My Blog
My Blog
Red River Gorge
Years ago my brother-in-law got a job in Pittsburgh, a few weeks later my sister was going out to join him. I was to get up in the middle of the night and drop her off at Glasgow airport, but someone had driven a burning jeep into the airport the day before, so I slept well that night.
KLM had told her to check in as normal even though the airport was closed!
Last Christmas the Pittsburgh pair gave me the new guide to Red River Gorge.
On the cover it states:
‘The Red River Gorge in eastern Kentucky is one of the best rock-climbing areas in the world. Its solid well-featured sandstone makes for steep, spectacular climbing, with an almost equal mix of sport and traditionally protected pitches.’
I booked the flights.
Eight months later we turned up at Glasgow Airport to check in.
“We need your US Visa Waiver numbers.”
“We don’t have any?”
“Registering and paying for Visa Waivers at least 72 hours before travel is mandatory. Your tour operator should have told you about it.”
“We don’t have a tour operator.”
They said we could get online at Starbucks to register. We took the luggage east to Starbucks but they didn’t have internet access. We went back west past check in and found some computers, I started to feed pound coins into one of them. I ticked the usual lie about not having been on a farm but my Visa Waiver application failed again and again because the date of travel was ‘not acceptable’. Panic was taking over; the plane would soon take off without us. I ran back to check in and the girl from US Airways, fortunately, came over to the computer and persuaded it to give out some visa numbers.
Going quickly through duty free they were offering samples of rum, it was nearly 10 in the morning; I took one.
We landed in Philadelphia and were instructed to ‘deplane’.
First thing I was worried about (I had no inkling what Glasgow would be like) was the man with the gun that takes your fingerprints and face recognition photo.
It was the start of his shift and he was in a good mood, he showed us his scowl that he uses later in the shift when people annoy him. As we had come to USA for climbing he warned us about gravity and let us in.
We then flew on to Charleston.
I had read somewhere that New York was no longer the least friendly city in America, Los Angeles had won the title (and Charleston was one of the friendliest). When we got to the car hire desk at Charleston the lady didn’t do the usual “You will need more insurance” but instead told us we didn’t need extra cover! She drew a map so we could find where we were staying the night. Cynthia told her we were knackered as it was two in the morning our time. We left the airport, found our car and started loading it with our stuff, then the lady from car hire walked over with two black coffees for us!
Second thing I was worried about was rain, I had expected a lot of it.
On the one day when it rained (heavily) we still climbed on cliffs sheltered by roofs. One Canadian was very relaxed on dry rock while it chucked it down.
The sandstone at Red River was excellent but a clip stick would have been handy. We got by with branches that we found, runners before the first bolt, borrowing clip sticks and very occasionally boldness.
On the Friday we did a few routes at Summersville (West Virginia).
Then went onto Pittsburgh for the weekend where we saw a Bald Eagle.
The plan was to climb at New River Gorge the second week but it was raining in West Virginia, so we went back to Red River Gorge.
The drive back to Red River took me 9 hours but there was a diversion because of a crash which slowed things up.
A pawn shop near Red River Gorge was selling guns, that was tempting for the deer that eat everything in my garden but I didn’t think the officials would understand.
Photos are here Kentucky and here West Virginia
Back home I sent off about 50 nest records, they included 19 Oystercatchers nests and 3 Great Skua nests. Skuas were not keen on me stopping to take a photo.
Sunday, 30 October 2011