This past weekend my son and I met my brother down in Kentucky to hike Red River Gorge. We try to do at least one hike a year together, and this one was new and within an easy day’s drive (about 5.5 hours) of home. I had planned out about a 25 mile loop, and we got started a little after noon on Friday.

We got on the road about 5:30 am, and as we were coming into Lexington determined that we were about 45 minutes ahead of my brother, who was coming from Ohio, so my son and I jumped off the highway to check out Bud’s Gun Shop. Nice shop…lots of guns and ammo and friendly staff. We didn’t buy anything, but I’ve bought a few from them online in the past, and it was cool to stop in and put a “face” with the name.



We met up at a gas station a little ways down the road from the trailhead and bought our backcountry/parking passes ($7/car for 3 days). Once we got to the trailhead, there was a sign posted on the board that indicated that the hiking bridge was out over the Red River, and warned of the dangers and likely death that would result from trying to cross. I wasn’t sure if this was a legit concern or just typical fedgov CYA bullshit, but as we were starting down the trail a ranger was on her way out and I asked her. She kinda rolled her eyes and said we might get our feet wet wading across.



Those concerns assuaged, we left the “Pinch ‘Em Tight” trailhead, and followed the Sheltowee Trace trail for the first 10 miles or so. My hope was to get as many miles in as possible on the first day to make for a shorter day on Saturday. The first five miles before the river was pretty mild, with a drop down into a valley and a few creek crossings. We found a section where some beavers had gone to work building a dam, and had chewed through some really large trees in the process. Industrious, destructive little critters.



Crossing the Red River was a non-event. We waded it and didn’t get wet above our ankles. There was a big rock about 15-20 feet high that people were jumping off into a big hole, and it must have been plenty deep there because they weren’t hitting the bottom. It was about 80 degrees and I was tempted to join them, but it would have involved changing my pants and there was nowhere to do that (we were close to a road so there were a ton of people around) so I opted out.

A few miles down the trail we passed the “Cloud Splitter”, a big rock up on top of a mountain, so we took a side trail up to that. The last little bit was bare rock and really steep. There were two ways up…you could either wedge your way up a crack in the rock or use a rope that somebody had hung from some bushes up above. I opted to use the rope on the way up, but on the way down there was a lady who was stuck halfway up (like maybe 8-10 feet) and too scared to keep going up or go back down. She was monopolizing the rope so we slid down the crack. We tried to help her husband talk her through getting down, but she wasn’t moving. For all I know they’re still there. The climb up there was worth it, though…the view was awesome.





The “Cloud Splitter” caused the only real navigational problem of the trip. It was kinda near the road and there was a side trail for day hikers coming from the road that I interpreted to be a different trail a few miles further along. My map had the trails, but none of the landmarks on it, and it turns out this was an unofficial trail that was not on the map. That area of the Sheltowee Trace wound in and out of a bunch of coves, and it was really hard to keep track of where exactly we were on the map. As a result, we ended up stopping for the night a few miles earlier than I’d intended and got an unpleasant surprise the next day.

We made camp down low…not what I like because it tends to be wet and cold. We did find a decent flat spot with a pre-existing fire ring, which was nice. The forecast had called for no rain, but it started drizzling about 8:00 and was full-on raining by 9:00. Thankfully we’d brought the tarps, because it rained all night, but stopped about 7am and the tarps kept us dry.

Day 2 we started down the trail and hiked a couple of miles to what I thought was the intersection with Lost Branch Trail. It was damp, but the scenery was pretty cool. Lots of rock cliffs typical to Appalachia, and we even passed a small arch.







When we reached the trail junction, the sign was damaged and illegible. Thankfully we encountered another group of hikers coming up from the road and they told us that this was the side trail on my map that I thought we’d crossed back by the Cloud Splitter, so we had another 2-3 miles until we got to Lost Branch. We sucked it up and continued into the Clifty Wilderness, and passed through an area that seemed like it had been hit by a tornado. There was a swath where it must have passed through the wilderness, because we encountered a lot of huge trees down across the trail throughout the day that had to be climbed over, through, or around, and looking at the map the damage was pretty much in a straight line all the way across the region.





We followed the loop trail back out of the wilderness and ended up back at the road right by the river. We then had to road walk about 2.5 miles uphill on a narrow road crowded with cars full of leaf peepers to get to our next trailhead. This was probably the least enjoyable part of the trip…trying not to get run over or knocked down into the gulley beside the road by old people or people clearly smoking pot.

After hiking up the hill on the road, we finally reached the “Rough Trail” trailhead and then went straight back down into the valley. “Rough Trail” is aptly named, but it’s got some beautiful scenery and provided a few more creek crossings and opportunities to water up. There were also some pretty impressive rock caves.



Once we worked our way back up to the top of a “mountain” we found a nice campsite about ¼ mile in from an access road. We got set up, made a fire, and called it a day. My son and brother had dehydrated backpacking meals (doesn’t conform to my diet, and I wouldn’t eat the crap anyway) that they tried to warm up in my son’s sweatshirt, but one of the pouches leaked and it looked like somebody puked all over it. Other than that mishap, it was a nice dry night with comfortable sleeping in the low 40s.



Sunday morning was a pretty easy hike out. It was dry overnight, so there was no wet gear to contend with, and it was a pretty easy 4-5 miles down the mountain, a few creek crossings, and then back up to the car by 10:30. There was a nice overlook on the way, too.



Overall, it was a fun weekend. I prefer hiking out west, but you can’t drive there for a three-day weekend, and this time of year weather in the Rockies is starting to get sketchy anyway. Red River Gorge is pretty, and we hit it at the right time of year for cooler temps and no bugs. There is a lot of road access, so there are a ton of day hikers in certain spots. It seems like a lot of people drive in and camp near the roads, and there’s a lot of trash in those sites. We only saw a couple of groups of actual overnight backpackers, and the more remote areas are quieter and less populated. For hiking east of the Mississippi, it’s better than anything we have in Indiana and a worthwhile destination.

Beautiful. My wife and I backpacked there over 20 years ago. It’s as scenic as I remember.

quote:

Originally posted by usp_fan:
Beautiful. My wife and I backpacked there over 20 years ago. It’s as scenic as I remember.

It certainly is! That one view from the top of the cloud splitter in the 5th picture where the river was winding through the valley kind of reminded me of an Appalachian version of Horseshoe Bend.