I took my kid, my wife and my dog backpacking into the wilderness. Part 1

I head off into the sweltering hot wilderness with myself, my wife, my young daughter and our dog.

It's about time I write my first blog post about backpacking and camping. I'm going to break up different trips into multiple parts so the post aren't too long.

At first I was going to write about the preparation that goes into a camping trip but I don't want to lose people to boredom on the first article so I think I'll save that to another day.

It all started when I decided that my family needed to step up our game and go on a real backpacking trip. The destination: Red River Gorge in eastern Kentucky.

The Gorge is a designated special geological area in eastern Kentucky. It's part of the larger Daniel Boone National Forest. The Red River and its tributaries carved deep gorges out of the rock of the Cumberland plateau. This results in step rock walls, caves and cliffs dropping down about 400 feet to the rivers and streams below.

The change in altitude and the extra humidity also creates an interesting effect of seeing different kinds of plants flourishing as you hike in and out of the trails.

In July, when we would be there the rhododendron would be in bloom. Now, being from the flattest part of Ohio this whole thing sounded pretty cool to me.

I spent hours online researching the area. Getting recommendations of campsites, looking at maps and finding out as much as I could about the place. It has a few key things I was looking for:

1. It was close enough to drive to.
2. I was able to find extremely detailed maps.
3. National forests allow you to bring your dog while most national parks do not. (I really wanted the dog with us, bear and people deterrent)

From my younger days I have most of the supplies needed to backpack. One of the new things I now use in any major trip is a Spot gps emergency satellite beacon. They are not very expensive to rent or buy and not only can they save you in an emergency, but it gives your family peace of mind since you can send basic messages and there is an option to let them track you.

So we had our supplies, we had our destination, all that was left was to pick our route.

A very small portion of The Gorge is designated Federal Wilderness Area. That fascinated me because that means that there should be the least amount of impact made by humans as possible.

There are only two trails running through the wilderness in the Gorge. I picked the one with more access to water and more highly recommended. I also picked the most difficult trail in the place; Swift Camp Creek Trail in the Clifty Wilderness.

Map courtesy Purdue Outing Club

I wasn't aware how difficult the trail would be. Looking at a map 7 miles doesn't seem like very far. On the flat smooth land around here it isn't. We would soon learn that on that trail, with heavy packs, and with weather attempting to simulate a sauna, things were not going to go as smoothly as we were hoping.
This first trip would turn out to be our most difficult we have ever taken, and our favorite

To be continued in part two:
We start our hike, find our first waterfall, our first cave, and our first thoughts about bears.

Me, overloaded and blissfully unaware of what to expect.

More info from the Forest Service

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/dbnf/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5277259