on_belay_hombre] Red River Gorge - First climbing trip to KY:
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gobennyjo
Feb 7, 2008, 4:12 AM
Views: 10133
Registered: Jan 8, 2007
Posts: 177
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Nice Trip Report
I had a pretty crazy adventure to RRG back in November, too. My friend TJ and I were taking our first trip to Kentucky during Thanksgiving last year. My truck sucks gas and never works so we took his 89 Plymouth van up there from South Carolina. Saturday night we were about 10 miles out from the exit for Slade, and I joked around and said, "Well we are within walking distance; so everything is good." Well about 1 mile from the exit his van threw a rod at the top of a hill. I put it in neutral and we started coasting. We had just enough speed to coast up to the Shell station.
So we sat there just laughing about what had happened. Here we sat in Kentucky with no method of transportation home or anywhere in a place we had never been. So we walked into the Shell and made friends with the lady at the counter. We asked if she knew anyone that was selling a car or think they would want a scrap car. She said she did not know but go talk to Frank, the owner of Country Boy's Tires.
We walked back behind the Shell and started talking to Frank. He was as country as they come but an incredibly nice person. He said he would be interested in buying the van but did not have a car to sell. We sat there and talked to him for hours about Slade, Miguel's, cars, politics and such. We decided we would go through with the deal in the morning. We loaded all our stuff up in the back of his truck and he took us over to Miguel’s.
The next morning we woke up and decided we needed to do what we had come there to do, CLIMB!
We grabbed all our climbing gear, the guide book, and some food for the day. We walked the couple of miles to the Shell, and sold the van to Frank. We met some other climbers at the Shell and got a ride over to Roadside and climbed for the day. We came back and talked over ways to get back over some Ale8's and pizza.
We talked about getting a ride with some friends from Michigan that where headed to South Carolina, but there car was full. Frank had offered to drive us to Lexington and get a greyhound back, but they were really expensive on short notice. We also had a bunch of stuff since we planned on car camping. We walked around the parking lot looking for SC plate and we found a ride to Boone, NC but that would put us back to late. TJ had already gone over is allowed absentees but his professor allowed him to miss the two extra days already. Also there were some of our friends back in South Carolina that had missed the trip cause of tests. Eventually we got a ride back from people from South Carolina, who we went climbing with for a day and graciously tipped in gas and time.
So we still had a few more days to spend there. The next day we walked a little over 7 miles to Left Flank. One of the best parts was crossing through the Nada Tunnel on foot, not what I expected. We climbed for the day and got a ride back with some climbers. After that we walked to Lady Slipper then hitchhiked back. Then we went to Pistol Ridge for our last day of climbing.
It was not the trip I expected but was one of the coolest adventures I have ever had. It was like being a little kid again in the huge playground that covered miles with nothing to do but eat pizza, hang out and climb.
edit: to try to fix paragraph indentions
(This post was edited by gobennyjo on Feb 7, 2008, 4:15 AM)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by gobennyjo
() on Feb 7, 2008, 4:13 AM
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Post edited by gobennyjo
() on Feb 7, 2008, 4:15 AM
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