The Red is RAD!

I HAVE BEEN HEARING about the Red River Gorge for quite some time. A super-fun sport climbing gold mine with wicked hard sandstone, wicked steep overhangs, and 2,000,000,000,000,000 routes (including some great trad lines).
I've also been quite aware for some time now that, in all of my years of climbing, I'd never taken a trip by myself. I've driven by myself to meet friends, but I've never gone somewhere expecting to know no one. (Though I was prepared to go by myself to Spain last December, my friend Jon purchased a ticket to come with me about 45 hours prior to departure.) Given this, I've been feeling pretty lame and codependent about this- in the same way I'd felt lame and codependent before I could lead climb. Or read.

So, during the week of March 12ish, while all of my friends were headed south to sunny and beautiful Indian Creek, I was packing my bags to fly to the probably colder and rainier Red River Gorge... by myself. I went on good faith, trustingly placing myself in the hands of the greater climbing community.

My (now) friend, Andrew, (then friend-of-a-friend-of-a-.....) agreed to pick me up in Louisville and put me in the hands of his friend, Joel, who would then drive me to the Red, climb with me for a few days, and leave me for the week while he went back to work. Both of these guys were willing to do this purely out of good will. Thanks to them, I was able to fly solo, borrow their camping gear, crash at Miguel's, and climb my little forearms out without ever having to rent a car, pack a tent, or anything of the like.

In the end, it worked out nearly exactly as I'd hoped. Though Spring Break '09 clogged Miguel's with chillness, Nalgene bottles, bongo drums, helmets, and crappy acoustic versions of crappy-crap Ben Harper, I still enjoyed the hell out of the scene and met some individuals independent of the 15-passenger-outing-club-van scene. (Also met some cool people from within that scene, to be perfectly honest.)

Andrew and Joel became solid friends, both of whom I got to climb with twice. I also got to hang out with Andrew's son, who was way into protecting us with his light saber at the crag. I met lots of locals, all settled in for the season, just as the Indian Creek crew beds down in the desert. (Jealous!) I also got to hang out with two guys, Ian and Josh, who were good enough to give me a lift to the Motherlode one day, and with whom I spent more than one evening with a box of wine, hiding from the rain.

All told, it was a great trip. The first four (of 10) days were pretty brutal, weather-wise. Inches of snow on the ground the first day. Super-saturating rain each of the next three days --to the point where nothing was climbable, even the most steep and protected overhangs. Days 5-10 were beautiful, but I spent them battling gravity for lack of proper warm-up days on the early end of the trip. My camera also broke (lens malfunction), but I still got some photos from early in the trip. But I ended up going night climbing three times in order to try to replace some of the rainy days. 
But anyway. Apparently it was so much fun, that I'm going back again this weekend for three more days. Whoops!