9 May 2017, Tuesday
I am awakened about 2 am by a sudden down-pouring of rain drumming on the tent fly. Shortly afterward I note an occasional drip of water on my face…not a good sign. I sit up to feel the top of the mesh seam overhead. It is wet, but I feel no moisture anywhere else. O wakes as I move around, and asks what is going on. I explain. We both decide the drips could be condensation. After all, there are three of us in the tent and only one small vent, and not much of a breeze. The rain is letting up anyway and we both fall back asleep.
About 6 am it is beginning to lighten outside, and the rain is coming down hard once again. There are now two sources of slow but steady drips over my head. O can feel a fine mist coming through the mesh as the rain strikes the fly. G’s side of the tent remains fairly dry. There is no sleeping as the drips fall, so I stretch my arms straight up holding a small yellow microfiber cloth above my face. I can feel the droplets hitting the cloth, but my face is staying dry. Unfortunately, I can’t keep holding my arms up, so I drape the yellow cloth over my face. G snickers at my appearance and I turn my blank, bright yellow countenance in her direction, precipitating more laughter. It is now after 6 am so quiet time is over, which is a good thing since O and G are both laughing now.
I am struck by a brilliant idea. Find an REI store in nearby Lexington and head out for breakfast and a new tent. O and I are disappointed when we finally realize that our anticipated breakfast destination, Toast on Main, is actually in Louisville, not Lexington, not to mention there is no REI in Lexington. As our plans were first formulating, G sang out,”Road Trip!!!” in her musical voice. We cannot disappoint her. With a little further research, our road trip is rescued. I find a recommended breakfast destination, Wild Eggs, and discover that there is a new Cabela’s in Lexington with an acceptable 3-person tent in stock. We empty our old Sierra Design tent and leave it looking wet and forlorn at the campsite as we set off on our expedition.
It takes just over an hour to drive to Lexington. We consume a delicious breakfast at Wild Eggs and then find Cabela’s. Soon we are driving back to our camp with our new Marmot Limelight 3 person tent. The new tent seems roomy and sets up easily. Assuming that it will keep us dry, its only shortcoming is its bright orange color.
Our Lexington adventure at an end, we decide to take advantage of the morning sunshine and we set off on our first hike of the day. The hike leaves from Whittleton Campground and goes up to Henson’s Cave Arch, a sort of sink hole with an arch remaining over its middle, hence the “arch” name. There is an accompanying trickle of a waterfall cascading down one wall of the cave into a little puddle in the bottom. We descend a steel staircase to explore further and gaze up along a fallen tree trunk which is covered in shelves of fungi and reaches right through the top of the sinkhole.
We climb back out of the cave and walk further up the trail to a rock wall pocked with smoothly eroded depressions and covered by a pattern of harder ridges of rock that have been reinforced by minerals which precipitated out of water that percolated through crevices long ago. Much of the rock face is undercut creating rock shelters. On one moss-covered wall is a small, bright orange, spotted salamander, (which we later learn is an eft.) The surrounding forest is incredibly green. We spend some time exploring and taking photographs. Then it is back to camp for a snack before we leave again to further explore the rock formatons and trails around Natural Bridge.
After our snack we hike part way up the Original Trail and then diverge onto Battleship Rock Trail, climbing up Needles Eye, a series of steep stone steps carved into the rock. The steps take us back up to the Laurel Ridge which we now follow all the way to its end at Lover’s Leap. From here we retrace yesterday evening’s hike across Natural Bridge and back down the Original Trail.
This evening we cook dinner in camp and have time left over to journal and to read more about Red River Gorge in a attempt to choose tomorrow’s hike.