Bike trip on the edge of the Gorge

4/20 - 4/21 (1 night)
2020 Bag nights: 6

The Red River Gorge is shut because of COVID, but there are cool places in the surrounding areas.

This gives a hint of where we were

I did a little research about the 15th Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Infantry Division which it was part of in WW2. I don't know when he joined the Regiment, but it fought through North Africa and then Sicily and then the Italian peninsula. Based on the date of death, it appears that Boyd Morisson died at Anzio.

Down the road we go ...

... I had thought we would be able to ride a little more than we did, but I was not accounting for a kids bike with tiny wheels and tiny pedal cranks. The couple mile ride worked her a bit and once we got to my planned campsite, she was not interested in getting back on the bike :)

Oh well we were at a great overlook.

She had an art project for school where she was supposed to spell out her name using natural materials.

When she was done with her name, she decided to do another one.
#TeamKY

Enjoying the view and waiting for the sunset.

We enjoyed the sunset and waited for the stars to come out. Thankfully, the wind died down so we were comfortable.

 

Blue hour

Venus was bright in the west

I was busy talking with her and not really paying attention to the photography. It wasn't until she was basically done for the night that I realized I had never opened up the aperture after the sun went down, so I had been shooting at f/22 for the last hour, so this is the only decent astro-photo I got.

The wind picked back up overnight and some rain came through. It was still really windy in the morning, so not a lot of photography.

We had breakfast and packed up and headed back to the car. It was a little cool, so she is riding in her fleece PJs.

Spring flowers showing up

We got home about 23 hours after we left. It was not the trip I had planned, but we still had fun.

Beaver Creek Wilderness

Middle Fork Trailhead
4/9/20 and
4/15 - 4/16/20 (1 night)
2020 Bag nights: 5

I have had the Beaver Creek Wilderness on my radar for quite a while, but it is a little too far for a dayhike and a little too small for multiple nights backpacking, not to mention all the horror stories about ticks.

But with only a couple of nights available and COVID all over, I decided that staying close to home and checking out something new would be good.

I drove to the Middle Creek Trailhead and headed down the trail. Once you drop off the ridge, there is this old chimney near the creek.

Creek view

About this point, I got a message on my InReach from my wife saying that my mother's husband was being transferred to the ICU. I was able to get a cell signal and call my wife and then my mother and then I decided to head home.

Not a lot of flowers, but I liked this fungus

New growth

Dogwood

A week later and I headed back for two nights.

A little further down the trail and another old chimney

Someone had recently gone through and cut new blazes. This is not a well traveled trail and in a couple places I was glad to have the blazes.

Big fan of irises ...

... I also like phlox ...

... I also like geraniums

View from the overlook, it was a gorgeous spring day.

Dogwood

Fleabane

This butterfly was taking a nap on the gravel road

Hawkweed??

About the time I was thinking of finding a place to camp, I looked to the side and saw this. Boom, home for the night.

The next morning was another beautiful day. This is from the old bridge that crosses the Middle Fork.

Fire pink

Southern Sessile Trilium

I had noticed on the LIDAR overlay that it looked like there was a possible waterfall near the trail. But I had never seen it mentioned online with all of the other off-trail waterfalls. As I got close, I could hear an obvious waterfall and then came around the corner and saw a nice campsite and this off to the side.

I headed back up to the overlook for lunch and then walked the road to find a couple off-trail waterfalls that I had seen on the waterfall map.

After a bit of a bushwack I found Upper Typhoon Falls. It took me a little bit of time to figure out how to get off the rim and down below the falls and then some more bushwacking to find this.

Upper Typhoon Falls

Some more bushwacking led to Middle Typhoon Falls ...

... and more bushwacking led to the lower falls and this cool rock wall.

It was about this point that I picked a couple of ticks off me. I had already considered heading back to the car and then I had visions of being covered with ticks while I slept :) It was still early so I headed home to dinner with the family and my own bed.

I'd like to return in the winter after a good rainfall so the falls are flowing and the ticks are less obvious.

Eagles Point w/ 2 kids

Red River Gorge
3/25 - 26 (1 night)
2020 Bag nights: 4

The weather looked good and everyone was getting a little stir crazy. On top of that, my youngest kid was getting a tooth pulled so I took the older two on a quick overnight trip to the Gorge.

We hiked along the Red River ...

... saw some spring flowers ...

... checked out a waterfall ...

... did a bit of a scramble to get to the top of the cliff (above the waterfall), where we watched the birds soar ...

... and waited for the sunset ...

... and the stars ...

... woke the next morning and we were in the clouds ...

... it started to burn off pretty quickly ...

... but not before we saw a glory ...

... we packed up and had an easy hike back to the car.

When we got to the trailhead, there were about 40 cars parked all along the road. I talked to one group who said the trail to a nearby waterfall was packed. The next day the National Forest shut the Gorge. I'm glad we got out there while we could.