Just spent 4 days and 3 nights at Red River Gorge hiking and hammock camping with my wife and friends. Was a scorcher! 1st night we hiked the Auxier Ridge trail and stayed out on a peninsula overlooking the gorge towards Raven's Rock. Took a short hike on up the trail to see Haystack and Courthouse rocks as well as the double arch across the gorge. Beautiful clear weather that night and we hung under the stars without bug nets or bug spray! Awesome night around the campfire sipping Red Stag and smoking cigars! We woke up to a gorge below us completely engulfed in fog. breathtaking! we made bfast and then hiked back out that morning to meet the rest of our group who came in on Saturday. Once together we hiked to Grey's arch and then kept going on rough trail until we found the 2nd watersource on the map. They don't call it rough trail for nothing, it was quite a hike for my wife expecially for her first time ever in the woods! Once there we found a beautiful setting along the creek and set up camp. 5 hangers and 2 in a tent. had a rough time starting a fire because everything was so wet in the bottom of the valley but managed to get it done and enjoyed another beautiful night under the dark canopy of the forest with stars peeking through the treetops. Canopy was so thick you couldnt see your hand in front of your face in the dark. :-) beautiful temps but did deploy bug nets as they were a bit thicker and annoying down there - but not really biting! no spray was needed the entire weekend in fact. The next morning we hiked over to a lookout near the clifty wilderness and then back down pinch 'em tight trail to the car. We resupplied water at the car and decided to camp the last night at the first water source on Rough trail. So we hiked an hour back into the woods and set up camp. Was VERY warm that day and 3 of us EASILY went through the 4+ gallons of water we were carrying between us... Back at camp HomemadeHiker quickly started a fire and we enjoyed another night under the canopy in complete darkness listening to the stream and whipporwills lull us to sleep. At one point while sitting aroung the campfire that had been reduced to coals we noticed a blueish-white glow about 50 feet away. upon investigation we found a log that was rotting and the exposed part that was rotting was glowing very vividly. Beautiful. We did not see a ton of wildlife but we did see many birds, 2 lizards, some fish in the stream, and one of us got chased by a snake. :-) The vegetation was gorgeous and i couldnt get over the size of some of the plants growing in the forest! Incredible. overall we ended up having a GREAT weekend and my wife's first hang was a success!!!
I can't thank Tonka and HomemadeHiker enough for inviting us, being our guides, and being our outfitters for this memorable trip!!! Thanks guys!! I look forward to our next adventure!! I'm thinking Clifty Wilderness and a climb up Raven's Rock?! What do ya think???
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Originally Posted by Ewker
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