Red River Gorge Weekend

Red River Gorge Days 1 and 2

This weekend, Ryan and I needed to get out of the Michigan cold, so we looked for a training locale within 6 hours of Ann Arbor where we could get some warmer weather, mountainous biking roads, remote gravel roads, and a large system of hilly running trails that Ryan could use for Leadville 100 training. And this lead us to...Kentucky!

Within the Daniel Boone National Forest in eastern KY is a geologic area called Red River Gorge, best known for its diverse collection of 50 - 200 foot natural rock climbing faces- Look at these crazy climbers!

While scrambling at work to alleviate the guilt of leaving for the weekend (*gasp*- a full 3 days off?!), Ryan packed all of our gear into our amazing Honda Element. With 3 bikes, 2 humans and 1 dog loaded up, we hit the road with the sun still out and headed south to Kentucky. I used this time to catch up on some lost sleep (sorry Ryan! You are a wonderful driver!) and before I knew it, we were headed to our cabin in the Red River Gorge

Our cabin was in the Natural Bridge state 'resort' area, in a place called Quiet Waters. Even with our late arrival, there were people out enjoying the crisp evening drinking around the campfire or partying in the hot tub. Cody desperately wanted to make friends, but we wrangled her and our gear up to our amazing cabin- the Butterfly Suite. We rarely go into a hotel or vacation home with any expectations, because we are almost always travelling on the cheap- but this place just blew us away. The decor was all natural wood, using simplicity to highlight nature's beauty. It had a perfectly sized kitchen/living area with a gas fireplace and a wonderful king size bed so that dog and humans could all stretch out to their heart's content (reducing the amount of nighttime growling)

Saturday morning we were up and ready to tackle some awesome trails. Ryan picked our route based on difficulty, remoteness and total elevation- and they all lived up to his very high standards!

 Beginning of Gray's Arch trail

 Taking a moment to enjoy the scenery

 One of the many Natural Arches in the area. 

Happy runners at the top of one of many ascents.

 Is this really Kentucky?! If it weren't for the 30 degree temps and lack of ocean, the scenery reminded me a lot of Hawaii!

Cody stays within 5 feet of either of us almost the entire time we are running. She also picks excellent paths for running on tricky terrain, making her an ideal running companion. She also complains the least out of the 3 of us, but does take more swimming breaks :)

Where did the trail go?! We crossed this creek at least 5 times during our run. Good thing I was wearing my trusty Brooks Adrenaline GTX trail shoes! My feet never got wet. Ryan's? Notsomuch. I love Gore-Tex!

Happy, Tired Dog. Happy Alaina.

Our total run was 'only' 9.2 miles, but we managed to climb almost 2,000 feet. There was a lot of time spent power-hiking those climbs, either due to footing or steepness- but it was all awesome. This was the perfect start to our weekend, and all 3 of us had shit-eating grins on our faces the entire time.

After the run, we made a quick stop into town to pick up some food. This was when we realized, to our disbelief and horror, that the county we were in was DRY. As in- NO ALCOHOL. WTF? I had no idea that was even a remote possibility. I mean, this is 2012, not 1920, right? 

The rest of the afternoon we ate, relaxed, found the nearest place to buy beer and attempted to ride our cyclo-cross bikes on some gravel roads. Three out of four of those ventures were successful, but the 2 roads we attempted to ride on either ended abruptly despite continuing on the map, or ended in secured gates with 'No Trespassing' signs everywhere. It was still a wonderful day.