My list is a little different:
Ironically, 40% of the items on my list (and probably a higher percentage if I went with top 10) are actually in Kentucky. I must say, Kentucky is a pretty sweet place. About 1 hour east of Lexington (3 hours south-ish of Cincinnati) lies Red River Gorge, within the Daniel Boone National Forest. Since my first internship at P&G two years ago, I've managed to make it to the gorge/forest 5 times, which is comparable to the number of times I've tasted Graeters ice cream. Ok, enough of that. The point I'm trying to make is that there isn't a whole lot of easily accessible outdoorsy stuff/people in Cincinnati.
This past weekend was fall break for Cornell, so what did I do? I hopped on a plane for Cincinnati! Among other less blog-friendly events, Terry and I headed down to Red River Gorge for some hiking. The gorge is famous for its numerous natural rock arches, formed by the Red River over thousands of years.
After an unusually short drive (I call it teleporting, Terry calls it speeding), we arrived in RRG to find that, in addition to the stifling 85+ degree weather, the sky was incredibly hazy, and it smelled like burning trash in much of the park. Sure enough, many sections of the park had been closed off due to forest fires:
Forest fires near Gray's Arch |
We stopped by the Gladie Center to get advice on which trails to hike. Terry informed the park rangers that we wanted a 'pretty strenuous' hike. They were able to recommend a few different hikes. We started off with a short one called the Bison Way Trail (#210). After about a mile it branches, and if you take a left you can take a side trail to the right that takes you up to "Indian Staircase" (which we thought was Indian Circus for way too long). This 'staircase' is really just a big slab of rock with very few things to grab onto. There are a few footholds worn into the rock, but overall it was pretty nerve-wracking. Here's a picture of one leg of the staircase:
"Indian Staircase" - a scary rock slide that we climbed up. |
Once we finished that hike, we took a break for a lunch picnic in front of the welcome center. Since many of the trails were closed, we decided to re-hike a trail we'd done previously called the Auxier Ridge Trail (#204). This leads past Haystack Arch to Courthouse Rock:
Courthouse Rock |
From there we took the Auxier Branch trail to the Double Arch Trail. The Double Arch is unusual in that it has two gaps in it. In the picture below you can just barely see the top gap in the arch (this picture was taken on the first leg of the hike, before we hiked over to stand underneath it):
As seen from the Auxier Ridge Trail |
Chilling under the Double Arch (also an advertisement for BayCreek) |
Before driving back to Cinci, we made a much needed stop at the famous Miguel's Pizza (a hot spot for the climbers that frequent the gorge). We debated whether the pizza only tasted good because we'd just hiked all day, or because it's actually good pizza... we will never be sure, but it tasted damn good after a long day's hike!
3 comments:
wow nena im in absolute love of this - its kind of like a diary and I love it because I want to remember all of these things and now I can! Now I am officially a fan of your blog (and its giving me something to do as im in the manfacturing plant during production on night shift :( but everything is running smoothly so i cant complain (hence why I can read this..) love it and keep up the good work - Terry
So happy that Terry shared this with me. I'm really impressed with the Indian Staircase you climbed! Terry is so lucky to have a friend like you! I'm hoping you'll join her at P&G in Cinci next year! Good luck with grad school!
- Terry's Mom
hmm Nena you'll have to teach me teleporting...
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