More Red River Gorge

Fungus

Best picture I have of Chance.  Photo by Cassy.

Cassy cranks up the most exposed part of the route.  Notice Jess WAY down there waiting patiently for us to rappel back to her.

This is the top-out to a awesome 2-pitch climb we did.  The route has big exposure, comfortable belays, and an awesome view from the top.

Photo by Cassy

In the middle of a perfect day, the sky dumped buckets of rain on Chris and me.  We donned full rain gear for the hike back to the car, but the rain suddenly stopped and we enjoyed a misty hike out.  

Chris' first day at Red River Gorge

Huck (Chris' dog) has been on two climbing trips now and he loves the Red.

The 1-lane Nada Tunnel

The roads in this area are beautiful, but they tempt Chance into power-sliding around the corners, especially on the gravel roads.

Miguel's Pizza--the social hub of the Red.  As Chris says, there are more Chaco and Birkenstock sandals, dreads, and dirty climbers at Miguels than he's ever seen in one place.

Canoe Trip

Josh and Kate, two climbers we met at Red River Gorge, invited us on their annual 2-day group canoe trip down the Darby River, OH.  Despite a morale-crushing downpour at the end of a long day, we had a blast on the 20+ mile float. 

All these photos were taken with Cassy's point-and-shoot because I didn't trust my canoe skills to keep my main camera dry.  Good thing--we tipped over about 30 minutes into the first day.

Sweet campsite

Trying to dry out after the torrential rain.

My survival instructors would have been pissed to see our fire-starting methods.  It had just finished pouring rain for over an hour, so lighting the fire was difficult.  Josh came to the rescue by using the 1-foot flame from his camp stove to get the fire going.

Jess is on high alert for the next rapids.

Josh, Kate, Levi, and the heaviest ice chest known to man.  Their center of balance was thrown off every time Levi got nervous in the rapids.  This boat held the record for most times capsized, even though Josh claims he had never in his entire life tipped over prior to this trip.  Likely story.

Brookmeade Barn

I drove past this barn every day for 2 months on the way to work before I finally got a chance to shoot it.

The Birds and the Bees

Vipers! (not the biting kind; the cool kind)

After years of waiting, I have finally starting flying "real jets."  Below are photos of our class of 8 dudes during the first part of training.

Chris Behrens on his last ride before going solo.

The man behind the visor is Ryan Chute on his first solo in the Viper (this year).

Mark Klein often boasts about his ability to quickly get the jet ready to fly.

Nic Koval readies himself for an under-run landing.

Nate Call is king of the world in his Viper jet.

The next few photos were taken by Ryan Chute.  I was psyched to learn that Ryan is a Canon photo geek just like me, and even more excited when he followed me out to the jet with his camera on my first-ever solo in the F-16.

Back-taxiing for my first takeoff all alone in the cockpit.

Pit Viper Bite

The recent snake bite was Jess' latest near-death experience.

I think one of these bad dudes (a copperhead) bit her, but we couldn't find the criminal anywhere.

Moments after the bite, Chance initiated the rescue by safely carrying Jess to the truck.

At the truck, Jess started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

We waited a few minutes, but her paw only swelled larger.

Chance drove to the main road while Cassy stabilized the patient and while I tried to find a vet open on the weekend.  Look at the size of that paw!

We left Jess overnight at an emergency clinic where they gave her antibiotics, pain meds, and fluids.  We took her home the next day and she was back to chasing the ball after about 5 days.

3 weeks later, the paw is still healing.  You can see the two fang marks.