1st bike ride

11/15/19

I got a bike (a Surly Bridge Club) about a month ago and finally got a chance to really ride it besides around the neighborhood with the kids.

The weather forecast looked great and I was able to escape from the office, so I headed to the Red River Gorge, specifically Indian Creek Road. This is a longish gravel road that dead ends, so there is not a lot of traffic. I did some hiking here last winter when the road was closed and thought this would be a good first ride.

I ended up riding almost 14 miles with some photo breaks along the way. I find it interesting that I can hike 15 miles and feel fine, but biking, which uses the same muscles, really wore out my legs. By the end, I was happy to be back at the car.

I'm already planning out my next ride.

Red River Gorge Veranda

Jun 3 - 4 2019 (1 night)
Red River Gorge (Daniel Boone NF)
2019 bag nights: 4

I wanted to test out a lens for astrophotography and got permission for a quick overnight trip. At the last minute, my wife suggested I take my son for some boy's time, sure why not since I was not planning on anything hard.

We had an easy hike to "The Veranda" where I was a little disappointed to find a solo camper already set up. I figured I'd have the place to myself in the middle of the week. He had a hammock so was back in the trees while we setup the tent near the end and a nice view. I talked to him a little bit before dinner and probably would have chatted more, but this was supposed to be "boys time" with my son.

Texting mom with my InReach

Afterglow from the sunset, this is looking east towards Hansons Point

My son went to bed and I watched the stars and had a splash to drink, but it was pretty obvious that the clouds were going to ruin astrophotography.

I left my camera set up to take photos all night. There was enough humidity that the lens ended up coated with dew by the morning, but you can still see the milky way rising here (about midnight).

We woke up and made a small fire in an existing fire ring. He had hot chocolate and I had some coffee.

While packing up the tent, we found a small praying mantis which he thought was pretty cool. 

Then one last photo ...

... and down the trail 

Grays Arch, notice my son in the lower right corner for scale.

Then pizza at Miguels and home. Note: we don't usually drink soda, but this was a "celebration". He wanted Sprite but they only had Mountain Dew. I told him that I loved it when I was his age (can't stand it now). So his first Mountain Dew, he thought it was awesome and mentions it all the time. I think he needs to go backpacking again if he wants some more :)

A great trip with my son, I'm glad my wife suggested that I take him.

Red River Gorge Fall

Dayhike in Red River Gorge
10/29/18
Grays Arch Trailhead

I returned to the gorge for another day hike hoping to see a little more fall color. The month of October has been really warm, so the leaves have not been turning.

The weather was perfect so I aimed for a part of the gorge with lots of overlooks. I started at the Grays Arch Trailhead and checked out the views along the way to the actual arch.

Looking across the valley to the other side of Nada Tunnel Road.

No photos of Grays Arch, but I always like the large rock with tree roots wrapped around it, lots of neat patterns in the sandstone.

Then on to the Veranda and then Hansons Point.

And then back to my car and home. A great way to spend the day. I'll hopefully get back once more time before the leaves are gone.

Douglas Trail

4/20/18 Dayhike in Red River Gorge
7/1 - 7/2/18 Overnight with my 5 year old (2018 bag nights: 13)
8/22/18 Dayhike
Osbourne Bend Trailhead

4/20/18
I started at the Osbourne Bend Trailhead without any solid idea of where I was heading. I was thinking about the Osbourne Bend Trail since I had never hiked it, but there were a lot of cars in the small parking lot and I heard idiots yelling at each other up on the ridge. So, I headed out the Douglas Trail with the idea of checking out the Wall of Denial and Eagles Point and then maybe taking the old fire road to connect with the Osbourne Bend Trail. In the end, that is basically what I did, but I skipped the Wall of Denial.

The wildflowers are appearing which was nice since I was disappointed a couple weeks earlier by the lack of flowers.

I took my time poking around and was surprised when I got near Clifty Creek to run across a solo camper who had a fire going at 11am. I asked if he had been out the night before and he said no, but he had friends meeting him the next day. Seems kind of boring to sit around a campfire by yourself all day, but whatever makes him happy.

In my poking around, I stumbled across this trickle of a waterfall off the trail. I'm going to try to check it out after we get a lot of rain.

I then headed towards Eagles Point. It had been a couple of years since I had climbed to the top to enjoy the view. I passed a group of people up on the ridge who were leaving the overlook and I had it all to myself for about 1/2 hour before I headed to the top of the ridge and the old fire road and then down the Osbourne Bend Trail to my car.

So happy that spring has finally arrived.

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7/1 - 7/2/18
A couple months later the Gorge looks very different. I dropped my oldest off at camp and took my youngest (just turned 5) on her first backpacking trip. I had always thought that the intersection of Clifty Creek and the Red River would make a good kids campsite.

The Red River was very silty, so she was not interested in swimming ...

... but, she had fun playing in the sand and stacking rocks.

Right near the fire ring was an interesting looking log. My kids are obsessed with Greek mythology, so she declared that this was Pegasus. She is holding the head and she said the wings were swept back behind :)

It rained a little bit in the evening, but I had a small tarp, so we were dry for dinner. We read a story and she went to bed while I enjoyed the view.

Evidently there had been a bit of rain further upstream because the river rose quite a bit overnight. She was very disappointed to see her stack of rocks was under water.

We had breakfast and packed up to head back to the car. Along the way we both enjoyed the Rhododendron blooms.

We both had a great time in the woods.

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8/22/18
And another dayhike in the Gorge. This time is has been a couple months since I have hiked here and I decided that this would be a good day to creek hike up Clifty Creek to see what I find. So, back to the Douglas Trail. I ended up going up the creek a little bit, but it was turning into a bit of a bushwack and I had visions of slipping and soaking my camera/lens, so I decided to postpone that for another day.

Starting out, the sky looks a little ugly, but it is not too hot, so hopefully a good hiking day.

I always like this trail because of the views and sounds of the river so close to the trail.

There were lots of flowers

I think my favorites today were the fungi.

This one was sort of a glowing white and slimy looking, kind of ugly but intriguing

Another view of the Red River

and more fungi