Van Fixed; Rain Stopped; Flat Tire; Magnificent Day

October 25, 2007: Day 6

Today’s Mileage 28.9; Average speed 9.7 mph; Max Speed 32.1; Pedal Time 2:57; Time on course 4:00. Total Trip Distance: 149.1 Miles (30 miles per day average)

Phillip Newsome fixed the van and it runs like new says the Trail Boss. It was a $273 repair and worth every cent to see the grin on his face as he went up the first hill without the need to manually shift and without the shimmy. While we waited for the arrival of the new plug wires, I asked Phillip where we could drive to a car wash to wash the bike which was covered with road grime and coal dust from the rain. Phillip, full of excellent customer service, pulled out a steam cleaner and pressure washed it off and oiled the chain! Soon the wires arrived and since Cimarron had already loosened and moved the radiator so Phillip wouldn’t screw it up, the wires went on quickly. Poor Cimarron paced up and down in front of the garage like he must have done anticipating the births of his eight children as Phillip and his staff worked. Cimarron later confided that the Van had never been taken to a garage before! So I was quite happy for him that it all went well.

We were out of Hazard, KY, for the last time headed to Carrie, KY, where we last quit pedaling. We unloaded the bike at 2:23 PM and the rear tire was flat. I hadn’t changed a tire since last year and changing the rear is more difficult than a front. The weather was predicted to be cloudy and rainy all day but the weatherman was wrong. It was beautiful, again, with a blue sky and a few white puffy clouds. The sun was shinning brightly and we both sweated as he helped with the tire change. The new tube was installed in 20 minutes, probably a new record for a rear tire for me. I put on latex medical gloves and they were covered with grit and grime. We pumped her up to 105 psi and I was pedaling before 3 PM.

We pedaled about 4 miles into Hindman, population 787, and home of a US senator. I have forgotten his name but the locals haven’t. They named the school after him and have very impressive government buildings and the place looks prosperous. We primarily followed streams in this section and the course was easy and pleasant. We went through Mallie, population near zero, and then to Pippa Passes, which had a store and a dozen houses. The stream through this valley flowed toward me so I was going uphill; however, I coasted most of the way—how do you figure that?

At the Pippa Passes store there were three women working: Oma, Laretta, and Sarah. Oma has twin girls who are basketball stars in the Pippa Passes School. Laretta is a young graduate nurse who hasn’t been able to pass the registered nurse exam so she is working as a store clerk. This area appears considerably less economically deprived than what we have been seeing. Oma said an ignorant biker came through and thought everyone in the whole state was illiterate and that “we all lived on dirt floors.” Laretta and Sarah said they were fearful of the folks over in Buckhorn where I had the very steep hill walks two days ago. “We played their girls in basketball once and they were rugged and some chewed tobacco!” So I asked Laretta if she had ever dated her cousin, and she said, “No, he’s in jail!” These girls were bright with a good sense of humor. I asked about motels 20 miles up the road and Oma said, “You’ll find nothing for fifty miles, but I have a remodeled bedroom in the barn. My nephew is staying there but he can come into the house and you can stay there tonight. It has nice beds and a shower. Here’s my phone number, call me up to 11 PM as I’ll still have the store open and you can come back.” I love meeting these wonderful people along the road while I drink my cappuccino. Up the road but still in Pippa Passes is a college (I’ll add the name later it slips my mind now). The founder came to the mountains to educate the children and established the college, which carries her name. The campus is about 100 yards wide and half a mile long in a steep valley along a small stream and the bike ride goes right through the center. The mountains rise sharply from behind the buildings for about 500 feet. Several of the builds are historic landmarks and constructed of stone. Many are modern design like the fine arts and library buildings. The founder’s log cabin (perhaps 10 x 15 feet) sits near the stream in the center of the campus apparently in its original location. There are 500 students and a strong religious connection.

Not long after Pippa Passes we came to an active strip coal mine and tipple area. The strip mine had defaced the entire mountainside and the seam of coal was visible. The seam of coal was bout three or four feet high with peculiar holes into the seam. Some of the holes were two-foot diameter round and some were rectangular about eight feet across and the full height of the seam of coal. At a restaurant later we learned from a miner (who spent twenty-five years working underground) that the rectangular areas were evidence of prior deep shaft mining years ago and were the rooms of coal that had been removed. The round holes were drilled during the current operation to extract coal from deep under the top of the mountain without having to move the whole mountain. These “auger holes” extend up to half a mile under the mountain. As I turned a corner the coal trucks were coming out of the strip job heading for the tipple. The road was pretty dirty. Suddenly out of a side road in the woods came a nearly new Elgin Street Sweeper. The bearded operator, looking a lot like Santa, swept the narrow county road as this bike rider stood on the side of the road taking pictures between the sweeper and the coal trucks. By the way, each coal truck holds 100 tons of coal, and a gravel truck is only allowed to carry 80 tons. The state is partial to the coal operators, or 100 tons of coal crushes a road the same as 80 tons of gravel. Go figure.

Near Dema I went into a restaurant advertising pizza but the wait was fifteen minutes so I ordered two hot dogs and a warm Sierra Mist. The clerk asked what I wanted on the dogs and I said, “What do you have?” She said, “Do you want Chili, mustard, ketchup, cheese, onions, or Cole slaw.” I said, “Yes.” And they were great. Then Jim the AC man and Georgia Hall, the cook, gave Cimarron motel advice advising going 37 miles to Pikesville, KY. They said there was a big climb over the mountain between Knott and Floyd counties and then another twice as bad five miles up the road between Floyd and Pike Counties. I decided I’d walk the first one today and coast down the other side and then walk the next one tomorrow. So to end the day I pushed the bike up the 600 foot mountain for about two miles where I met the Trail Boss sitting at the top on the county line next to a “Do not Dump” sign and under a seventy foot high wall cut through the very top of the gap. The wind was howling and he was looking for long pants on my arrival. I put on a nylon vest and took off down the other side barely under control as the switchbacks had speed limit signs as low as 15 mph. A car or bike could easily spin out on this descent. I was glad the road was dry. When I reached Bevinsville, KY, a fat girl and a guy were sitting on a 4-wheeler on a bridge talking to a middle aged man at the intersection of the county road with State Road 122. I said, as I always do as I pulled up to the stop sign with a big grin after the severe downhill, “Hello.” And they looked me straight in the eye from less than ten feet, and said not one word in reply. And I said again, perhaps somewhat sarcastically, “Hello.” And they did not respond. So I guess they are mute, since I have not met an ass hole yet on this trip. Then since the Trail Boss was nowhere in sight at our quitting time of 6:30 I continued on down the road. In about a mile an almost new gold colored pickup truck sped by too closely and the driver honked the horn loudly and shouted out the window, “Get off the road.” This was the first obnoxious driver and the first unresponsive pedestrians in 150 miles of Kentucky. Bevinsville should be embarrassed. If any reader knows anyone in Bevinsville, inform them.

As advised we drove to Pikesville, KY, for a room. The trip was over 30 miles and took nearly an hour as the roads were steep and switched. However, dinner at Long John Silver’s was great. The TV in the motel worked beautifully. The Trail Boss had expressed his doubts and wanted to see the Red Sox in the World Series.

We ended our day near Bypro, KY, at the end of map number 131 in the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail Section 11, Berea KY, to Christiansburg, VA, Adventure Cycling Association Bicycle Touring Map. On this current 2007 bike trip we have covered 147.5 official trail miles (and a few unofficial miles while lost but pedaling) or 28% of our 527-mile trip. We are 39.5 miles from leaving Kentucky and entering Virginia and 119 miles form crossing the Appalachian Trail in Damascus, Virginia. Both Cimarron and I have walked the entire Appalachian Trail from end-to-end more than 2168 miles from Georgia to Maine and Damascus is one of our favorite trail towns.