This is an interesting part of the country. In 65 miles, with 4:43 on bike time, riding from about 8:30 to 3pm, we passed from Kentucky to Ohio, then to West Virginia, and then back into Kentucky - just because, why not?
Our epic journey started innocently enough - we had a small breakfast cooked at the Methodist Church in Greenup, KY by some of the regulars there, then set out on what began as fairly chill roads. It took us awhile to go the first 15 miles or so due to complicated phone-based route findings (get out phone, turn off airplane mode, let it sync, look at route, get confused, figure it out, turn on airplane mode, put phone away, rinse, repeat), but it wasn't too bad. We did end up back in Ohio though.
We ended up for a bit on Ohio's Highway 52 (thanks Google) that required a bit of real-life frogger to survive, but hey, we did, eventually found a better road, and had a chill ride until we reached West Virginia around mile 25. They placed their sign on the bridge so we couldn't stop to take a photo there, but we did poison ourselves to Hardee's shortly afterwards. Seemed apt I guess.
This Hardee's was in Huntington, WV. Our plan was to take highway 10 out of Huntington, but we decided to stop a the one bike shop in town to check that route and look for a bike map. Also Tom's rear wheel is about to explode. They had no bike maps or new wheels (suck it, Tom, maybe don't carry 10lbs of spare change in your pannier), but they did mention that Highway 10 would certainly kill us.
No really. They laid it on thick. Apparently it's called the "Hillbilly Highway" and it's real busy and mainly taken by Deliverance-types to go into the "big city" to buy "medicine." I'm not sure what they meant by "medicine," but a no-shoulder Deliverance drug highway sounded like a non-starter to us.
So... BACK TOWARDS KENTUCKY! We backtracked about 10 miles though sprawl until we hit the Sandy Tug Fork River which forms the West Virginia/Kentucky border, and got on W. Virginia's version of highway 52 instead. It was nice and had great views the river and piles of coal. No sarcasm there, I've never biked through coal country before and it's actually pretty cool. It's downright purdy 'round here.
Eventually we got to Fort Gay, WV - our new goal for the day, but it was too tiny, so we crossed the river right quick over to Louisa, KY because we figured, hell, why not go to Kentucky for the third time this trip?
We're staying in some huge baptist church. It's alright. However, I am starting to miss the social freedom that comes with sleeping outside in a park, with no host/rider interactions. It's not that I don't enjoy those interactions, I do, but day-after-day I start to get a little worn out with being in debt to our gracious hosts. I also like sleeping outside - it helps me connect to the land I'm riding across. But, the churches do have bright sides, like free food and fund raising opportunities. Some of the folks really like them, so I'm not worried about it.
The people around here have been real nice. So far the only stereotype that holds up is that they have accents. No surprise there. One of them thought I was from Europe, so, Oregon/Iowa accent for the win?
Tomorrow we head south farther along the river 50 miles into Williamson, WV, with only 1,470 feet of climbing. Then we do 62 miles to Welch with 2,907 feet of climbing, then 71 miles into Pembroke with 3,652 feet of climbing. That will put us back on our original route that we vetoed in Huntington today. After that we have 60ish miles to Goodview, VI with 4,997 feet of climbing, then 74 miles to South Boston with 2,831 feet of climb.
After South Boston all the climbs drop down to under 1,000 feet a day. The previous route will be our Appalachian mountain experience. No true passes that we can tell, just shit-tons of rollers that will get progressively worse and then better in a nicely shaped curve.
In 2003 we skipped the eastern mountains via the Erie Canal in New York, and in 2007 we somehow mostly missed them to going through Pennsylvania and the middle of New York. Both times we ended up in Massachusetts relatively mountain free. Not this time!
Good. :)
ILYI
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