This trip happened over two years ago, but I just finished the report... so here it is. Enjoy it if you possibly can.
Daniel Boone National
Forest
Red River Gorge and
Clifty Wilderness
Kentucky
April 5-7, 2010
On Easter Sunday night, Mark Raven and Carlos Brown departed
from Regal Cinemas in Sheffield, Ohio (after having watched Clash of the
Titans) for Matt Raven’s house in Columbus.
We reached Columbus three hours later, having fought through two major
traffic jams on I-71, and promptly retired.
Our departure for the Red River Gorge would come at 9:30 AM. A stop was made at Meijer in Florence,
Kentucky to secure provisions for the trip.
Upon reaching Slade, Kentucky in the early afternoon, our
first order of business was to wake up Carlos and find a place to camp, and we
selected a site on the primitive loop at Whittleton Campground in the Natural
Bridge Resort State Park. The
temperature was in the mid-80s, which seemed very hot to some northern Ohioans
in early April. Given its proximity to
our campground, we decided to hike and sweat our way up to Natural Bridge and
further to the Lookout Point where the views were enjoyed. After the 400- foot descent to the car, we
took the long way around the Gorge through Nada Tunnel to Sky Bridge. Our stay at Sky Bridge was brief as a rain
shower passed through the area, prompting us to go to Miguel’s Pizza and Rock
Climbing for dinner. This place was
swamped with rock climbers and locals feeding on the Mexican variation of Chef
Boyardee pizza served at Miguel’s. We
returned to the peaceful refuge of Whittleton and Carlos built a small fire, we
threw some Frisbee, showered, and went to bed.
After sleeping in, our first destination of the day would be
Auxier Ridge. We stopped at the
overlook on Tunnel Ridge Road and passed various trailheads before reaching the
end of the road and the Auxier Ridge Trailhead. Before beginning our trek, we observed that it was already rather
hot. The hike along the ridge descended
gradually before flattening out. After
a mile in, we reached the outstanding views (looking both east and west from
the ridge) for which Auxier Ridge is known, and they did not disappoint. Here we enjoyed the views of Double Arch,
Haystack Rock, and Courthouse Rock while fighting to keep our balance in the
mighty, but refreshing, wind. Just
before reaching Courthouse Rock, we met a pair of older gentlemen from
Louisville (Lou-uh-vool). From these
yammering old geezers we learned that the return trail we had planned on taking
was uneventful and included over a mile of road walking, so we decided that we
would return the way we had came. Back
at the car we learned that the temperature had risen to 88 degrees, which was
no surprise to us. Our next stop was
Gray’s Arch. The trail goes about a
mile and then turns steeply down hill to below the arch where it can be viewed
and a short climb back up to the arch.
Carlos deemed this area below the arch as “the corner of the
universe”. Before leaving, we made use
of the cold water falling from the ledge over 100 feet above us to cool off,
all of which had evaporated and been replaced with new perspiration by the time
we returned to the car. We decided to
head back to Slade for Subway. The
Subway in Slade, Kentucky (population 38 as of the 2000 census) was the largest
and nicest Subway we had ever seen.
Topping off our refills, we went down the winding gravel road into the
Clifty Wilderness to see Rock Bridge and Creation Falls. The short loop trail descends through some
thick Rhododendron (monkey trees, as they were termed by my brother on a trip
here 14 years earlier). Creation Falls
is not impressive in its size, but its setting is picturesque. The falls tumbles into a sandy pool that
drains into Swift Camp Creek. Crossing
over to the sand bar on the other side of the creek to get a closer look at the
falls, we found a marine serpent-like creature that we have yet to identify,
despite having a photograph of it.
Still puzzled by what we saw, we continued on to Rock Bridge, which is
just around the corner from Creation Falls.
Rock Bridge is an arch that forms a natural bridge over Swift Camp
Creek. After the short ascent back to
the car, we decided with the daylight running short, we would drive up to
Chimney Top Rock to view the sunset and conclude the hiking portion of our
trip. A short ways down the trail, we
came across a motorized chair on its side with a very large man sitting in the
middle of the trail. We quickly deduced
that he had fallen out of the chair and could not get back in. He had a good number of his family was with
him, but they were all on their phones trying to call for help. In talking with him, we learned that he
could not get back up into the chair because he cannot bend his legs. He really wanted to try to get back in the
chair and with no timetable given for help to arrive, Carlos and I, along with
another guy, would try to get him back into the chair. The problem was that we needed to get up the
trail a few yards to the chair (the chair couldn’t handle a section of trail
and that’s why it fell, the trail is handicap accessible, but not handicap
friendly) and that he was a very heavy man.
As we got him, somehow I ended up bear-hugging him from the front, being
absorbed into his sweaty lard and carrying the brunt of the weight. As his family looked on, we were able to get
him up to and into his chair and we raced down the trail to the overlook for
what was left of the sunset, satisfied and feeling good that we were able to
help. We were surprised to find two
guys with a violin and cello and some sound equipment preparing to play music
into the night. We saw an excellent
sunset over the hills and returned back to camp for showers and then bed. 
We woke up at 9:00 AM, took down camp and checked out of Whittleton Campground. After 15 minutes on the road, Carlos, who had already slept nine hours that night, went back to sleep. We stopped at a rest area just north of Cincinnati, where I used the handicap stall thinking it would be cleaner, but was occupying it when a real handicapped person came to use it, to my shame. Carlos went back to sleep and when he awoke, we had returned to Elyria and consumed vast amounts of PINO (Pizza In Name Only) at CiCi’s before church.
In all, Carlos and I hiked 11.5 miles through the
unseasonable early April heat and did some importing scouting of the Red River
Gorge for a trip I would lead there for Royal Rangers in August, making this
venture successful, worthwhile, and enjoyable.
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