Red River Gorge(ous)

Hey y'all! I'm back from the mountains and reality sucks. My break from the city was not long enough!! Anyways, this week ought to be enough to make me disappear into Nature again for a few days. Exams, field work, long drives, and trying to function like a normal person in reality...ugh. Can I please please please go back to Red River Gorge?! The 7 hour drive is worth it.

Yeah, I was here!!

My friend Aaron met me at Red River Gorge for a long weekend adventure. It was so freaking awesome to meet up with a friend I hadn't seen for almost 5 months! Plus he had the vast majority of camping and climbing gear. Anyways, our weekend consisted of climbing, hiking, starting a fire, pitching tents, packing backpacks full of gear, and climbing. Pretty boring huh?

Miguel's Pizza and Rock Climbing

  First destination - Animal Crackers Wall. There were some 5.7 and 5.8 climbs (ones that I can do fairly easily) and a 5.10a climb. My climbing partner didn't bother to tell me that I was climbing a 5.10a - the very top of my ability with some struggling - until I finished. But after I learned that I just conquered that wall with only 2 slip-ups, I felt like queen of the rock. What's even better is that the view from the top of the climb was gorgeous! Haha, get it? 

Animal Crackers Wall

So we did a bunch of climbing the first day, mainly Aaron lead climbing and I followed to clean up the gear, (Animal Crackers and The Boneyard walls) and then hiked out to Indian Creek and set up camp by a creek. The next day we hiked to Gray's Arch (see photo below). Then we did trad climbing at Fortress Wall. Aaron stuck gear into the rock, set up an anchor thing, then I went up to gather the gear. We climbed Snake (5.8) and another one I can't remember.

Lead Climbing - when they climb up, clip into hooks with draws and continue to the top. Then they send up a second person (top roping) to clean up the draws! It was a lot of fun - next skill I need to learn: LEAD CLIMBING!!

Gray's Arch

 The last day we did a multi-pitch climb. I can say with 100% confidence that was my favorite climb we did! We climbed Jungle Beat at Military Wall (5.9+) which turned out be at the upper limit for both of us. Aaron lead and place the gear. Then he built an anchor and belayed me from up above as I climbed and collected the gear. Then we managed to get me clipped into the anchor, transfer me the rope, re-rack the gear onto him, get him off of the anchor, and he start climbing again. And repeat a few more times. It was a 4-pitch climb and it was awesome! I gashed my knee and left some elbow skin on the rock but we made it to the top!! Making it to the top is such a rush - maybe that's the adrenaline junkie in me talking but it's an amazing feeling!!

Climber 1 climbs up, sticks pro strategically, gets to the top of the pitch, sets, anchor, belays climber 2. Climber 2 collects the placed pro and gets up to climber 1. Climber 2 gets into the anchor, climber 1 re-racks the gear onto themselves, gets off the anchor as climber 2 belays them up to the next pitch. Repeat until you get to the top.

This guy is about to place a cam into that crack...

A nut in the crack with a draw connecting it to the rope.

Then the example of me...the cleaner. I got heavier as I climbed as I was accumulating the gear Aaron placed. Aaron got lighter as he climbed but he had the pressure of placing pro strategically so if either of us fell the pro would catch us. No pressure or anything right?

 Basically, Red River Gorge was way more than I thought it would be. Needless to say, if someone called up and said, "Hey! Want to go climbing at RRG this weekend?" I would have no issue saying YES! I'll even ditch my paper and research for another weekend at the Red. So yeah, have some pictures of mine! The above ones aren't mine but show the beauty of RRG :)

Aaron was lead climbing - you can kind of see where he clipped in. I'm on the ground in the middle lead belaying him

View from Animal Crackers Wall over Muir Valley

Not quite sure who he is but this is what we were doing :)

This was the 5.10a I did unknowingly but now I know I can do that difficult of a climb!

View on our way to Gray's Arch

Have I told you that this place is absolutely gorgeous? Pun intended.

Not really knowing or caring what day or time it is, is super refreshing. Just climb and hike and life is good!

Rocks are kind of cool. They put some serious competition on plants!

Beginning of Jungle Beat - the 5.9+ trad climb we did on our last day!!

Intimidating looking climb: CHECK. Intimidating actually climbing it: CHECK. The rush after climbing this: PRICELESS.

KY/VA border - best nature retreat since I've moved to NC!! Can I please go back? Like right now?

Thanks for reading this guys!! I hope y'all can tell how much fun I had at RRG and how beautiful this place is. Even if y'all don't climb, this is a great place to hike and get your Nature-fill. Don't be surprised if I go back here soon :)

Disappearing into the Mountains

When are the leaves going to start changing down here?! With this beautiful fall weather I want to see orange, red, and yellow leaves - as much as I love green...I'm ready for some color!! Lately I've been sneaking off into nature for hours at a time and then coming back to reality. So yeah, life as a PlantPath Girl involves plants, diseases, basidiomycota, hikes, trees, squirrels, lots of running shoes, climbing gear, chalk, busted knuckles, and lot of food. Oh, and research. How could I forget that?! It's my life ya know!

Oh my lovely dearest project. How much I love waking up at 4:31am and driving 2.5 hours across the state to start working on you! How much I love husking 1000 ears of corn in a day and realizing I'm barely 10% of the way done! How much I love shelling, weighing, and testing your moisture content and then dropping the bag on the floor! Oh my lovely dearest project.

So yeah, lots of corn. If you don't quite understand how much corn I work with, you can just read my previous post: CORN CORN CORN! Anyone want to be some hired help for a few days?! 

Goodbye city life - I need NATURE

Let's see...what else is PlantPath Girl up to? Umm...not studying because these classes are for babies. More like writing a research paper on Fusarium graminearum, the casual agent of Fusarium Head Blight (Scab) of wheat. I'm pretty much a professional on the epidemiology of FHB which is good because that is a small component of my research as well :)  Basically, Fusarium graminearum wrecks havoc on the corn, wheat, barley, and oat crops every year. In the 1998 to 2000 epidemic, FHB caused over $2.7 BILLION in economic losses/damages. So yeah, it's kind of a big deal!

Today I have a field day in Rocky Mount with my PI Dr. Ron Heiniger. I'm just shadowing him and not giving talks. I want to see how he communicates with growers so I can be respected by the growers as well.

Oh, by the way, I'm disappearing into the mountains tomorrow - where? You'll find out when I get back! It will be oh so fun!!

Am I going here?

Or here?