to see parts 1 and 2 (enchanted Tower and Arkansas) follow this link... Enchanted Tower and Arkansas.
Another day of driving brought us to Miguel's pizza in Slade Kentucky. This is in the Red River Gorge region of the Daniel Boone National Forest. Home to some of the best sandstone climbing in the country. The next morning after setting up camp and clearing out my truck a bit I joined the others at the driveby area for a few climbs before heading out to pick up Julie at the Columbus airport.
A lot of driving and some waiting later, I picked Julie up at the airport and we headed back to the hotel room. She had been working nights 3 time zones later, and I had gotten up early and driven much of the evening. The next morning we packed up in the rain and headed back to Kentucky. We got there in time to climb at roadside. There, after warming up we got on the return of Chris Snyder, a long overhanging endurance fest. Amazingly I managed to send with some desperation and a full crawl-in-a-slot rest. Julie wasn't too happy about the endless jug-hauling, and I was a bit worried about if she would find much to here liking here, but there is a lot of variety.
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The next few days were filled with climbing, route scouting, cooking, eating, watching movies, etc. etc. Julie was amazed by the vast array of pork products available at the supermarket as well as the prevalence of large individuals in the general population (cause and effect? you be the judge).
Disaster struck one evening, when after a day of fairly steady rain, it increased to a downpour. When we headed back to the tent to go to sleep, the area around the tent was swamped despite the tarp coverage (sheet flow was our undoing). We had done laundry that day and Julie's bag was sitting in a puddle in the vestibule. The sleeping bags were still dry because of the pads, but it was only a matter of time. Julie saved me from sleeping in the swamp and we headed down the road to a hotel. The next day we re-dried the clothes and went to Lexington to see "Into the Wild" in the grand old Kentucky Theater. Finally the rain stopped, and we could go climbing again.
More climbing followed, with team AZ joined by other characters such as Ed (a remarkably fit 65 year old character who comes down from Chicago nearly every weekend) and Eric (aka Conan). Lots of good climbing on the steep sandstone, and Julie found plenty of inspiring lines. By the next week we were getting frosty mornings, but the days were still mostly sunny and nice. On Ted's birthday we went to the solarium at Muir Valley, and sent various things before Julie and I had to head back to Columbus to the airport. During her time here, we managed to go to a different crag nearly every day, Roadside, left flank, military wall, torrent falls, the playground, shady grove, phantasia, solar collector, eastern sky bridge ridge, and the solarium.
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By now, I was starting to get my endurance up and sending some stuff, which was very gratifying. I managed a number of climbs this trip first or second try that had eluded me or taken a lot of work in the past. Meanwhile Ted and Ed were crushing.
Team AZ was further depleted by the departure of Dawn back to Flagstaff, however others such as Derick and Jimmy from previous adventures turned up.
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At the Midnight surf wall, I discovered that doing a deadpoint (a long reaching move that relies on momentum and usually results in a fall if unsuccesful) from a handjam is a poor idea. I knew that already, but I re-inforced that knowledge by scraping up the back of my hand some more. In the picture, the red blob is Ted sending "Cell block 6", lots of big moves between big holds, but not too many good rests.
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On a rainy day, we slogged through the rain to the Military Wall, where we managed to climb all day without getting wet. There is a lot to be said for severely overhanging rock.
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As my time at the Red drew to a close, there was another day of torrential rain. My tent would have flooded again except we had moved it to a slightly higher spot, and I had stuffed a bunch of leaves under it. Even so, I think it would have been doomed without some quick drainage trenching. The rain was torrential enough to start flooding into the basement.
Ted and I both climbed the last 3 days on, but after a relatively productive first 2, the 3rd was pretty weak.