Submitted by Christine Connors, KNOW Publications Coordinator
The Indian Staircase hike at Red River Gorge was a HUGE time! March 27th couldn’t have been a more beautiful day—the skies were a clear blue with puffy white clouds, bright sunshine and a great hiking temperature.
Getting to the Staircase was half the adventure for the six of us who braved the hike —Julie Moore, Vikki Rawe, Meggy Rawe, Claire Brett, Cortney Shewmaker and me. Claire found a nasty root in the trail and took her own trip straight to the ground giving Julie a chance to try her First Aid kit which she put together after a BOW Survival Skills workshop.
After Dr. Julie tended to Claire’s cuts, we headed down the trail getting to a point where we were on the Adena Arch to view the Staircase from a distance—we knew we were getting close. Using a topo map of RRG and a book that a few of us had, we managed to find everything but the Staircase—we even led two gentlemen astray several times with our expert advice!! Finally, after meeting some "Space Travelers," we were led down the path to success.
Once we hit the Staircase, some of us took the most appealing way down and ended up with holes in the rear-ends of our jeans!!! Of course, once we went down, we had to climb back up and do it over again. I decided I was to nervous to climb back down, so I rappelled down instead taking the easiest way down BY FAR!!!
Because the sun was beginning to set, we didn’t hike the trail we took in and went directly to the road instead. That was when we began to realize how pooped we really were, so we hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck and traveled the last two miles of our trip in bliss for our feet.
All in all, we learned that we’ve got what it takes to get out there and have an adventure of our own, and that we need to work on our map & compass skills... Hope to see you at the next adventure!!!
To see the larger versions of these photos, double-click and grab a cup of Java!!!
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Julie Moore, Vikki Rawe, Meggy Rawe, Claire Brett, Cortney Shewmaker and Chris Connors enjoy a photo-shoot before their journey to the Indian Staircase. |
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Julie, Vikki, Meggy, Claire, and Cortney take the hard way down the Staircase... |
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and Chris takes the easy way!!! |
