Four days at the Red River Gorge
Ten of us met up in the Red River Gorge, KY over memorial day weekend (five rode down in the front of our truck to save on gas!). Ieva got home from Greenland, slept for a few hours, and then Eriks, Doug, Tess, Ieva and I piled into the truck and started driving.
We totally lucked out on weather — it rained like hell on the way down, and then it was blue skies for every day that we were there. Perfect temperatures, too; not too hot or humid.
When we showed up at Miguel’s Pizza on Saturday night, and it was loaded! I’ve never seen Miguel’s that busy, and after talking with him the next day, neither had he. The parking lot was jammed, with everyone double-, triple-, and quadruple-parked. Even all of the aisles were full. At least 20 cars couldn’t fit in at all, and were lined up along the side of the road. There was a new climbing film premier that night, followed by a pretty big raging party. I briefly woke up in the middle of the night as the truck cap filled with the light of a wax bomb (they seem to be turning into a Miguel’s tradition).
The next day, we somehow managed to avoid the crowds. We wound up at Funk Rock City on Sunday, and there was hardly anyone else there. What a fantastic crag — there are great sport and trad routes there — and we practically had it all to ourselves!
This was a really cool crowd to go climbing with. We also had Bowers, Michael and Sharmishtha, and Lauren and Nate (who I hadn’t met before that weekend). Lots of hanging out, goofing around.
I was also pretty psyched to finally land my first small jumps while on a slackline. I had worked on them last season without any success. Miguel’s has a really good “trick” line that’s doubled 1-inch webbing, sewn together, set low, and pulled super tight. I’m going to have to set up a second line like it in the backyard.
A lot of people got to push themselves on this trip — there were a few first leads and first falls, all of which went really well. We had a really good atmosphere going that was pretty condusive to progress (and fun). Ieva, Eriks and I got to stay until Wednesday. It’s only been a few months since our last long road trip, and I’m already dying for another one. Hopefully it won’t be too far off. At any rate, I only have two more weeks until the race, and then it’s back to devoting all my free time to climbing again!