qmhill wrote:woodchuck008 wrote:Is ANY of Miller Fork open to use yet, or just limited to in-progress route developers access? Will a very clear and accurate map be placed here on site for locating it? I'm not down to southern region enough to have any idea where it is. Get the idea it's almost in Beattyville and not near PMRP by miles and miles. Hope on line wall locations, directions, all that stuff is coming I imagine, but was hoping to at least hike and visit the general region during the upcoming RocktoberFest week when I have days available for an adventure hike. So what's up with access, directions, parking and such things? Anybody know?
Of course it's open. You own it.
Yes, it is open. That is, if you find someone who is willing to take you there (e.i. someone who has been there already), and your schedules and desires eventually co-incide. The people who are willing to take you there will NOT give you a map, for you to go on your own, because some other people were upset about topo maps or trails or crags being passed around, but they will totally, totally take you there, of course, absolutely! They eventually will.
There is also the option that dustonian likes to bring up. Everyone is absolutely free to get a GPS, start with a published aerial map, park somewhere in the general vicinity of the MFRP, and bushwhack around until they maybe find the crag that has been posted in online guide, sans directions, and get themselves oriented, sans pictures, and somehow miraculously get on the route that they actually wanted to get on. Or maybe just get on a random route. It is all an adventure, after all... they could even bolt a route for themselves. The "regular" developers will not be upset at all, no-no-no, it has never happened.
But if you happen to be someone who doesn't have a lot of time for climbing, and you are not willing to potentially lose a day bushwhacking around, because you only have 10 days of climbing at the Red for the entire fall, and those days are spread out in 2-day chunks here and there, then it is closed.
Not REALLY closed, but effectively closed. And if you complain about it-- gee, you are one of those people who require a lot of hand-holding and spoon-feeding! And you shouldn't be going to a new area, anyway, because they haven't made the handicap-accessible trails for you yet, and haven't put up the signs.
As you can tell, I am not upset about it, or anything...