Kevin in his infamous pink hat sitting atop Half Moon at Red River Gorge, KY
While living in Lexington, KY, Kevin came down from Cincinnati to visit and take a weekend camping trip to hike and rappel the Red River Gorge area just a few hours drive east. We were excited to reppel so we headed straight to a cliff Kevin knew of on an outcropping known as Half Moon. It was a 200′ shear drop with a view that looked down on the tree tops of the forrest far below. It was an incredible view and an intimidating drop.
We unloaded the gear and Kevin began securing the rope for us to reppel down on. If you do not know what rappelling is exactly, it is where you tie a rope to a place high up and you tie into the rope and position yourself to hop down the sides of the cliff, building or sometimes a bridge. Not for people with a fear of heights. So as Kevin started to tie the knots which would keep the rope attached to a nearby tree he pulled out a piece of paper. he studied the paper and looked at the rope, back and forth for a bit. “What are you doing?” I asked. “Making sure I tied the knots correctly” he responded hesitantly. “WHAT?” “Have you not done this before?” I questioned him on his competence with tying knots for a bit and concluded, he would go first for sure. You know to test it. not that I didn’t trust him, I just didn’t trust him :)
He finished tying the rope and seemed satisfied so he put on his harness and clipped into the rope somewhat nervously. I believe I made a comment about the knots coming undone that probably did not help settle his anxiety, but if you know Kevin, we rib him pretty well so it was pretty much mandatory to do.
Now as Kevin started to compose himself to plunge over the edge I noticed he still had his glasses on and pointed that out to him. “It’s alright, these are brand new, look” as he told me this he showed me that the glasses had the flexible metal earpieces that curve around the ear for security. “They can’t fall off” he said proudly as if he wanted to show me that he was not as dumb as he looked.
He know began preparation for the descent. On this particular reppel route you lower yourself over a large rock and settle the rope into a notch that has been worn into it. And as he was getting ready to go a couple of hikers showed up and were curious and wanted to watch. Kevin was now almost out of sight as he lowered himself to vertical. But something had not gone as planned. And it began apparent as Kevin took his second jump off the rock face.
Kevin had not properly placed the rope into the groove so hen he jumped outward the rope went slack and it slid down the side of the rock, somewhere around 3 – 4 which means about 6-8 foot of slack on Kevin’s end. I heard a girlish yell with a curse word involved, and a big thud. I ran to the edge of the cliff to look down and this is something I am not proud of, but I burst into uncontrollable laughter.
His eyes were the size of saucers and he was clutching the rope for dear life. He thought the rope had broke! He was alright except for some bruises from when the rope’s slack ran out and flung him into the wall. He yelled up to me “What happened?” I couldn’t answer through the laughing. I remember the hikers with fear on their faces, and looking at me like I was psychotic. I knew Kevin was fine, but knew this was a “Kevin Story” of a lifetime. When i heard him yell up “Dammit, I lost my glasses!” it just fueled my laughter.
I eventually stopped but it started again when he climbed back up from the bottom. I made him go a few more times before I felt confident the rope and knots were secure. We spent most of that day reppelling down through the trees with the hopes we would find his glasses to no avail, they were gone. And without him being able to see we decided to head home instead of camp.
On the drive home we were exhausted. Kevin leaned the passenger seat back and settled in for a nap. After a while I became tired and bored. He was sound asleep next to me when I got an idea.
I hit the brakes hard and slapped my hand on the ceiling of the car and yelled “Grab the rope, grab the rope!” He sat up lightning fast with his hands flailing in front of him trying to grab an imaginary rope, eyes as wide as they were when he fell. Then as i burst into laughter he realized what i had done, he punched me and laid back down, never to speak again to me the entire ride home. He was pissed, and rightfully so. but it was still so funny. It has become one of my favorite stories to tell.
It is stories like this that makes me realize how lucky I am to have shared such fun adventures with my great friends like Kevin. This is really just the very tip of a very large iceberg when it comes to the stories I have in my head about my adventures with my friends. Someday maybe I will write them all down before I start forgetting them. However what time has done so far is allowed me to embellish them and practice telling them in preparation for writing them down.