Little Tacoma on the Prairie

Mark and I are checking in from the basement at Miguel's Pizza in Slade, KY.  It is kind of hard to explain, but Miguel's is an iconic place for climbers in the Red River Gorge.  They not only make awesome pizza, but provide climbers a cheap, friendly, and awesome place to camp.  And wi-fi for rest days!  And only $2/ person/ night.  

We arrived here a few nights ago, after a marathon drive from Breckenridge, CO.  We spent a week in Breckenridge and really enjoyed the resort life.  We watched some television season premieres, slept in a lot, and checked out what Breckenridge had to offer.  After our week of touring national parks and hiking all over, it was nice to kick back.  

TripAdvisor led us up the Boreas Pass Road (#1 attraction in Breckenridge), where we saw a lot of fall colors, an old railroad, and some snow.  Yes, snow!  The first day we were there, the town got some snow and the mountains around us got a healthy coating.  I must say I was pretty content sitting by the fireplace watching the snow come down outside.  

We also checked out the Breckenridge Brewery, conveniently right across the street from us.  Overall, my favorite thing about Breckenridge was the leaves changing color.  Coming from San Diego where the only leaves that change color are poison oak, I was completely blown away.  I couldn't get over how pretty the aspens were and therefore instagrammed one too many pictures of yellow aspen leaves. 

 

A windy hike near Hoosier Pass, Quandary Peak in the background.  Had it not been so cold and windy, we would have hiked up it.

After Breckenridge, we set off on our journey to the Red River Gorge (RRG).  The RRG is one of the best spots for sport climbing in the US and Mark and I have always wanted to go here.  When we first were planning the trip it seemed too far away, but after climbing for three months we realized that we really want to go here.  So, here we are, in Kentucky.  It is still weird to me that we are in Kentucky.  And on east coast time.  And the humidity.  OMG the humidity!  

Our first night here we ran into some friends that we have met on the road, and have made some new friends.  It was nice to pull into Miguel's knowing that we were coming into a community of climbers.  Our people!  And seeing familiar faces after more than two weeks of strangers was really nice.  And to be greeted with pizza from Ryan- does it get any better?

Monday we climbed in Muir Valley, and yesterday in PMRP (Pendergrass-Murray Recreational Preserve, a climber owned plot of land with some amazing crags).  The climbing is incredible.  I have never seen crags this steep!  After two days of climbing, my skin is raw, my forearms are incredibly sore, and my feet hurt from shoving them in small downturned shoes, but I couldn't be happier.  It is humbling to climb routes so steep and fall off jugs you could wrap your arm around.  We are taking the day off since after 3 pitches yesterday I was more or less useless.  

The first climb we did in the RRG

Mark on a climb at Drive-By Crag

Camping at Miguel's

Mark caught the end of the rope!!!

Slade is a dry county so Ale 8 is a popular alternative

Our first pizza from Miguel's- pepperoni, peppers, broccoli, and avocado.  And these toppings aren't even that adventurous!  

My hands hurt!

The beer trailer.  Catered to rock climbers.

The arch is awesome!!!

At this point we are just sampling the climbing and aren't sure how long we will be here.  We also want to check out the New River Gorge, and have a trip to DC planned for next weekend to see Maureen!!  Life on the road is great (although I could use a shower), the Tacoma is a champ, and both of us are just enjoying this opportunity to travel.  

xoxo

Mark and Lauren

So much sandstone!

Mark and I have been on a dizzying tour of national parks, all with sandstone!  Mark's shoulder is still not ready for climbing so we have been doing things that we would not normally be doing: namely, hiking and exploring non-climbing destinations.  And I must say, we have been on some incredible hikes.  I have so many pictures so I apologize if it takes forever to load.  I narrowed them down as best I could, but as you will see, I had a hard time choosing so I just chose a lot!

We had originally planned to leave last Saturday, but literally, as Mark and I were in the truck, ready to leave, the truck wouldn't start again!  Mark had replaced the battery so we thought the problem was taken care of, but apparently the truck needed a new IAC valve (not that I know what that is, at all).  It was a bummer, but we were glad to take care of the problem at home and get another day with family.

Sunday morning, we hopped back in the truck, and this time had no problems!  Car problems are right up there with computer problems for me, I can't stand them.  We had a pretty uneventful drive out to the Grand Canyon and were there in time to scope out some sweet free camping, and take a look at the canyon.  Both Mark and I had been to the Grand Canyon when we were younger, but didn't remember much.  As the 22 minute visitor center video says- the canyon is both immense and intimate.  I was so impressed, and couldn't stop taking pictures.  Really, you will see that not much went undocumented.

Our big activity was a hike down to the Colorado River and back up via the South Kaibab and Bright Angel trails.  We took the South Kaibab trail down almost 5,000 feet to the bottom of the canyon, and then went back up on the Bright Angel trail.  The park service strongly urges against doing this trip in a day.  Which at first seemed like overkill (the posters seem a little outrageous), but there are actually a large number of fatalities in the canyon due to fatigued and unprepared hikers.  That said, Mark and I were pretty confident that we could manage, and made sure we had a ton of water and food.

The trail down was gorgeous- sweeping panoramic views, and all downhill!  Although by the time we got to the river our knees were happy to be on flat ground and heading up.  We went across two sweet suspension bridges (not mandatory, but why would you pass it up?), and then started back up.  There are two BIG advantaged to taking the Bright Angel trail back up.  First, it is longer and thus not as steep as the South Kaibab trails, and second, there are multiple spots to refill water.  And the Bright Angel trail is less exposed so you can take breaks in the shade.  Mark and I were cruising until probably the last 4.5 miles, but we put our heads down, forced down some bars, and charged the last 3,000 feet to the top.  Slightly haggard, and a bit dazed, we took the shuttle back to our car and refueled with some Top Ramen in the parking lot.

So here are the stats:
Elevation loss: 4780 ft
Elevation gain: 4360 ft
Mileage: 16.6 miles
# of pictures taken: hundreds
packages of gushers: 10 (approximate)
total time: 7 hours, 52 minutes

Mark starting down the South Kaibab Trail

Look at all those switchbacks!

Almost to the bottom!  Black suspension bridge in the back.  (It is literally called the black suspension bridge)

Our first view of where we had to get up to.  That is a long way away!  I am not so sure about this hike right now.

Don't worry, the camera has a lot of zoom.  He was chilling by the trail.

Waiting for the shuttle.  We were a bit wrecked.

Post hike recovery.

Sweet free camping just outside the park.

Example of the posters emphasizing how dangerous hiking in the canyon is.  

We woke up the next morning, calves sore beyond belief, and made our way to Zion for our next hiking adventure: the Narrows!

The Narrows was awesome!!!  We originally had permits to hike the entire thing from the top down but due to our IAC valve snafu we missed out on those and did an out and back hike from the bottom.  Which really, was probably all my poor little calves could handle.  The Narrows is a hike/ river walk up the Virgin River.  Sometimes you are cruising on sand bars, and other times you are thigh to waist deep in the Virgin River.  Due to some road work we had to tack on an additional 2 miles of road walking, which seemed daunting at the time, but was totally worth it.  Mark and I just planned to hike until we weren't having fun.  That happened about 3 ish hours in?  We really don't do a great job of tracking times or mileage.  We did hike through the Wall Street section which was awesome, but I am not entirely sure where exactly we turned around.  Regardless, the Narrows are awesome, I highly recommend having a trekking pole, and embracing the trench foot.

Cool bridges on our way from Grand Canyon to Zion

On our way up to Lava Point, a more obscure spot in Zion.

Sweet free camping at Lava Point.

Our friend who was hanging out in the middle of the road.

Mark not too sure about getting his feet wet.

Content with our stay in Zion we moved on for a smash and grab visit to Bryce Canyon and a night along the Colorado River in Moab.  Mark was super impressed by Bryce Canyon and took some awesome shots.  After we got our fill of hoodoos in Bryce, we found some river side camping and called it good for the day.  The next day, we set out to Arches National Park after filling up at Milt's Stop and Eat in Moab, and awesome burger place that we were introduced to after our first Indian Creek trip.

Mark tosses up a salad for dinner.

View of sunset from our campsite.

That light streak is some plane contrails being lit up by the moon!

Some Bryce Canyon Hoodoos

Arches was pretty awesome, but unfortunately tainted by some real tools.  In the afternoon we hiked out to Delicate Arch and when we got to the arch, some guy was carving his name INTO the arch. (Illegal btw)  Despite a decent sized crowd, Mark was the only one who said something.  I guess you may gather that someone dumb enough to carve their name into the Delicate Arch is not the most fun to try and reason with.  I am really proud that Mark said something.  It was a bummer that the incident kind of ruined the experience but I am glad that Mark was willing to stand up for what he knew was right.  We tried our best to get a ranger to meet him at the trailhead but we never were able to get through to a ranger.  So that was our Arches experience.  Despite all of it, Arches is a rad place and the Delicate Arch is truly beautiful.  (although tainted with the name ANDY scratched into it until the park service can remove it).

Yeah, this happened.  Mark holding up Balanced Rock.

I think this is called Double Arch.

North and South Windows.

We found some amazing free camping off the highway leading to Canyonlands and settled in for the night.  Yesterday we made a stop in Canyonlands NP.  Slightly burnt out on walking, we made a few excursions and saw some rad things.  We went out to Mesa arch pretty early and it was gorgeous.  The rock underneath the arch was lit up, perfectly framing the landscape beyond it.  I can't recall the names of what else we saw but we were both pretty psyched to catch a glimpse of Indian Creek in the distance.

Mark reading a book at our sweet spot off the highway.

Indian Creek!

Me and Mesa Arch

So now we are at the Hyatt in Breckenridge, CO.  Seriously!  It is quite the upgrade from the back of the Tacoma and I am literally sitting by the fireplace writing this up while Mark cooks up some eggs for breakfast.  My mom really worked some magic with the whole timeshare thing.  Mark and I are pretty frugal so you have to imagine that the deal she got is pretty amazing.  The biggest hurdle of this whole thing was making myself look presentable enough to check in and request a room that wasn't on the street side.  Which may sound easy enough, but when you have gone for more than a week without a shower, it took a healthy amount of dry shampoo and some mascara to feel confident enough to go up to the front desk.

Updates from Colorado soon!

xoxo
Lauren and Mark