Daniel Boone

Wrapping up our time with the WINs, we did some hiking in the Daniel Boone National Forest and visited Fort Boonesborough State Park.

Tuesday dawned partly cloudy and only partly humid - not bad. We set out to drive the scenic byway through the Red River Gorge. We all looked longingly at the river, but it was too low for kayaking. It would have been a beautiful paddle.

We took some short hikes along the way. We went through the Angel Windows (at the top of the picture) and found this inviting cave under a rock outcropping.


Here's Will looking through Whistling Arch.

The previous two pictures were expertly taken by Peggy. I shamelessly stole them.

We happened upon a still in the woods. Not that I would know what it was, of course. Somebody told me.


I always say it's a wonder teenaged boys ever make it to adulthood.


We really tied up traffic at this tunnel. It was carved right through the rock in 1910-1911 by a lumber company to use as a railroad tunnel. There are no lights inside and I kept asking if Ron was sure the car lights were on. No place for claustrophobics.

The sign stated, "The tunnel construction claimed the lives of one man and a dog, killed when the man attempted to thaw frozen dynamite by setting it near a fire."

On Thursday, we visited Fort Boonesborough SP, established by Daniel Boone (and others) in 1775. Just look at the gorgeous cabins - I could live in them.

This is a reconstruction, but it's supposed to be realistic. Those of you who know me, know I tend to be skeptical.

They had artisans in period costume who were very interesting and willing to explain all about their craft. My favorite was the loomer? loomist? Hey! That's what I should have asked. Help me out here, Linda.


The spinning lady demonstrated this 'walking wheel', so named because the spinner walks the thread out.


And we saw the blacksmith. For some reason he reminds me of Martin Mull.


I just liked this red wagon and the corn as tall as the sunflowers.


On Wednesday, only the hardiest of the group went on a 5 1/2 mile hike. I was not one of them. Here's the intrepid group minus Peggy who took the picture.

Actually Freddie did her own shorter hike then waited with the cars. I guess I could have done that, but I didn't. In my defense, the weather looked bad. Luckily the rain waited until just after they got home.

Ron seems fascinated by this crevasse. I'm at a loss to come up with an appropriate caption.

(The previous two were also Peggy's pictures and the next one is Ron's.)

This was the view at the far end of their hike. That's half of Double Arch. I accidentally cropped out the other half because I didn't see it. Oops!

And do you know what makes the far mountains blue? It's all the water in the air. The break from humidity was over and it was back with a vengeance.

Today we said our sad goodbyes and left the WINs to look for a drier climate. More on that later.